Rasmussen initially came to Zschopau to produce steam fittings. His 1916 experiment with a steam car — Dampfkraftwagen in German, from which the DKW acronym derives — proved unsuccessful. By 1919 he was selling toy two-stroke engines branded "des Knaben Wunsch" (the boy's wish), and a slightly adapted version fitted to a bicycle frame earned the name "das kleine Wunder" — the little wonder. This curiosity grew into a serious manufacturing concern. By the late 1920s DKW had eclipsed every rival to become the world's largest producer of motorcycles, building two-strokes in volume that no contemporary could match.
DKW's motorsport identity was built around two-stroke racing machinery in the Lightweight and Junior classes. In 1931 Arnold Zoller began developing split-single engine configurations at DKW, a technical approach that proved transformative for competition. The split-single concept gave DKW a decisive advantage in power and efficiency, and the company dominated racing in the Lightweight and Junior categories throughout the interwar years.
DKW motorcycles were particularly successful in the International Six Days Trial, where the marque earned considerable results alongside other leading British and German manufacturers. The light weight of DKW's two-stroke machines, combined with their tuned performance, made them formidable over the endurance-format ISDT courses. DKW's supercharged racing motorcycles were additionally effective because their low mass amplified the benefit of forced induction.
The RT 125, one of DKW's most celebrated production models, carried the marque's engineering philosophy into the postwar era. Built before and after World War II, the RT 125 design was so influential that its plans were taken as war reparations by both the United States and the United Kingdom. Harley-Davidson produced a derivative informally known as the Hummer, while BSA used the design for the Bantam. Yamaha, Voskhod, Maserati and the Polish WSK were among manufacturers who produced motorcycles strongly influenced by the DKW layout, underscoring how deeply the German firm's engineering permeated global two-stroke development in the 1950s.
After World War II, the original Zschopau factory fell within East Germany and was reorganised under the name MZ (Motorradwerk Zwickau), continuing to produce two-stroke motorcycles of 175, 250 and 350 cc. The reconstituted West German Auto Union GmbH, registered in 1949, resumed production in Düsseldorf with the RT 125 and the Schnellaster delivery van before eventually shifting vehicle production to Ingolstadt.
DKW's postwar motorcycle range in West Germany extended into the 1950s with 175, 250 and 350 cc models, maintaining the two-stroke tradition that had built the marque. Production of these machines continued until the economic pressures of competing against rising Japanese manufacturers and the commercial priority shift toward automobile production brought DKW's independent motorcycle business to a close.
Although DKW's motorcycle division is the centre of its motorsport story, the automotive branch ran in parallel and was equally innovative. DKW's F1 through F8 automobile series, built between 1931 and 1942, were the first volume-production front-wheel-drive cars in Europe. They used transversely mounted two-cylinder two-stroke engines of 584 or 692 cc, and total output reached approximately 218,000 units before the war interrupted production. DKW held second place in German car sales by 1934, accounting for more than 16 percent of the market across the 1930s.
The marque was restarted under the Auto Union GmbH banner after 1949 with a succession of three-cylinder two-stroke models: the F91, F93 and the Auto Union 1000 series, which remained in production through 1963. All postwar three-cylinder models carried sports potential that translated into rally victories across Europe during the 1950s, making DKW the most successful brand in the European rally league for several of those years. The final DKW car was the F102, launched in 1964 but poorly received due to its outdated two-stroke technology. Its replacement, relaunched with a four-stroke engine as the Audi F103, effectively ended the DKW name and revived the dormant Audi marque.
DKW's contribution to motorsport extends well beyond its own race results. The company's two-stroke technology seeded an entire generation of motorcycle manufacturers worldwide. Its dominance in interwar Lightweight and Junior racing established standards of small-capacity competition machinery that influenced every subsequent manufacturer working in those classes. The trademark is today held by Auto Union GmbH, a wholly owned Audi AG subsidiary, preserving the heritage of one of Germany's most significant and innovative motoring companies.