The Audi Neckarsulm plant - From knitting machine factory to leading car manufacturer

[kak]

The history of the plant can be traced back to 1873, when the ingenious Swabians Christian Schmidt and Heinrich Stoll established a knitting machinery factory in Riedlingen, on the Danube. Seven years later they relocated the factory to Neckarsulm, and commenced production of penny-farthings under the "Germania" brand two years after. Their first low-level bicycles followed shortly afterwards. The company started to build motorcycles at around the turn of the century, and manufactured its first cars from 1905, under the name of the "Original Neckarsulm Motor Car". By 1914, now operating under the name of Neckarsulmer Fahrzeugwerke AG, its 1,200 workers turned out 27,000 bicycles, 3,600 motorcycles and 900 cars. Car production, however, ground to a halt during the Great Depression.

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