Volkswagen Volkswagen Volkswagen (), shortened to VW (), is a German automaker founded on 28 May 1937 by the German Labour Front under Adolf Hitler and headquartered in Wolfsburg. It is the flagship marque of the Volkswagen Group, the largest automaker by worldwide sales in 2016 and 2017. The group's main market is in China, which delivers 40% of its sales and profits. "Volkswagen" literally in German means "folk's wagon" (so in basic terms "people's car"), and the company's current international advertising slogan is just "Volkswagen", a reference of the name's meaning. Volkswagen was originally established in 1932 by the German
Volkswagen his opinion, and Breech said, "Mr. Ford, I don't think what we're being offered here is worth a dime!" Ford passed on the offer, leaving Volkswagen to rebuild itself under Nordhoff's leadership. From 1948, Volkswagen became an important element, symbolically and economically, of West German regeneration. Heinrich Nordhoff (1899–1968), a former senior manager at Opel who had overseen civilian and military vehicle production in the 1930s and 1940s, was recruited to run the factory in 1948. In 1949, Major Hirst left the company—now re-formed as a trust controlled by the West German government and government of the State of Lower