The VW story starts with the delivery of a concept to the Reich government by Ferdinand Porsche to build a "people's car".
The first prototype of a "Volkswagen" moved in 1935 and in 1937 30 cars covered a distance of 2.4 million kilometres in the course of tests. The foundation stone of the Volkswagen factory was laid near Fallersleben in 1938 and the factory was completed in the spring of 1939.
War came and the factory was used for military vehicles and armaments, with much use of forced labour. In 1945, American forces occupied the town, which was then called "Wolfsburg". The company's assets were requisitioned by the occupying forces, who had the factory build vans.
VW got back into real automotive business in 1948, and in 1949, the first two Beetles were shipped to the US. In the autumn of 1949, the military government relinquished control of requisitioned assets and Volkswagenwerk GmbH was transferred to the Federal Republic of Germany, after Ford declined a chance to buy it.
In the early 1950s, VW distribution operations were set up in Canada and Brazil. The 1,000,000th Volkswagen came off the assembly line in 1955, and through the rest of the decade, the Transporter and Karmann Ghia Convertible were added to the model range. VW had a very successful advertising campaign in the 1960s which helped its success in the US, as did the movie, Herbie, the Love Bug.
In 1971, VW developed the Super Beetle, with more room in the boot and a better suspension system using MacPherson struts in the front instead of the transverse beam arrangement it had since the 1930s. VW stopped mainstream production of the Beetle saloon in 1977, and stopped production of the cabriolet in 1979, but continued production in Brazil until 1993 and continues to do so in Mexico.
The long-term dependence on the Beetle had the company in difficulties, but it went through a period of evolving new products, including the relatively unpopular 411, and the popular Golf - Rabbit in the US - and the Passat which became the benchmark for large family cars in the 1990s. VW acquired Audi in 1965, and in the last decade took over SEAT in Spain and Skoda in the Czech Republic. The company also produces vans and minibuses, automotive parts, and industrial engines.
Best Car: Beetle or Golf.
Worst Car: Perhaps the 411.
Weirdest Car: the Schwimmwagen amphibious vehicle, 16,000 of which were produced during the second World War