A Compact History of Volkswagen
The history of Volkswagen is one of the most interesting automotive histories of any of the major automotive brands, but few people remember that the origins of Volkswagen come from the dark days of the Nazi party and World War II. At Service King Bartlett in Memphis, TN we work on Volkswagens because it's a popular brand, so we're happy to share this information with you.
While the basic framework of the brand as an automaker for the German government was already in place in 1932 before Hitler officially came to power, the Volkswagen car and company as we know it today was born in 1934 when Hitler sought to make an affordable family car for the German people. In order to accomplish this, Hitler sought the help of the famous automotive designer Ferdinand Porsche—the same Ferdinand Porsche that later founded the Porsche company—who used his design skill, coupled with many of the ideas of other early car makers, to create a car that could be cheaply built, but still had enough power to reach speeds of over 60 mph (100 km/h/h). Only a few cars were finished before the beginning of World War II halted civilian production, but those few finished cars were what we would recognize today as the Volkswagen Beetle.
After the war was over and allied powers took control of Volkswagen, the original plan was to dismantle the Volkswagen because it had been used in the German war effort, but some of the allied commanders saw the value of the car. Seeking to strengthen the German economy to prevent the economic collapse that happened after World War I, the British Army invested in the company by placing an order for 20,000 vehicles. This order kept Volkswagen alive and profitable long enough for the company to eventually be transferred back to German control in 1949 and was a critical part of regenerating the German automotive industry in the post-war years.
After the war, Volkswagen became one of the best selling cars in Germany and slowly gained popularity around the world. From these sales, Volkswagen made moves to purchase Audi, as well as several other automakers, that Volkswagen merged into Audi, to become the luxury sibling of Volkswagen. This trend of buying other car brands continued for decades as the Volkswagen Group slowly purchased Bentley, Bugatti, and Lamborghini.
In 2012, the Volkswagen group purchased the automaker, Porsche. This means that the car company that made its money on Ferdinand Porsche’s original Beetle design, not only owns most of the luxury car brands in the world, but also now owns the company of the man that designed their very first car.
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Sources: history.com and vw.com
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