VW AUTOSTADT WOLFSBURG
Volkswagen's Factory Theme Park
There's
a scene in a Woody Allen movie is some distant future through time
travel, Woody's
character finds a VW from the 1960's, with the engine
still running after two hundred years or so. Volkswagen has recently
come out with yet a new version of its iconic "Beetle" reborn
again and again. The world’s manufacturer of the odd little car
which began by building a fuel efficient vehicle for the masses has grown
to a world leader. Aside from the familiar VW imprimatur which prompts
that odd road trip game of slugging your brother every time you spot
one, if the truth were told, your brother would be black and blue from
head to foot.
The Volkswagen
Group company is a conglomerate which owns a fistful of other brands
and has gone well beyond the original “People’s
Car” to the most exclusive and high speed sports cars, Audi, Bentley,
SEAT, and Skoda to Bugatti and Lamborghini. All of which form the exhibition
pavilions of the Volkswagen Autostadt (Car City) beside the distinctive
glass car towers at the company’s factory headquarters in Wolfsburg
near Hannover, a combination car dealership delivery center, factory
tour and amusement theme park.
Curiously,
Volkswagen owes its success to two wild opposites, Adolf Hitler and
the British
military. In 1938, Germany had only been producing
luxury vehicles and the need for a cheap car for the common man of the
Third Reich was promoted. Adolf Hitler backed a state-owned factory to
produce a “Volkswagen”, a people’s car, choosing a
site along the Middle Land canal between Berlin and Hannover for the
factory. Only one car was actually delivered (to the Furher for his birthday),
before the factory was shifted to war production. The factory with its
own power plant, workers housing complex and a small support town, first
called the KdF-Stadt, 
was
heavily bombed during World War II, but portions of the damaged facility
and the power station survived. British Amy Major
Ivan Hirst, given charge of the plant in the British sector had the idea
that rather than dismantle it, turn it to use. The factory began producing
cars for British service personnel, with the familiar “bug” painted
in military green. Some soldiers where allowed to take their little odd
car home. The major took the name for the city which grew with workers
of the plant from an abandoned castle in the old village, Wolfsburg.
The success of Volkswagen led the rest of Germany in war recovery to
the modern state it is today.
The
idea for the VW Autostadt originated in 1994 when the company decided
to
enhance its
factory with a tour for the public and a distribution
center for customers to pick up their new cars and promote the brand.
The Autostadt opened to coinside with the World Expositon in Hannover
in 2000 and having much the same feel of an “Expo”. Fronted
by the Mittelland Canal which motor barges carrying goods along the waterway
and linked by a moving walkway bridge to the city of Wolfsburg, the Autostadt
is a sprawling modern campus of car brand pavilions set in a grassy water
park with a major car museum, customer delivery center, car demonstration
driving skill course, car tower ride, nine restaurants, and even its
own on-site luxury hotel. A whole range of activities are available for
visiting tourists as well as car customers. © Bargain
Travel Europe
More:
Part 2 - Attractions at Volkswagen Autostadt Wolfsburg
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