Volkswagen Plant Wolfsburg

The Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, is the home factory of Volkswagen. The city of Wolfsburg was founded on 1 July 1938 as a planned city for workers building the KdF-Wagen, the car later known as the Beetle. Until 2022 it was the biggest car plant in the world, when it was overtaken by Tesla's Gigafactory Texas.

Beside it stands the Autostadt, a car-themed visitor park on the Mittelland Canal. The four tall brick chimneys of the factory's power station have become the symbol of the city. Wolfsburg lies on the river Aller, about 75 kilometres east of Hanover and 230 kilometres west of Berlin, and it is the fifth-largest city in the state of Lower Saxony. The globe marks the factory and the Autostadt as a place where cars are made and handed over.

How did the city begin?

Wolfsburg is one of the few German cities built in the first half of the 20th century as a planned city. Until 25 May 1945 it was called the Stadt des KdF-Wagens, the city of the KdF car. Its name comes from a nearby castle first mentioned in 1302.

Its population passed 100,000 in 1972 and peaked at 131,971 in 1973. In 1955 the one-millionth Beetle was built there, and postwar Beetle production in Wolfsburg ended in 1974.

The war years

During World War II the factory built military vehicles, aeroplanes and other equipment, mainly using forced workers and prisoners of war. US troops captured the city and factory on 11 April 1945 and freed about 7,700 forced labourers.

After the war the city was renamed Wolfsburg and the factory became the base of Volkswagen's peacetime production. In the years of Germany's economic miracle, many workers moved there, especially from Italy.

What is the Autostadt?

Autostadt means car city. It opened its main pavilion in May 2000 and cost about 850 million Deutsche Mark. More than 400 architects worked on it. It has a museum, pavilions for the brands in the Volkswagen Group, such as Audi, Porsche and Lamborghini, and a customer centre where buyers can pick up new cars.

Two glass towers, each 60 metres tall, store new cars and connect to the factory by a 700-metre tunnel. About 2 million people visit each year, and children can drive small electric Beetles on a mini track.

On the globe

The model shows the plant's four tall brick chimneys and, across the canal, the Autostadt's two glass car towers.