History

From the Volkswagen idea to the Golf and the all-electric ID family; from the first foreign sales company in Canada to the founding of Volkswagen India; from Audi to Scania; from Wolfsburg to Chattanooga and Changchun: in German and English, the multimedia Chronicle provides a wide-ranging insight into the Volkswagen Group's history. Facts and figures for each year, including downloadable Annual Reports, provide a wealth of information.

Customers and employees the world over can identify with Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft through its history. The Corporate Archives in Wolfsburg provide the tools for this journey of discovery. The archives only store documents of genuine significance, and make them available for research and other uses. Almost five kilometres of files, nearly a million photos, 1,800 films, 70,000 publications and 15,000 drawings as well as digital data are housed in the archives. This material is the starting point for writing history and the foundation for legal authentication. It is the source of answers to questions on the history of Volkswagen, its products, plants and employees. Access to the documents in the Corporate Archives released for public use is possible by prior arrangement.

The “Place of Remembrance of Forced Labour in the Volkswagen Factory” is a permanent exhibition which opened in 1999. It is housed in a former air-raid shelter in shed 1 at the Wolfsburg plant. Each room of the shelter deals with a specific topic. The documents, photos, eyewitness accounts and items loaned by those personally affected provide a detailed insight into the scale of forced labour and the extent of the company’s involvement in the National Socialist war economy.

A digital media station uses photos and newspaper reports to show Volkswagen AG’s examination of its history under National Socialism and its commemorative work. The media station also focuses on the disbursement from the “Humanitarian Fund for Former Forced Labourers”. At a listening station, contemporary witnesses talk about their memories of that time.

Volkswagenwerk GmbH was founded in 1937 as a subsidiary of the German Labour Front, the largest organisation of the National Socialists in the former German Reich. Instead of producing the Volkswagen, which was planned as part of the national propaganda project for mass motorisation in Germany, the company became part of the German armaments industry at the beginning of the war in 1939. Military goods and weapons of war were manufactured at the Volkswagen plant using forced labour. Since the mid-1980s, Volkswagen's intensive examination of its own history has led to a growing awareness of this historical injustice. For decades, the resulting remembrance work has been an integral part of Volkswagen corporate culture. Aspects of this work such as “The Place of Remembrance of Forced Labour”, commemorative events, cooperation with external partners, as well as projects and contributions in various formats keep the memory alive in a variety of ways. The company is committed to combating discrimination and promoting diversity and equal opportunities, not least because of its historical and social responsibility. The Code of Conduct is the basis of our daily actions and an expression of the values and culture lived throughout the Group.

Volkswagen examines a wide range of aspects of its corporate history in numerous publications. For instance, the “Historical Notes” (Historische Notate – HN) series includes eye witness accounts of former forced labourers and publications on the post-war period as well as on various topics relating to the company’s history. The regularly updated Chronicle is also published here in print.

Scientific presentations on various themes relating to the Group’s history are published in a series entitled “Research, Positions, Documents” (Forschungen Positionen Dokumente – FPD). The history of legendary Volkswagen models as well as individual divisions are frequently highlighted in no particular order and separately from the series.

In addition to the printed books, audio books and a DVD have also been released.

The publications are available in German and some in English as well. They are available as books and can also be downloaded for free.