Did you know? Fun facts about some of Europe’s famous logos
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Porsche
After World War II Ferry Porsche, son of one of the grandest pioneers of European auto design, established in Stuttgart the company that would become one of the world’s greatest sporting marques. He took the city’s coat of arms as the company badge. At the heart of the design is a horse, symbol of the stud farm around which the city grew in the Middle Ages. Stuttgart translates literally as stud garden. The badge’s stag antlers and red and black stripes came from the coat of arms of the former Kingdom of Württemberg.
Audi
The carmaker’s emblem features four interlocking rings, but the symbol has nothing to do with its popular quattro four-wheel-drive system. The rings resulted from the 1932 merger of four German brands, Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer. The merged company was known as Auto Union, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen in 1966.
Citroen
The two inverted V’s represent a double helix gear. Gear-cutting was the pre-World War I occupation of company
founder Andre Citroen.
You can reach Ian Morton at autonews@crain.com.
