Wolfsburg Volkswagen Plant

A Volkswagen Group manufacturing plant in Wolfsburg, Germany

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Wolfsburg Volkswagen


General information
Architectural style	Classic Industrial
Location	Wolfsburg
Address	38440 Wolfsburg
Country	Germany
Opened	26 May 1938
Cost	$40 million ($867 million in 2019)
Owner	Volkswagen
Height	92m (height of highest chimney)
Technical details
Material	Concrete and steel
Floor area	6.5 million m² (70 million sq ft)

The Wolfsburg Volkswagen Factory is the worldwide headquarters of the Volkswagen Group,^[1] and one of the largest manufacturing plants in the world, in terms of area at just under 6.5 million m² (70 million sq ft).^[2] The Wolfsburg plant produced 815,000 cars in 2015. Volkswagen's currywurst is also produced at this facility.

History

The Wolfsburg Volkswagen plant was built in 1938 as the original factory for mass-production of Adolf Hitler's "Volkswagen", or 'People's car' – before the Second World War also marketed by Nazi propaganda as the "Kraft durch Freude" or "KdF-Wagen" (Strength Through Joy‑car).

The factory was built to a massive size from the beginning, near the small town of Fallersleben, and a planned company town for the factory workers was built nearby, until May of 1945 named "Stadt des KdF-Wagens bei Fallersleben" (City of the KdF-Wagen at Fallersleben).

After World War II, the city was renamed "Wolfsburg" ('Wolf's Castle', after the nearby Wolfsburg Castle^[3]), and in 1972, through the 'Wolfsburg-Act', Fallersleben and about twenty other surrounding towns were absorbed as suburbs into a greater Wolfsburg.

The KdF-Wagen was brought into full production over a period of several years, under supervision of British Army officer and engineer major Ivan Hirst, in the British controlled sector of West Germany. After unsuccessfully offering the factory to several British and American car companies, including Ford Motor Company, Volkswagens then became very popular under the nickname 'Beetle', and in many countries and languages.

At the suggestion of the Dutch Volkswagen importer, Ben Pon, the company also started building simple, compact vans, that further built on the Beetle's technology, leading to the VW Transporter, 'Kombi' or 'Microbus' – and officially making it the Volkswagen 'Type 2'.

Cars produced

References

^ "WebContent Anzeige (Facettensuche) - volkswagen-media-services.com".
^ "7 of the World's Largest Manufacturing Plants". 5 January 2017.
^ The English indication being a tautology of sorts, as the German 'Burg' already means 'castle' or 'fortress'.