Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2025
Volkswagen (VW) was founded in Germany in 1937 under the Nazi regime by the labor unions with the help of Ferdinand Porsche, the inventor of the Beetle (the people’s car). Tasked with making a car that was affordable for all consumers, VW’s flagship car, the compact and iconic Beetle, first rolled off the manufacturing floor in 1945, and by 1949, half of all passenger cars produced in West Germany were built by VW. By 2014, VW was one of the biggest firms in the world. It had factories in thirty-one countries, employing almost 600,000 people worldwide. In 2014, it sold 10.2 million vehicles, with a total profit of over 11 billion euros.
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