THE BEGINNING…

75 years ago, on 11th April 1945, US troops liberated the Volkswagen plant and the city then known as ‘Stadt des Kdf-wagens’, which was later named Wolfsburg, to the south of Mittellandkanal. At the Volkswagen plant alone, about 7700 forced labourers were freed.

Over the eight weeks that followed, the Americans made ground-breaking decisions for the future of the people, the city and the plant. The brief but marked intermezzo of US military rule laid the foundations for democracy, freedom and reconstruction in the region.

The American occupation ended at the end of June 1945 when the region became part of the British occupation zone and the factory was famously resurrected by Major Ivan Hirst of the British Army REME regiment.

Let’s not forget, without this liberation and resurrection, there would be no Porsche today – after all, the first cars to bear the family name were heavily reliant on VW components…

If you’ve never visited Wolfsburg and its factory museums (the new Autostadt and the original Volkswagen Museum in Dieselstrasse), add them to the itinerary on your next trip to Germany. You won’t regret it.

Visit www.volkswagen.de or www.autostadt.de for details