The beginning of the VW Beetle
08/11/2011
We all know the VW Beetle, of course, and remember the streetscape it dominated in the 1960s. But its history in the press began much earlier. The first picture shows photos that made the rounds in the press in 1938 (for example in an article in number 38 of AR). The vehicle still bears only a limited resemblance to the Beetle we know.
Even earlier, in 1937, this photo had been taken, although it only became public later and showed a number of prototypes of the Type 30.
A few months after the first "official photos", this time in AR 94/1938, a new picture appears, this time with the body and chassis separated. Now the Beetle looks pretty much as it did in the fifties and sixties.
However, the interior has not yet been finalized and is at least different from what it looked like in later Beetles. Nevertheless, a convertible had obviously already been considered.
Production for the "end customer" only began after the Second World War (around 1946); our picture is an advertising illustration from 1951. The first million Beetles then drove along our roads as early as 1955.
