40 years ago, the modern-day Audi was born

Neckarsulm on April 26, 1969: the first day of Audi NSU Auto Union, the company that would later develop into the Audi AG we know today, was a momentous occasion.

Following at times heated discussions at the extraordinary general meeting of NSU Motorenwerke AG held 40 years ago, the NSU stockholders finally approved a merger with the VW subsidiary Auto Union GmbH. The press dubbed the event the "stockholders meeting of the year" - after all, the birth of the new company was not without its share of controversy.

Heated discussions accompanied the stockholders meeting on April 26, 1969.

Origins of the merger
Having taken over the controlling stake in Auto Union GmbH in December 1964, Volkswagen, in search of new production capacity, went on to gradually acquire a majority interest in NSU Motorenwerke AG in the late sixties. Following this acquisition, the parent company sought to bring about a merger between its two subsidiaries based in Ingolstadt und Neckarsulm.

On March 10, 1969, a merger agreement was signed between Auto Union GmbH and NSU Motorenwerke AG. After exactly 12 hours and 21 minutes of sometimes heated discussion with initial resistance from the NSU stockholders, the agreement was approved at a special meeting of stockholders on April 26, 1969. On August 21, 1969 the agreement became effective with the merger backdated to January 1, 1969.

The key argument that clinched the NSU stockholders' approval was the conversion of income from the so-called "Wankel licenses" into NSU participation certificates, which remained in the hands of the NSU stockholders after the merger. VW then transferred its shares in its Auto Union subsidiary to NSU. The new firm was named Audi NSU Auto Union AG. Neckarsulm became the company's corporate seat and Dr. Gerd Stieler von Heydekampf, chief executive of NSU at the time, was appointed as chairman of the board of management.

Valuable assets
In NSU Motorenwerke AG, Volkswagen had acquired a company with a long and rich tradition. The former bicycle manufacturer, which had originally started out making knitting machines, has a history going back to 1873. In 1900 it was one of the first companies in Germany to be building motorcycles, and as early as 1906 NSU produced its first car, named the "First Neckarsulm Motor Car". NSU became the world's largest maker of two-wheeled vehicles in 1955. Two years later, the company started production of a new car, the NSU Prinz, thus creating one of the protagonists of the German Economic Miracle.

NSU was the first German manufacturer to win the "Car of the Year" award with this car in 1967.