Volkswagen is a part of Germany's Big Three. The German automotive market belongs to Volkswagen AG (which owns Audi AG), Mercedes-Benz (Daimler AG) and BMW.
In 1933 Adolf Hitler commissioned the construction of a car that will be available to a wide audience. The assumption was to cost no more than 1000 marks, accelerate to about 100 km / h and accommodate four people. The task of creating such a vehicle was given to Ferdynand Porsche.
The first design of the car, which had an air-cooled engine, was made in 1935, and the vehicle adopted the name KdF, which means Kraft durch Freude. This meant strength through joy and referred to the German limit, which dealt with the formation of free time of society.
Finally, after the creation of 9 prototypes, the Type 60 project was approved for serial production. On May 26, 1938, the city of Fallersleben, located in Lower Saxony, celebrated the construction of the future car factory. The official production of the car began in July 1941, and by August 7, 1944, when production was completed, 630 copies were produced. Cars were made in both civilian and military variants.
After the end of World War II, the factory began production for the needs of the army. The name of the city was changed to Wolfsburg, and the brand name was changed to Volkswagen. However, the production of the vehicle has not ceased. Volkswagen Kafer (known as the Beetle) motorized post-war Germany and gained popularity around the world. Then the car was produced in Mexico and Brazil, and a total of over 21 million copies were created. Its production was completed in 2003, but since 1998 the New Beetle model has been produced, which refers to the legendary Beetle.