Volkswagen (VW; ) is a German automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by the German Labour Front, it was revived after World War II by British Army officer Ivan Hirst and over the years since grew into the global brand it is today. As of 2025, the company had a market capitalization of approximately US$58.9 billion. The company is well known for the Beetle and serves as the flagship brand of its eponymous conglomerate, the Volkswagen Group, which was the world's largest automotive manufacturer by global sales in 2016 and 2017.
The name derives from the German words and , meaning , or more directly .
History
thumb|[[Ferdinand Porsche unveiling the concept to Adolf Hitler on 1 December 1934]]
1932–1963: People's Car project
Volkswagen was established in 1937 by the Nazi Party's German Labour Front () as part of the Strength Through Joy (, abbreviated to KdF) program in Berlin. In the early 1930s, cars were a luxurymost Germans could afford nothing more elaborate than a motorcycle, and only one German out of 50 owned a car. Seeking a potential new market, some car makers began independent "people's car" projectsthe Mercedes 170H, BMW 3/15, Adler AutoBahn, Steyr 55 and Hanomag , among others.
The growing trend was not nascent; Béla Barényi, a pioneering automotive engineer, is credited as already having conceived the basic design during 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. Also, in Czechoslovakia, the Hans Ledwinka-designed 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 ' 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 bonnet rounded for better aerodynamics (necessary as it had a small engine).