Volkswagen's journey: Beetle maker's wartime roots to reinvention

Volkswagen is facing what could be its biggest restructuring in 89 years, and the company’s history is marked by repeated reinventions. The roots go back to Nazi Germany’s push for a “people’s car”: in 1937 the German Labour Front created the “Corporation to Prepare the Way for the German People’s Car,” and in 1939 the KdF-Wagen was unveiled. World War II redirected production toward military vehicles. After Germany’s 1945 surrender, British Army engineer Ivan Hirst helped restart Beetle production in Wolfsburg, where the one-millionth Beetle appeared in 1955. Privatization came in 1960 with Lower Saxony holding 20%. Later moves—like buying Auto Union for Audi in 1965, launching the Golf in 1974, and expanding in China—built the multibrand empire.