About Auto Motor und Sport

Auto Motor und Sport

auto motor und sport (often abbreviated ams) is Germany's leading fortnightly car magazine, published by Motor Presse Stuttgart. First published at Christmas 1946 under the title Das Auto, it is one of the oldest car magazines in the world and the journalistic institution of the German automobile. Appearing every two weeks, it covers new cars, tests and technology, motorsport, used cars, traffic and the environment with the thoroughness that has made its test verdicts a benchmark for the industry. Its website, auto-motor-und-sport.de, extends the brand into daily digital automotive journalism, and licensed international editions carry the concept to readers across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Overview

auto motor und sport appears fortnightly and addresses the technically interested car driver: readers who want to understand the automobile, not just consume it. New-car news and first drives, instrumented individual tests, the great comparison tests across every segment, technology features explaining the engineering beneath the bodywork, and motorsport coverage from Formula 1 to the Nürburgring endurance races fill the pages. Used-car tests, buying advice, traffic and environmental topics complete a mix that treats the automobile as technology, culture and everyday reality.

The magazine's testing is its authority: cars are measured for acceleration, braking, handling, consumption and comfort with a rigour that manufacturers take seriously, and the comparison test — several rivals evaluated across hundreds of criteria — remains the definitive format of German car journalism. The annual "Best Cars" readers' choice award, in which readers vote for the best cars across categories, is one of the industry's most watched honours. The award's significance lies in its electorate: the magazine's technically literate readers vote with the knowledge of the test data, making the Best Cars verdict one of the industry's most respected reader honours. Manufacturers campaign for it, winners feature it in their advertising, and the results — published across the magazine's international editions — give the award a global resonance few national reader polls achieve.

History

The magazine's history begins at Christmas 1946, when the first edition appeared under the title Das Auto — cover price 1.50 Reichsmark — published by the "Motorsport GmbH" founded that same year in Freiburg by the Grand Prix racing driver Paul Pietsch together with Ernst Troeltsch and Josef Hummel. The company's purpose was to finance the founders' racing; its first magazine was Das Auto. The early issues, produced under paper rationing — the second edition, appearing in January 1947, was a double issue covering February — mixed automotive reporting with the curiosity of the post-war years: the first issue featured the Jeep and pondered the future of nuclear power.

In 1949 the Motorsport GmbH was renamed Motor-Presse Verlag, and a year later the company moved to Stuttgart, where it remains. The magazine evolved through several titles into auto motor und sport, and the fortnightly rhythm became its identity. Through the economic miracle's motorisation, the 1970s oil crises, the Japanese challenge, reunification and the digital and electric transformations, ams documented the automobile's history from the inside — its editors-in-chief, from Heinz-Ulrich Wieselmann (1950–1970) through Ferdinand Simoneit, Klaus Westrup and Bernd Ostmann, shaping generations of German car journalism.

The current editors-in-chief are Ralph Alex and Jens Katemann. The magazine's publication day has changed several times through its history — Saturdays until 1974, Wednesdays, back to Saturdays, Fridays, Wednesdays again — and since January 2008 the issue appears on Thursdays.

Content

The fortnightly issue leads with new-car news: unveilings, first drives and the industry stories — electrification, autonomous driving, the transformation of the German manufacturers — that define the automotive age. Individual tests measure each significant new model against the magazine's exacting protocol, and the comparison tests set the rivals against each other in the multi-day evaluations that decide reputations.

Technology features explain the engineering: drivetrains, chassis, aerodynamics, driver assistance, battery technology — written with the depth that assumes an intelligent reader. Motorsport coverage follows Formula 1 closely alongside the German racing scene, rallying and endurance racing. Used-car tests and buying guides serve the huge second-hand market; traffic, law, environment and mobility politics address the automobile's place in society.

The "Best Cars" award, voted by the readers across numerous categories, is the magazine's great annual event, covered as industry news and coveted by manufacturers. Special editions, yearbooks and the licensed international editions — published in countries including France, Spain, China, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Turkey and Sweden — extend the brand's reach.

Coverage & Audience

auto motor und sport is sold throughout Germany at newsstands and by subscription, appearing fortnightly on Thursdays, and auto-motor-und-sport.de serves millions of users with daily car news, tests and videos. The readership is the technically interested driver: buyers who research before they purchase, enthusiasts who follow the industry, and professionals for whom the magazine is a trade publication in all but name.

The brand's international licensing gives it a global footprint unusual for a German magazine, and its test verdicts are cited across the world's automotive media. Within Germany, ams and Auto Bild form the two poles of the car-magazine market — the fortnightly technician's journal and the weekly buyer's advocate — and between them they define German automotive journalism.

Ownership

auto motor und sport is published by Motor Presse Stuttgart GmbH & Co. KG, the Stuttgart-based special-interest publisher that grew out of the 1946 Motorsport GmbH. Motor Presse Stuttgart publishes around 80 magazines in Germany and abroad, with licence editions and syndications in some 20 countries; the magazine appears under the group's Motor Presse Netzwerk subsidiary.

The company's ownership history is part of German media history: founded by Pietsch, Troeltsch and Hummel; majority-owned by Gruner + Jahr from 2005 to 2019; and since 2019 majority-owned (85 percent) by the descendants of founder Paul Pietsch — Peter-Paul Pietsch and Patricia Scholten — with Hermann Dietrich-Troeltsch holding 15 percent. The continuity of the Pietsch family's connection to the company, eight decades after its founding, is unique in German publishing.

Digital Presence

auto-motor-und-sport.de is the digital home of the brand: daily new-car news, test content with full data, videos, the "Best Cars" voting platform and the new-and-used-car services. The site serves the car buyer's research journey and the enthusiast's daily news needs, with the fortnightly magazine providing the definitive test and the deep technology feature.

The brand's social media channels, app and video formats extend the tests and the racing coverage to digital audiences, with the comparison test — the magazine's signature — adapted for video and interactive formats. Licensed digital editions serve the international readership. Eight decades after the 1.50-Reichsmark first issue, auto motor und sport remains the standard against which German car journalism measures itself.

The Thursday publication rhythm — in place since 2008 — structures the fortnightly: the industry's fortnight digested, the tests completed, the technology explained, every two weeks with the regularity the readers expect. The international editions carry the brand worldwide: France, Spain, China, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Turkey, Sweden and beyond — the German car magazine as a global concept, the test methodology exported with the masthead. The digital presence at auto-motor-und-sport.de serves the daily need: the new-car news, the test videos, the Best Cars voting platform, the new-and-used-car services — the fortnightly magazine providing the definitive test, the website the daily update. The Stuttgart base places the magazine at the heart of the German car industry: the Swabian capital of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, the engineering culture that shapes the editorial standards. In the German car-magazine market, the title's position has been stable for generations: the enthusiast's fortnightly, the technical authority, the magazine that takes the automobile seriously as engineering. The founding story — the racing driver Pietsch financing his sport with a magazine in 1946 — still resonates: the enthusiast's passion, institutionalised as journalism, serving the readers who share it.