Wolfsburg, September 1939: the Volkswagen Plant's Fate
The Volkswagen conceived by was meant to be the people's car, sold at a low price and financed by the savings of German families. To produce it, an immense factory was built near Fallersleben, the future Wolfsburg.
In September 1939, the economy shifts onto a war footing. The brand-new factory cannot remain half-idle while the Wehrmacht demands vehicles.
Should the civilian sedan be adapted into a military liaison vehicle, its chassis be repurposed for a specialized vehicle, or civilian production be preserved so as not to betray the savers? The fate of the "people's car" is decided here.
Wolfsburg, September 1939: what to do with the Volkswagen factory when war breaks out?
The Volkswagen chassis served as the basis for the Kübelwagen (Type 82), a light all-terrain vehicle produced in roughly 50,000 units during the war, with limited modifications. An amphibious variant, the Schwimmwagen, would later be derived from it. Civilian production, for its part, was effectively abandoned: almost no sedans were delivered to the savers during the conflict, and the "people's car" would not become a mass-produced object until after 1945.
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