CarBrandLogos archive · DKW · 1956

DKWMunga

West Germany's first postwar military light off-roader, powered by a two-stroke triple.

The story

A defining chapter in DKW history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the DKW Munga, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

When the Bundeswehr was formed it needed a small four-wheel-drive vehicle, and Auto Union won the contract with the Munga — an acronym for Mehrzweck-Universal-Geländewagen mit Allradantrieb, which is exactly as bureaucratic as it sounds and translates roughly as multi-purpose universal all-wheel-drive off-road vehicle.

DKW Candango 1961 · JasonVogel · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

It was built at Ingolstadt from October 1956, with a steel body over a box-section frame, an open cabin with a canvas top, and drive to all four wheels through an eight-speed transmission. The engine was pure Auto Union: a two-stroke inline triple of 896 cc, later 981 cc, which gave the vehicle a distinctive sound and a smoke trail, and which needed oil mixed into its fuel — a maintenance quirk the army lived with.

DKW Candango 1960 · JasonVogel · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

Around 47,000 were built by the time production ended in December 1968, serving the Bundeswehr, border police, fire brigades and export customers, with additional assembly by Vemag in São Paulo. It was replaced in German service by the VW Iltis, developed by the Ingolstadt operation that by then had become Audi.

Ullrich.Märker--0 · Reng teng teng · CC BY-SA 3.0

At a glance