August Horch – Part 1 – The Beginning

Let’s discover the early years of August Horch and how he became an outstanding engineer!
Where did he came from and what was special about his home village?
How did he gain such a huge variety of prectical experience?
How did he get to cars?

#audi #horch

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August Horch – Ich baute Autos

Today, we wanna have a closer look at the beginnings of another exceptional engineer: August Horch Horch was born on 12th of October 1868 in Winningen near koblenz, at the river Mosel. The village was a special place. It was a protestant village in a cathlic region.

So, Winningen had very little contact to surrounding villages. The result of that isolation for hundreds of years was, that people mostly married within the village, business happened within the village, they had their own very old and strange traditions, and even their own accent, which was different from villages around them.

If someone from the village married a cathlic girl, or someone converted to the other religion, they couldn’t do business or live in the village anymore. Live wasn’t easy there. In contrast to other villages, people worked themselves and without servants.

Because of their isolation, they had to use the little space as efficiently as possible. Winningen didn’t have many fields, but it was just enough to feed the whole village. The vineyards were very important for the economy. Everybody in the village was vine maker, parallel to their daily job.

Because of that, people always had some vine around and hence liked celebrating, were funny and social. Horch’s father and all ancestors from 1706 were smiths. His mother died when he was 5, and his father married again later. So Horch grew up in the village, and didn’t get out during his childhood.

He was pretty short and interested in all technical stuff. He didn’t like to work in the vine yards, but he stayed in father’s workshop and was very interested. His father had 2 employees, who taught the boy everything about being a smith.

Winningen was so isolated, there were no ships on the river, and no railway yet, that they didn’t know simple things like ice skates. His father’s employee was from another place and had a pair. When Horch tried these much too large skates in Winter, people were fascinated.

Based on these experiences, Horch got the idea to fit metal plates underneath his wooden sledge. All the other kids were wondering, why Horch was suddenly so much faster than them. When they found out why, they came to his father’s workshop and wanted the same. With 13, he could build his first own high-wheel-bike.

But because he couldn’t afford bearings, it was almost impossible to drive with it. The world came to the village, when they built the railway through it. Horch and his friends liked to play at the railway and watch them building the tracks and bridges.

Of course, the boys also climbed into empty coaches and rolled down the hills. Once, Horch tried to jump off the rolling coach, but got under the coach’s wheels and broke his leg. Despite that experience, he was fascinated by trains and decided to become train driver.

His father supported him in that wish, but said, he should learn how to be a smith in his workshop first. Horch was a good student and finished school with 13 in 1882. Now he started his apprenticeship in his father’s workshop.

He already knew the work, and all tools in his father’s workshop very well. And so it wasn’t very hard for him. He finished as a fully qualified smith 2 years later in 1884. Special about Horch was, that he was very self-confident, and very happy with himself. So he had a very balanced mind.

He had a strong desire to learn new things, and his highest priority was to become hard-working and skillful. After finishing an apprenticeship, and after having a qualification, which was usually between 16 and 18, young people went out and walked through the world. These were the journeyman years.

This was about travelling, and getting experience in your profession with input from other regions. Also, it taught these young men a lot about life, being independant and getting to know themselves. This was usually the only time in life, that people came out of their small world.

And when they return to their home, they usually settled down and worked in their field with a lot of experience. On the way, the tradition was to go to companies and ask for work. For smiths, the rule was, to walk right into the workshop, stand at the anvil, and greet the workers.

If there was no work for them, the company had to give them a little money. If there was work, the young smith stayed until he couldn’t learn anything new anymore, or until he felt like leaving. The young men stayed in small guest houses along the way, and people from all over Europe

Met there. If they were not too tired from work, or too worried about where to find the next job, they had great evenings together. A lot of cities were prepared for the young men and offered welcome money. But only if they worked for the city before.

So they had to sweep the streets, cut trees and so on. A great tradition, which is mostly gone today. So also Horch started his journeyman time now. His father gave him 20 Mark and said, he would be back in 2 weeks anyway.

The short boy, who looked like a child, wasn’t afraid to walk right into large workshops and ask for work. His first station was Mannheim, but he couldn’t get work there. So he continued to Heidelberg, and found work in a small workshop.

His friend from Winningen, Hermann, who travelled with him, wasn’t that lucky and continued further. SO Horch was alone now. In Heidelberg, Horch learned a couple of new tricks of the smiths there, and after 2 weeks he was deperately homesick. But he stayed and continued.

His workday started at 6am and finished at 7pm every day. Horch continued to: Bruchsal Pforzheim Stuttgart Ulm Augsburg and Munich He didn’t earn a lot in Heidelberg, and so he was badly struggeling for money. So he had to start with fencing, altough he didn’t have any experience in that.

But other , more experienced boys taught him. In general, he always had enough food (at least in Germany and later in Austria), because the locals gave the young boys warm meals. In Leonberg, Horch received his welcome present, but had to break stones for their streets.

A new work, which the always-curious-Horch found interesting – in contrast to the other boys. After Munich, Horch remembered that his father used to say “Salzburg is the prettiest city he has ever seen.” And so he walked to Salzburg. But now, Horch didn’t want to work as a smith anymore.

He wanted to learn something new, something challenging. Also in Munich, he found a friend – Eduard, who was a painter, who came from Italy and was on his way back home. He invited Horch to his hometown Auspitz (today Hustopeče in Czech Republic) and promised to have a job for him there.

But Eduard got a message that his father is very sick, and so he travelled home and both split. Now the 16 year old Horch is travelling alone again. He was travelling east to get closer to his friend’s home. First of all, he saw, that men in Salzburg are smoking long cigars.

He also tried one, felt very sick, wanted to die, and left Salzburg quickly. He found work at a wainwright at the Attersee in Austria. He loved working there, and then continued to Linz, where he realized, that it would be a good idea to travel on a float on the river Danube to Vienna.

On the float was a wodden shed, where the float people would drink beer. Horch could travel with them, but needed to bring them the beer. He had a contact in Vienna, someone from his home village who showed him around the city. After that, he continued to Auspitz, to his friend Eduard’s family.

Eduard’s father was well again and he stayed with the family for the whole Winter 84/85. But in spring 1885, he wanted to continue his journey. He remembered that during his childhood, there was a man in his home village, who had travelled to turkey in his young years.

And now, Horch wanted to do that as well. So he walked to Pressburg (today Bratislava) and Budapest. But he couldn’t find interesting work, so he walked further. He went to Neusatz (today Novi Sad in Serbia). It was an area with lots of Germans, who needed to speak serbian and hungarian to be able

To do business here. Germany and Austria had a good journeyman culture. There were accomodations for the young men, and locals gave them food, cities gave them jobs for little money. In Serbia, there was no journeyman tradition. If you were lucky, you could sleep in the stable.

Or you needed to wait in the local pub, until the last customer left and slept on the bench. The young men couldn’t pay for a room. Horch found work in a steam mill. For Horch it was the first time to work in a bigger company with large steam engines.

He loved his work there, and learned a lot. But when he heard, that they need workers to build new bridges in Grosswardein (today Oradea in Rumania), he packed his things and went there. He was immediately employed at the construction site, and learned how to build bridges and

How to use rivets to join large metal beams. He lived in a small room above a watchmaker. He got to know the guys who worked in the workshop, and they taught him everything about watches. pretty soon Horch could disassemble and fix watches himself.

So during the day, he was working on large metal bridge constructions, and after work, he fixed watches. So Horch gained lots of experience in large and tiny, detailed engineering. Unfortunately, he got very sick during this time. He had typhus, and was in critical condition in the hospital in Grosswardein – which btw,

He had to pay himself. He recovered again, but after 6 weeks in the hospital, his small savings were gone and he was still too weak for the hard work. So it was time to leave. One of his watchmaker friends told him, that he wanted to go back home to Budapest and

Asked Horch to come with him. The journey wasn’t easy. It was Winter, they were walking through deep snow, they were always hungry and had no money. Additionally, they were scared to be attacked by the wolfs they could always hear howling. In every village, they repaired watches and could earn some money and food.

Finally, they reached his friend’s home in Budapest, and Horch could work here until Spring 1886. Now he walked along the river Danube again, but instead of working in the companies he worked for before, he was looking for new challenges. And so he walked further south to Belgrade.

Here, he found a factory, which was run by Germans. They didn’t have work for him, but told him about another German mill on the way to Sofia, which needs an engineer for their steam engine. He went there and was employed immediately. So now, he was working on a steam engine.

He learned lots of new things and also repaired the clocks of the local farmers. Horch stayed here for a year, until he heard, that a new railway is being built at the border to Bulgaria. Becoming a train driver was still his dream, and so he went there – to Negotin.

He was immediately employed as a machinist. Most of the people were building embankments, tunnels and bridges. More capable people were working on the steamtrains. Horch found a group of Germans who had their own shed and he lived with them.

After 2 weeks, lots of material arrived and he was asked, if he knows about technical drawings. Horch just said yes, altough he didn’t have a clue, and suddenly he was the head engineer for building the new sheds. That was a key moment for him, because now he decided to become an engineer.

But also here, he got very sick – now he had malaria. He decided, that it was time now to return to Germany. So he used his money for a ship on the Danube via Belgrade to Budapest.

But his malaria got a lot worse on the ship, and he needed to be carried to a hospital, where he stayed for 2 weeks. At Christmas 1887, he was back at his friend’s place in Auspitz. He could work and recover here again, and here he received a letter from his friend Hermann.

So the boy from his home village, who started the journey with him. He told Horch, that he was now studying in Mittweida, a small town in Saxony, with an outstanding engineering school. For more information on Mittweida and why so many outstanding engineers came from there,

Including Horch, Opel and Rasmussen, check out my other video below. That was a sign for Horch. He needed to go to Mittweida as quickly as possible to check this place out. He was amazed by the place, enrolled for the following Winter semester and went back home to his father.

His father was happy to see his son again after 4 years, but he looked bad. He still didn’t recover completely from Malaria, and a local doctor treated him now, until he got back to strength. So in Autumn 1888 he moved to Mittweida.

And like many engineering students he was facing a huge problem in his first semester – Math. He had work experience like no one else – he was a smith with experience across Europe, he could repair clocks, build bridges and railways, and we was working on steam engines.

But he only went to school for 8 years, and didn’t have a clue about algebra and geometry. But he really wanted this, he was studying hard, and after surviving the first 2 semesters, he was on top of things. He graduated with the mark: Good and was looking for a job.

He found a job at an engineering company in Rostock. They could cast iron and were designing steam engines. Horch was fascinated by this, and loved working there. His first project was a fertiliser-spreading-machine. After this, he designed cranes and steam engines.

For lunch, he always went to a nearby restaurant and sat together with engineers of the neighbour company – a shipyard. They got along very well and they asked him to work for them. After 1,5 years he really did. Now he was designing steam engined ships. But not just that.

As always, he couldn’t stay away from workshop for very long and because of his practical and theoretical skills, they made him the workshop leader. But after a while, the company went bankrupt. His boss informed him beforehand and told him that – because of his outstanding performance

– he already found a job for him. One of his friends from university is running the company Grob & Co in Leipzig and he can start there. Horch said: “But they are making combustion engines! I wanna stay with ships!”

His boss said: “It will be fine, you will be working on an 800hp combustion engine for a torpedo boat.” Horch didn’t really have another option, and followed his boss’s decision. So now, after designing cranes, ships and steam engines, he was designing combustion engines.

Also here, they pretty quickly discovered Horch’s practical skills, and made him the workshop leader. He learned all the secrets of combustion engines, which would be important in his later career. One day in Summer 1896, he heard, that there will be a motorcycle presentation in Leipzig. He was thrilled to see that.

The motorcycle was a Hildebrandt-Wolfmueller design with a small, fast running combustion engine. Horch was fascinated and talked to the driver. He wanted to know, if anyone put such an engine in a carriage yet? The man told him “yes. There is the company Daimler in Stuttgart and Benz in Mannheim.”

“They put such engines in a carriage, but don’t expect too much. They don’t work very well yet, and we will have to see if this has future, or if it’s just non-sense.” Horch was deeply impressed. At home, he decided to write a letter to Benz in Mannheim – because that’s the closer one

Of the 2 to his hometown. He wrote a long letter to Benz, describing what he had done so far, and that they could remember his address in case they need an engineer. He got a response very quickly, saying that they would like to employ him, if he can start as soon as possible.

Horch answered, that he accepts and at the beginning of June 1896, he started at Benz in Mannheim. Now he was designing cars, and his career really started. In the next episode, we will discover what it was like to work at Benz in the 1890s.

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