Entrepreneur. He was an automobile industrialist. August Duesenberg was born at Kirchheide, Lippe-Detmold, Germany, the son of Konrad Heinrich Ludwig Duesenberg and Louise Conradine Potthast, and christened December 21, 1879, at the church in Talle. His father died January 17, 1881. Born the youngest child in the family, he arrived in the United States April 1, 1885, with his mother Conradine, three sisters and two brothers, to join a brother who had immigrated the year before. His childhood was in Ulster township, east of Rockford, Iowa, and attended country school there through eighth grade. He joined his brother Fred in a bicycle shop in Rockford, Iowa. In 1895 at the age 15, he is already residing in Ell Township, Hancock County, Iowa. In 1900 he is renting a room in Concord township, Hancock County, Iowa, and owns a bicycle repair business, which he opened at 475 State Street, Garner, Iowa. He became a naturalized American citizen in Hancock County, Iowa, February 21, 1901. He married Gertrude Jun 1, 1905, in Ellington township, Hancock county, Iowa. In 1904 A. S. Duesenberg was in Des Moines, Iowa, designing the Mason car with brother Fred. This company was sold to Fred Maytag, who moved the company to Waterloo, Iowa. The Duesenberg brothers moved with him. In 1910 August was a laborer in an automobile factory, while his brother Fredrick, a foreman in an automobile factory, was living with him and his family. Maytag, the washing machine manufacturer, abandoned the auto business, but he continued to build race cars. He and his brother Fred formed the Duesenberg Motor Company; equipment was moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. Beginning in 1914, they entered racecars in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, winning three times before they discontinue racing in 1935. Eddie Rickenbacker was their driver in the first entry and finished tenth. During World War I, they moved their company to New York City in 1917, and the company later expanded into a new plant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where they built aviation and marine engines for the war effort. Next the brothers moved from racecars to luxury cars. In 1920 Duesenberg Automobiles and Motors is created to build passenger cars and later in the year Duesenberg Brothers was started to continue their racing interests. By 1921, he was living in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He applied for a passport to visit France to take part in the Grand Prix Race and then to travel to Switzerland and Italy. Duesenberg's entry wins first in the French Grand, the first American entry to win the prestigious race. Also in 1921 the first passenger car is produced under the Duesenberg name. The brothers seem to have done better as designers and builders than at the business end of things. E. L. Cord proposed to help them out of financial difficulty with a merger where by they would add a bigger model to his line of cars. The brothers focused on the custom-built passenger car, which becomes known for its quality and the eloquence of the design. By now he, an automotive engineer, was living in Indianapolis, Indiana; race-cars became a private venture. His brother Fred died in 1932, ending their long partnership. Duesenberg auto production ended in 1937. At that point, his business went into a different direction as in about 1940, The Duesenberg Model Company advertised miniature cars, and he had plans for a miniature engine, although this may not have gone beyond the planning stages. Toward the end of his life, he retired to a farm near Indianapolis. His race cars set speed records at Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1920; won the French Grand Prix in 1921; and won Indianapolis 500-mile races in 1922, 1924, 1925, and 1927, as well as setting one-hour and 24-hour speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in 1935.