The People’s Car - Volkswagen - was found in Germany in 1945

1947 was a fateful year for the European car industry – although few people would have realised it at the time. In 1945 a British Army officer – Major Ivan Hirst, on duty in the British sector of occupied Germany – had been given the job of making something of a bombed motor factory near the city of Wolfsburg, which had during the war years produced military vehicles.. He found among the ruins a car that had been in the 1938 Berlin motor show – the People’s Car or Volkswagen. Was it possible to make a factory producing these cars?

There is no particular reason except chance that made Beetle the best selling model of all time. But it would not have been such a success without the constant work to improve the model, year after year.

2008-05-16