Awesome Companies & Great Careers: Volkswagen

February 9, 2021 herculesking Awesome Companies & Great Careers 139

Volkswagen (German: [ˈfɔlksˌvaːɡn̩] (listen); English: /ˈvoʊksvɑːɡən, ˈvɒlkswɑːɡən, -wæɡən, ˈfɒlksvɑːɡən/), shortened to VW (German: [faʊ̯ ˈveː] (listen)), is a German automaker founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front and at the request of Adolf Hitler, known for the iconic Beetle and headquartered in Wolfsburg. It is the flagship brand of the Volkswagen Group, the largest automaker by worldwide sales in 2016 and 2017.[2] The group’s biggest market is in China, which delivers 40% of its sales and profits.[3][4] Popular models of Volkswagen include Golf, Jetta, Passat, Atlas, and Tiguan. The German term Volk translates to “people”, thus Volkswagen translates to “people’s car”.

Volkswagen was established in 1937 by the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) in Berlin.[5] In the early 1930s, cars were a luxury – most Germans could afford nothing more elaborate than a motorcycle. Only one German out of 50 owned a car. Seeking a potential new market, some car makers began independent “people’s car” projects – the Mercedes 170H, BMW 3/15, Adler AutoBahn, Steyr 55, and Hanomag 1.3L, among others.

The trend was not new, as Béla Barényi is credited with having conceived the basic design in the mid-1920s. Josef Ganz developed the Standard Superior (going as far as advertising it as the “German Volkswagen”). In Germany, the company Hanomag mass-produced the 2/10 PS “Kommissbrot”, a small, cheap rear-engined car, from 1925 to 1928.[6] Also, in Czechoslovakia, the Hans Ledwinka‘s penned Tatra T77, a very popular car amongst the German elite, was becoming smaller and more affordable at each revision. Ferdinand Porsche, a well-known designer for high-end vehicles and race cars, had been trying for years to get a manufacturer interested in a small car suitable for a family. He built a car named the “Volksauto” from the ground up in 1933, using many popular ideas and several of his own, putting together a car with an air-cooled rear engine, torsion bar suspension, and a “beetle” shape, the front hood rounded for better aerodynamics (necessary as it had a small engine).[7]VW logo during the 1930s, initials surrounded by a stylized cogwheel and a spinning propeller that looked like a swastika[8]

In 1934, with many of the above projects still in development or early stages of production, Adolf Hitler became involved, ordering the production of a basic vehicle capable of transporting two adults and three children at 100 km/h (62 mph). He wanted all German citizens to have access to cars.[7] The “People’s Car” would be available to citizens of the Third Reich through a savings plan at 990 Reichsmarks (US$396 in 1938 dollars)—about the price of a small motorcycle (the average income being around 32 RM a week).[9][10]

It soon became apparent that private industry could not turn out a car for only 990 RM. Thus, Hitler chose to sponsor an all-new, state-owned factory using Ferdinand Porsche’s design (with some of Hitler’s design constraints, including an air-cooled engine so nothing could freeze). The intention was that ordinary Germans would buy the car by means of a savings scheme (“Fünf Mark die Woche musst du sparen, willst du im eigenen Wagen fahren” – “Five marks a week you must put aside if in your own car you want to ride“), which around 336,000 people eventually paid into.[11] However, the entire project was financially unsound, and only the Nazi party made it possible to provide funding.[12][Note 1]

Prototypes of the car called the “KdF-Wagen” (German: Kraft durch Freude – “Strength through Joy”) appeared from 1938 onwards (the first cars had been produced in Stuttgart). The car already had its distinctive round shape and air-cooled, flat-four, rear-mounted engine. The VW car was just one of many KdF programs, which included things such as tours and outings. The prefix Volks— (“People’s”) was not just applied to cars, but also to other products in Germany; the “Volksempfänger” radio receiver for instance. On 28 May 1937, Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH (“Company for the Preparation of the German Volkswagen Ltd.”), or Gezuvor[13] for short, was established by the Deutsche Arbeitsfront in Berlin. More than a year later, on 16 September 1938, it was renamed to Volkswagenwerk GmbH.[14][15]VW Type 82E

Erwin Komenda, the longstanding Auto Union chief designer, part of Ferdinand Porsche’s hand-picked team,[7] developed the car body of the prototype, which was recognizably the Beetle known today. It was one of the first cars designed with the aid of a wind tunnel—a method used for German aircraft design since the early 1920s. The car designs were put through rigorous tests and achieved a record-breaking million miles of testing before being deemed finished.

The construction of the new factory started in May 1938 in the new town of “Stadt des KdF-Wagens” (modern-day Wolfsburg), which had been purpose-built for the factory workers.[14] This factory had only produced a handful of cars by the time war started in 1939. None were actually delivered to any holder of the completed saving stamp books, though one Type 1 Cabriolet was presented to Hitler on 20 April 1944 (his 55th birthday).[14]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen

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