History

Volkswagen Chronicle

Teaser Image Chronice 2016-now

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.

Corporate Archives

Corporate Archives Speech
The Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft Corporate Archives, which contain a comprehensive store of documents, represent the Group’s collective memory.

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.

Place of Remembrance of Forced Labour in the Volkswagen Factory

Decorative picture for forced labour
The exhibition provides information about forced labour and armaments production at the former Volkswagenwerk GmbH.

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.

Publications

Decorative picture for publications
A wide range of publications, including audio books and a DVD, highlight the many facets of the history of the Volkswagen 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.

Research, Positions, Documents

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The specified fuel consumption and emission data does not refer to a single vehicle and is not part of the offer but is only intended for comparison between different types of vehicles. Additional equipment and accessories (additional components, tyre formats, etc.) can alter relevant vehicle parameters such as weight, rolling resistance and aerodynamics, affecting the vehicle's fuel consumption, power consumption, CO2 emissions and driving performance values in addition to weather and traffic conditions and individual driving behavior. Further information on official fuel consumption data and official specific CO2 emissions for new passenger cars can be found in the "Guide to fuel economy, CO2 emissions and power consumption for new passenger car models", which is available free of charge from all sales dealerships and from DAT Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH, Hellmuth-Hirth-Str. 1, D-73760 Ostfildern, Germany and at www.dat.de/co2.