Most people who have ever owned a Volkswagen Beetle or, say, an early, split-windshield VW bus or even a Karmann Ghia will swear that those uncomfortable, relatively bare-bones vehicles were among the favorite cars they’ve ever driven. They’re not for everyone, of course — but for a certain breed of driver, the old-school VWs offered a rare combination of reliability, ease of maintenance and, most importantly, personality that so many other mass-produced automobiles lacked.
The story of Volkswagen, meanwhile, is among the most fascinating and, in some regards, most troubling of any car manufacturer in existence. One well-documented example of VW’s paradoxical lore: in its early days, during World War II, Volkswagen used slave labor (the company has admitted as much) to build vehicles for the Nazi war effort; decades later, the archetypal Volkswagens, the Beetle and the T1 bus, would become the four-wheeled symbols of the “peace and love” movement of the 1960s. From Hitler to hippies: not many other companies, automobile or otherwise, can lay claim to that sort of bizarre corporate narrative.
Here, a series of photos made by
LIFE photographer Walter Sanders at the company’s famous Wolfsburg plant in 1951. A refugee from Hitler’s Germany himself, who fled his native country the same year VW began making cars, Sanders captures in these pictures of the factory and the factory workers a nation in the process of recreating itself. Here, in black and white, is a portrait of the labor and mechanization that would again make Germany one of the world’s most powerful economies before the end of the century.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC5n0cy0MVElyPxqNcxIEO04ntrfznBspAkTQcyz55ztL4X2EiE3wU1hiLb4Z4TXunBCDLNUyAv9VNOFLXG3ogxIBAoiW1d16Z0ELOo3MKU-CBUqPqGCruzsyJVrHWrGVvJ-Q-7wTDskk/s640-rw/wolfsburg-factory-1951-1.jpg) |
Scene at Volkswagen's main plant, Wolfsburg, Germany, July 1951. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe-lwek9WsAtnMQwSAGPwIm4aMQ4Ai4w049Sdf-A90GT6b2o4AWVYrdE7GlzRHtID_DTSmZpQkyVw_VmO0sdXxWzAWbhhPH4MOYRu2dsey-ERR7H8o_h2H_fVxdxk1IKxp5MFVl2DxaKM/s640-rw/wolfsburg-factory-1951-20.jpg) |
Inspecting a VW engine, 1951. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipj-hotsm_hjqyQEnfwMDrdXAwZN9sKMcoy5TOv6f0HwFQUvKsKem4e3tDBQf_IEgmCTuHAA_EYeeC4b9vOcQWDcoZNb6o_H5MwqnCa7fnbggXtk0gnblwRDZYKjg5pTfGbCaCB5n3OTU/s640-rw/wolfsburg-factory-1951-21.jpg) |
People gathered around a VW bus, 1951. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyW38iIBciBGRxywmrzCPIGLZ3Lb0runABov5Qhd0o4DdwK1l4HcnFCoe8oNQ_HXlvBY2NKJn4o0dS9-1hjgkt4-zWJZrWDLHtZfEMWg2gvGxO7MwFyBQtOZEjKyz_ErlC1h5t0U-3SU/s640-rw/wolfsburg-factory-1951-22.jpg) |
People gaze at photographer Walter Sanders through the open roll-top of a VW bus, 1951. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwYspm8HIfPqdWCZjTyahi6y6R8ebjLepP-XgTj1-4YyOHD1J0i1kHL4qbElwG5cumCmBVeJX4L8kUiyNh2UonnE1nEmOjPnBYndPfXUo-a7NVHuSO2aZ6RONy1ghXn730HxF6fUU1Mb0/s640-rw/wolfsburg-factory-1951-23.jpg) |
A young woman and man enjoy themselves beside a VW cabriolet, 1951. |
(Photos: Walter Sanders—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
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