The Third Reich wanted the people’s car, fast, versatile, robust, and affordable: the car of “Strength Through Joy”, to quote the name of their recreational organization. The project was executed by Ferdinand Porsche, who designed a refined drivetrain under an original coachwork, while a new plant was born in Wolfsburg that produced one thousand vehicles a day. Its boom, however, came in the postwar period, and not only in Germany: with more than twenty million vehicles produced globally, no one could do better. In some countries, it was produced up to the years 2000, but in car history it has held a preeminent position since its first presentation. This vehicle, from 1952, was donated to the museum by Volkswagen itself in 1987.
