Austro-Daimler - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Austro-Daimler was an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n automaker

Automaker

The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....

company, from 1899 until 1934. It was subsidiary of the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was a German engine and later automobile manufacturer, in operation from 1890 until 1926. Founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, it was based first in Cannstatt...

(DMG) .

Early history

In 1890, Eduard Bierenz was appointed as Austrian retailer. The company sold so well that also it began manufacturing the automobiles after uniting with Eduard Fischer

Eduard Fischer

Major GeneralDr. h. c. Eduard von Fischer, 1862 - 1935,Knight of the Maria Theresa Order, was a Jewish colonel commanding the Austrian gendarmerie in Bukovina....

's engineering factory. The works were located at Wiener-Neustadt. By this subsidiary DMG became the first automotive multinational in history.

Thus on August 11, 1899, the Austrian Daimler Engine Society was founded. Whilst the assembling parts stemmed from Stuttgart, in 1900 they built their first automobile which featured 2 cylinders, 4 hp, and 4 seats. Soon they started producing engines for luxurious cars, trucks, buses, maritime ships, and trains.

Paul Daimler

In 1902, Paul Daimler, Gottlieb Daimler

Gottlieb Daimler

Gottlieb Daimler was an engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf , in what is now Germany. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development...

's son, took charge of the Technical Department.
He developed a compact car

Compact car

A compact car , or small family car , is a classification of cars which are larger than a supermini but smaller than or equal to a mid-size car...

(8 hp, 45 km/h). In 1905 he built the company's first armoured car, which had 30 hp. Also, the company produced engines for both trucks and buses. However, Daimler returned to Stuttgart in 1905 to take over the research and development department, which had been vacated by Maybach.

Ferdinand Porsche

Senior Ferdinand Porsche

Ferdinand Porsche

Ferdinand Porsche was an Austrian automotive engineer and honorary Doctor of Engineering. He is best known for creating the first hybrid vehicle , the Volkswagen Beetle, and the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, as well as the first of many Porsche automobiles...

took Daimler's place as technical designer. Although Austro-Daimler cars were competing at races already, Porsche pioneered into aerodynamic usage with famous racecars (Mixte and Maya). Also, he designed the Mercédès-Electrique-Mixte which was manufactured from 1902 until 1907.

Porsche impelled a company reformation too whilst the company had 800 workers already. The company was renamed Austro-Daimler on July 27, 1906. That same year Emil Jellinek — who was Austrian too — bought several Austro-Daimler licenses to found ancillary companies abroad.

In 1908, the Austro-Daimler began producing Zeppelin engines. Indeed, for Porsche this was a personal interest since he liked to take Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

Franz Ferdinand was an Archduke of Austria-Este, Austro-Hungarian and Royal Prince of Hungary and of Bohemia, and from 1889 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia...

flying over Vienna.

Pushing the company's development further, Porsche granted Austro-Daimler's definitive independence from DMG's ownership in 1909. In 1910, the company was renamed Austrian Daimler Engines AG whose logo was the Austrian Royal double-headed eagle
Coat of arms of Austria
The current coat of arms of Austria, albeit without the broken chains, has been in use by the Republic of Austria since 1919. Between 1934 and the German annexation in 1938 Austria used a different coat of arms, which consisted of a double-headed eagle...

. In 1912 DMG sold its remaining shares.

In 1911 Austro-Daimler began producing the Prinz Heinrich (in English: Prince Henry) model; this car, which featured an overhead cam 5,714-cc four-cylinder engine, quickly became famous. It could develop 95 bhp

Horsepower

Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...

at 2,100 rpm; there was also a less potent version with side valves and a 6,900-cc engine capable of developing 60 hp at only 1,200 rpm. Both designs were by Porsche.

Postwar era

During the First World War, the 4,500 workers of Austro-Daimler contributed in large quantities to wartime production. After the war, the company returned to the production of automobiles. Austro-Daimler still claimed Royal patronage via its connection with Prince Heinrich

Heinrich

Heinrich is a male given name or surname of Germanic origin. Equivalents in other languages are Henry , Hendrik , Hinnerk , Enrico , Henri , Enrique , Enric , and Henrique . A pet form of Heinrich is "Heinz". The once-common Americanized nickname "Heinie" is largely obsolete...

.

Soon, the company began collapsing. In the first place, Austro-Daimler fused with several companies — Skoda

Škoda Auto

Škoda Auto , more commonly known as Škoda, is an automobile manufacturer based in the Czech Republic. Škoda became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group in 2000, positioned as the entry brand to the group...

, Fiat

Fiat

FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...

, and Puch

Puch

Puch is a manufacturing company located in Graz, Austria. The company was founded in 1889 by the industrialist Johann Puch and produced automobiles, bicycles, mopeds, and motorcycles.-Pre 1919:...

(1928). Then, it was submerged under Camillo Castiglioni

Camillo Castiglioni

Camillo Castiglioni was an Italian-Austrian financier and banker, and was the wealthiest man in Central Europe during World War I. Nicknamed “Austrian Stinnes”, he was active in aviation's pioneering days and invested in the arts.-Early life:Castiglioni was born in Trieste, then Austria–Hungary...

's squandering management.

At this time, Porsche created the 1.3-liter "Sascha"

Austro-Daimler Sascha

TheAustro-Daimler Sascha is a car from 1922. It was designed by the German automaker Ferdinand Porsche....

racing cars (named after their backer, Count Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowski

Alexander Kolowrat

Count Alexander Joseph von Kolowrat-Krakowsky , better known as "Sascha", was an Austrian film producer of Bohemian descent...

) in the early 1920s. The smallest model the company offered was a 2,212-cc four-cylinder. However, as the economic situation worsened, Porsche abandoned the company in 1923, ridding himself of Austro-Daimler's financial difficulties. Instead, he moved to Stuttgart's DMG.

The outstanding production car offered by Austro-Daimler during the 1930s was the ADM, which featured overhead cam six-cylinder engines of 2,540 cc, 2,650 cc, and 2,994 cc. The last-named (the ADM III) developed 110 hp at 4,000 rpm and was one of the greatest automobiles of the decade. Also offered was a less luxurious sporting version, the 100 hp ADR.

1931 saw Austro-Daimler introduce a 4,624-cc eight-cylinder car, a superb, highly expensive luxury vehicle. The last great car built at the Austrian works was the six-cylinder "Bergmeister", which featured an overhead cam 3,614-cc engine that could develop 120 hp at 3,600 rpm; this car had a top speed of 90 mi/h.

In 1934 the company merged with Steyr Automobile, creating the Steyr-Daimler-Puch

Steyr-Daimler-Puch

Steyr-Daimler-Puch was a large manufacturing conglomerate based in Steyr, Austria, which was broken up in stages between 1987 and 2001. The component parts and operations continued to exist under separate ownership and new names.-History:...

conglomerate. However, in this same year, Austro-Daimler was dissolved.

In the 1970s and into the 1980s bicycles were made by Steyr-Daimler-Puch with some models bearing the Puch

Puch

Puch is a manufacturing company located in Graz, Austria. The company was founded in 1889 by the industrialist Johann Puch and produced automobiles, bicycles, mopeds, and motorcycles.-Pre 1919:...

trademark, and more upscale models bearing the Austro-Daimler trademark. When the bicycle manufacturing aspects of the consortium were sold in 1987 to Piaggio & C. S.p.A. of Italy, the Puch trademark was conveyed however, the rights to the name Austro-Daimler were not sold. Since then no bicycles have been made bearing this trademark.

Early history

Paul Daimler

Ferdinand Porsche

Postwar era

See also