One of the most popular car marques of the latest 50 years or so is Volkswagen but nowadays not  too many people remember the stirring history of this German brand. Volkswagen, often abbreviated to VW is one of the most successful contemporary automobile manufacturers based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany and is the original marque within the Volkswagen Group, nowadays including some other distinctive car marques: Audi, Bentley Motors, Bugatti Automobiles, Automobili Lamborghini, SEAT, Skoda Auto and the heavy vehicles manufacturer Scania.




The Volkswagen or the people`s car has a very long and sinuous history starting in the early 1930`s. Before World War II, the German auto industry was mainly composed of luxury models but they were available for a a limited group of people. The average German could rarely afford something more than a motorcycle and for this reasons, a few car makers began some independent “people`s car” projects, like Mercedes 170H, Adler`s Auto Bahn, Steyr55 or the 1.3 L Hanomag. In the same period, in Czechoslovakia Hans Ledwinka`s Tatra 177 became a very popular car amongst the German elite and the model tended to be smaller and more affordable at each revision. In 1933, with the context created by this independent projects, some of them in development or in concept stages, Adolf Hitler declared his intentions for a state sponsored Volkswagen program. His basic requirements were for a vehicle capable of transporting two adults and three children at a maximum speed of 100 km/h. The next step was a plan on how to make the people`s car available to a large number of citizens of The Third Reich, and the solution found was a savings scheme at 990 Reichsmark,  the approximate price of a small motorcycle, in the context of a 32 RM average income per week.

In spite of the fact that Hitler had previously supported other similar projects, in the end he chose to sponsor a new, state-owned factory for the Volkswagen and for this purpose he selected a renowned engineer by that time, Ferdinand Porsche. In the late twenties, Porsche was the designer of Mercedes 170H, also working for Steyr for a while. Along with this projects, he opened his own design studio in which he worked for two different car projects, with NSU and Zundapp, originally motorcycle manufacturers. Unfortunately, both projects remained in a prototype phase but the basic ideas for his developing concepts would be soon applied in a famous project. On June 22, 1934  Ferdinand Porsche agreed to create the Volkswagen dreamcar for Hitler.

A better fuel efficiency, more reliability, ease of use, more economical repairs and parts were rethought with the intention for Europeans to buy the car by means of a saving scheme. The program was a success and around 336,000 people eventually agreed on this. After World War II, Volkswagen honored its previous saving agreements only in West Germany, totally excluding the eastern part. In April 1945 the factory was heavily bombed and the town was captured by the Americans, which they handed over to the British authorities. Under the British occupation the town and the factory went well and the actual post-war existence of the Volkswagen Group is an achievement owed to the British Army Major, Ivan Hirst.

Even if at a certain time the factory was offered to representatives of the British, American and French motor industries which all refused, due to the support of Ivan Hirst, first few hundred Volkswagen cars went to personnel of the Allied Forces and then to the German Post Office. By 1946, the production  went to 1,000 cars per month.

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