Cars
The Nostalgia of Forgotten Gods: DKW (Cars), Germany, 1928-1966
Discover the journey of DKW, a forgotten German car brand from 1928 to 1966, known for its two-stroke engines and integration into Auto Union, leading to the modern Audi.
Roarington's journey to discover lost automotive brands continues today with the German DKW, an acronym derived from the founder Jorge Skafte Rasmussen's early experiments with steam power—Dampf-Kraft-Wagen (steam-powered car).
In the early 1900s, young Danish engineer Jorge Skafte Rasmussen moved to Saxony to study engineering. Shortly after, he and his friend Ernst founded a company initially focused on components, with the ultimate goal of producing automobiles. Despite the challenges of World War I, Rasmussen's ambitions remained undeterred. Between 1914 and 1918, he tested the first steam-powered car prototype, which he eventually abandoned due to high costs after the war.
