Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg

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Volkswagen factory from the east
Old thermal power station of the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg

The Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg is the parent plant of Volkswagen AG , based in Wolfsburg . It was built from the end of the 1930s, at the same time as a new town, which was originally called "City of the KdF-Wagons near Fallersleben " and was renamed Wolfsburg in May 1945. Parts of the plant are now protected as an industrial monument.

At the end of 2018, the plant employed around 63,300 people. With a total area of ​​6.5 km², the factory is the largest in the world. The building area is 1.6 km².

history

prehistory

May 26, 1938: Foundation stone laid for the Volkswagen factory by Adolf Hitler , far right: Ferdinand Porsche

The plant became the production site for the automobile that Adolf Hitler required for broad sections of the population. The basis for the “Volkswagen” was the contract signed on June 22, 1934 between the Reich Association of the Automobile Industry and Ferdinand Porsche's Stuttgart design office . The Nazi organization “Gemeinschaft Kraft durch Freude ” (KdF), part of the German Labor Front (DAF), took on the task of looking for a suitable location for the production facility . The German automotive industry was not interested in the production of the Volkswagen because it considered the price of 990  Reichsmark (adjusted for inflation in today's currency € 4,270) to be unrealistic. As a result, DAF was commissioned to build Europe's largest automobile factory. Under the supervision of DAF manager Robert Ley , the "Society for the preparation of the German Volkswagen mbH" (Gezuvor) was founded on May 28, 1937, based in Berlin. Your first and only product should be the "KdF-Wagen". For financing - Bodo Lafferentz , the designated managing director of Volkswagen GmbH, estimated the need for the central systems to be at least 200 million Reichsmarks - the Arbeitsbank provided a loan of 50 million RM in 1937 and DAF's own insurance companies in 1939 a loan of over 30 million. RM available. The third major source of money came from the Law on Granting Compensation for Inclusion or Transfer of Assets , which came into force on December 9, 1937. This legalized the robbery of union property by the DAF in 1933 and the DAF was also able to sell properties of the former unions, the total value of which was around 100 million RM. Other sources of money were the "KdF-Sparer" and from 1942 the Ministry of Aviation with 48 million Reichsmarks.

The work should always be an exemplary project. Porsche - the managing director of the newly founded "VW GmbH", as it were - had explored modern production methods on study trips to the USA, especially assembly line production with which the Ford company had revolutionized profitable mass production.

Location

1938 had Gezuvor found in just over half a year looking for the future plant site. The location of the factory was the newly founded "City of the KdF-Wagons near Fallersleben", since 1945 Wolfsburg . This city, which was planned on the drawing board , was created together with the plant from the late 1930s. The location on the Mittelland Canal in the Aller glacial valley was found more or less by chance due to a tour by the managing director Bodo Lafferentz in the rural and sparsely populated area near the municipality of Fallersleben and Wolfsburg Castle with the Schulenburgischer Gutshof there . It was almost in the geographical center of the empire and offered the following connections with good transport links:

But there were also military aspects in favor of the location. Because in the foreseeable event of a war, the factory was far away from the border and thus apparently a little more protected from air raids.

The three teams of architects Emil Rudolf Mewes ( Cologne ), Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer ( Essen - Berlin ) and Karl Kohlbecker ( Gaggenau ) were jointly commissioned to build the plant. They designed the approximately 1.3 km long factory front with a thermal power station on the northern bank of the Mittelland Canal, and the new town was built on the southern side.

The laying of the foundation stone for the plant on May 26, 1938 by Adolf Hitler with the participation of around 70,000 spectators and participants from National Socialist organizations was staged on a large scale. The construction work had been going on for a year - with the help of thousands of workers. Before the foundation stone was laid for the factory, hundreds of thousands had already signed a savings contract for the factory's alleged product.

In the autumn of 1939 the production halls were in the shell. However, there was no scheduled production of the KdF car (150,000 per year), as special machine tools were lacking due to the preparation of the economy for the war. Most of the steel required for production was to be supplied from the newly founded "City of Hermann Göring Works " ( Salzgitter ).

Start of production and World War II

The VW Kübelwagen produced for the Wehrmacht during World War II

Operations began at the end of the 1930s. The Austrian lawyer Anton Piëch , son-in-law of Ferdinand Porsche, was the plant manager in those founding years . With the outbreak of the Second World War, the production of civilian goods took a back seat and vehicles for the Wehrmacht and SS were built in the factory : between August 1940 and April 1945, 50,788 Kübelwagen and, in addition, from autumn 1942 a total of 14,276 floating cars (type 166) were made until after After the last air raid at the beginning of August 1944, Type 166 production could not be continued because important body presses had been destroyed. The V1 retaliatory weapon was manufactured in a "secret department" in the basement of Hall I. VW built wings, rudders and cabins for the repair of Junkers Ju 88 aircraft for the Luftwaffe . From 1940 to 1945 around 20,000 people , including prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates, had to do forced labor in the armaments production of the Volkswagen factory . From April 8 to October 11, 1942, the Arbeitsdorf concentration camp was laid out for construction work ; The Laagberg satellite camp existed from 1944 to 1945 .

In a total of five Allied air raids, all in 1944, the “People's Car Factory near Fallersleben” was the target: on April 8th and 29th, June 20th and 29th and August 5th. After this last attack, eight presses were badly damaged and 50 machine and production machines were destroyed. After the last 50 Kübelwagen produced for the Wehrmacht had been completed on April 10, 1945, US troops took the plant on the following day. After the war, 20% of the factory buildings were destroyed, 93% of the machine equipment was still in usable condition.

After 1945

Volkswagen factory 1957
VW Beetles produced in the 1950s , today in the Volkswagen AutoMuseum in Wolfsburg
Electronic data processing using the IBM System / 360 (1973)
Assembly lines with VW Beetle cars at the Wolfsburg plant, 1970

Under the British military government , represented by Major Ivan Hirst , the plant resumed its operations in 1945. In the factory, mechanics from the British occupation army set up the Wolfsburg Motor Works , a repair facility for their war-damaged vehicles. In addition, the production of the KdF car, from now on called Volkswagen , began, while the other half of the 6,000-strong workforce cleared away debris. The British sent a first series Volkswagen to the UK for assessment. Vehicle experts there found that the vehicle did not meet the technical requirements of an automobile and recommended that the plant be demolished. Nevertheless, the military government put the plant back into operation, also because of the influx of refugees from homeland. In 1945 almost 2,000 Volkswagen were built by hand, in 1946 there were already around 10,000 vehicles. The first 20,000 post-war VWs were only given to the Allied authorities.

In January 1948, the military government handed over plant management to Heinrich Nordhoff . The Bund became the trustee of the two VW plants in Wolfsburg and Braunschweig in 1949. After Henry Ford II was not ready to take over, the state of Lower Saxony took over the supervision. The production numbers grew rapidly - the millionth Beetle was produced as early as 1955. In 1950, production of the VW Transporter (Type 2) began in Wolfsburg . Due to the great demand, the plant was expanded in the following years, but the limits of the expansion possibilities became apparent in the mid-1950s, so that new locations became necessary. The transporter construction was relocated to the new Hanover plant in 1956 . In the summer of 1958, the unit preparation was moved to a new location in the Kassel plant . From 1957 to 1959, the 13-storey, clinker-brick VW administration tower was built, which housed the group headquarters until 2013. In 1963, because of the working and living conditions, a revolt by Italian guest workers, with one dead, prompted the use of the police. In 1966 two pedestrian tunnels leading into the factory premises were opened, which cross under the railway line and the Mittelland Canal. In 1971 the current high-rise building for technical development was completed.

Since 1974

Golf production, 1978
VW employees changing shifts, 1973

The last of over 11.9 million Beetles built in the main plant left the Wolfsburg production line on July 1, 1974, and the VW Golf took over. The new training center opened on June 9, 1981, and Josef Stingl , President of the Federal Employment Agency , was also present. In 1982, the highly automated Hall 54 with industrial robots went into operation, and the VW Group opened the Autostadt for Expo 2000 in June 2000 .

On June 3, 2007, Volkswagen celebrated the anniversary of 25 million Golfs with a big party. In 2016, the VW administration high-rise was reopened as the headquarters of the Volkswagen brand under the name “Branded high-rise”.

The Wolfsburg Nord / Süd combined heat and power plant with its four distinctive chimneys is still a characteristic of the plant that was built in 1939.

List of plant managers

  • Otto Dyckhoff (1939-1941)
  • Anton Piëch (1941–1945)
  • Rudolf Brörmann (1945–1946)
  • Karl Huland (1946–1947)
  • Wilhelm Steinmeier (1947–1959)
  • Otto Höhne (1959–1971)
  • Günter Hartwich (1971–1972)
  • Helmut Amtenbrink (1972–1988)
  • Folker Weißgerber (1989–1991)
  • Hans-Jürgen Liedigk (1992–1995)
  • Hans-Joachim Paul (1995–1996)
  • Gerald Weber (1996-1998)
  • Werner Neubauer (1999-2004)
  • Dietmar Korzekwa (2004-2007)
  • Siegfried Fiebig (2007-2014), † 2020
  • Jens Herrmann (2014-2016)
  • Stefan Loth (since 2016)

Rail operations

The Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg receives a large proportion of its components by rail. Around 70 percent of the finished automobiles are transported by rail via the double-track, non-electrified connecting line to Fallersleben station . The VW plant's railway area comprises 60 kilometers of rail and 157 switches and is considered the largest private loading station in Europe. The traffic is controlled from an electronic interlocking that was inaugurated in 2015 .

In 2012 seven diesel locomotives operated on the site. In the same year, the acquisition and testing of hybrid locomotives began , which can run in the halls with zero emissions.

Sightseeing opportunities

The factory can be visited as part of various “factory tours”. As a visitor, you will be driven through the factory facilities and across the factory premises in specially made “panorama trains ” or on special trailers behind a tractor based on a VW Golf .

literature

  • Günzel Graf von der Schulenburg-Wolfsburg : The economic and social structure of rural communities in the vicinity of the Volkswagen factory , 1964 (dissertation, University of Bonn).
  • Historical and regional excursion map of Lower Saxony, sheet Wolfsburg. Erhard Kühlhorn, Hildesheim 1977, ISBN 3-7848-3626-7 .
  • Markus Lupa: The work of the British. Volkswagen factory and occupying power 1945–1949. Historical Notate, Issue 2 of the series of historical communications of Volkswagen AG, Wolfsburg 2005, ISBN 3-935112-00-9 .
  • Wolfgang Neß , Rolf Höhmann: The industrial monument Volkswagen factory. Edited by the city of Wolfsburg, Institute for Contemporary History and City Presentation (IZS), Simone Neteler (Red.), Ecrivir Verlag, Hannover 2010, ISBN 978-3-938769-12-6 .

Broadcast reports

Web links

Commons : Volkswagenwerk Wolfsburg  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Neß , Rolf Höhmann: The industrial monument Volkswagenwerk (see literature)
  2. ^ Volkswagen AG Wolfsburg plant. (Status: December 31, 2018) volkswagen-newsroom.com, accessed on May 22, 2019
  3. ↑ https://www.ke-next.de/automation/die-10-groessten-fabriken-der-welt-deutschland-ganz-vorne-102.html
  4. ^ Hans-Heinrich Pardey: Cyclists among car manufacturers. faz.net on February 16, 2013, accessed on July 20, 2019
  5. ↑ This figure is based on the template: Inflation is determined, rounded to a full 10 euros and relates to last January.
  6. ↑ Rüdiger Hachtmann: The economic empire of the German labor front 1933-1945 , Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-1037-7 , p. 506.
  7. ↑ a b c 1938: The Nazis build a car factory. The foundation of the Volkswagen factory. In: ndr.de , May 24, 2013, accessed December 12, 2017.
  8. ^ Nicole Froberg, Ulrich Knufinke, Susanne Kreykenboom: Wolfsburg. The architecture guide. Braun Publishing, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-03768-055-1 , p. 34.
  9. ↑ Bernd Wiersch: The Beetle Chronicle, The story of a car legend . P. 91, 2nd edition. Delius Klasing, Bielefeld, ISBN 978-3-7688-1695-3 .
  10. ↑ US soldiers liberate the Volkswagen factory. In: Wolfsburger Nachrichten. Edition of April 4, 2020.
  11. ↑ Hans Mommsen , Manfred Grieger : The Volkswagen factory and its workers in the Third Reich. P. 954.
  12. ↑ L'Inchiesta: Wolfsburg, la città degli "italianen". Quando i romeni eravamo noi , Matteo Alviti on stampalibera.it
  13. ↑ Looking back. August 1, 1966 - 51 years ago today. In: Wolfsburger Nachrichten. Issued August 1, 2017.
  14. ↑ The appearance of the TE changes a lot. In: Wolfsburger Nachrichten. Friday Packet for August 17, 2018.
  15. ↑ 40 million Volkswagen from Wolfsburg at nwz.online from March 24, 2012, accessed on December 4, 2013.
  16. ↑ 1981 Volkswagen opens its new education center. In: Wolfsburger Nachrichten. Edition of June 8, 2018.
  17. ↑ a b c Drizzled in Halle. VDI-Nachrichten of September 19, 2014, accessed on January 29, 2017
  18. ↑ New digital interlocking for the Volkswagen factory. Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of February 9, 2015, accessed January 30, 2017
  19. ↑ New era: VW-Werkbahn relies on hybrid locomotives in the future. Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of March 19, 2012, accessed on January 29, 2017

Coordinates: 52 ° 26 ′ 1.5 ″  N , 10 ° 46 ′ 46.7 ″  E