VOLKSWAGEN / GERMANY

 

VOLKSWAGEN / WOLFSBURG / GERMANY ( 1937 - to present )

Actually, my website is almost entirely about pre-war emblems (exceptions prove the rule). And people usually assume that there are no pre-war VOLKSWAGEN emblems.

So  I would say that my post on the Volkswagen emblems provided some new, previously unknown information  as I show here,  a prewar Volkswagen emblem!

Unbelievable but true. I was given this heavily damaged Volkswagen emblem -shown on the next photo- as a gift because the owner thought it was beyond restoration. But it wasn’t. It dates from around 1938 - 1940 and came from one of the few civilian Volkswagens before WWII ( less than 100 ). The design was patented in 1938. The distinguishing mark of vehicles built until the end of WWII is the ring with teeth. 

 

with traces of WWII, an original prewar VOLKSWAGEN emblem 

 

 

Sorting out that puzzle it turned out that the emblem has a tab at the top and another at the bottom. This makes it clear that it was used inside the vehicle, almost certainly on the dashboard.

prewar Volkswagen emblem after restoration

Size	8.2 cm x 10.7 cm
Year	c. 1938 / 1940
Estimate

 

 

The KdF emblem was patented as early as 1938. It features the three letters KdF, standing for “Kraft durch Freude” (Strength Through Joy), within a gear. It is noteworthy that Berlin, rather than Wolfsburg, is listed as the company's headquarters. 

As early as September 1938, however, the name was no longer “Kraft durch Freude”; instead, it was renamed Volkswagenwerk GmbH.

In 1938, the German Reich offered its citizens a savings card that would have allowed them to purchase a Volkswagen once they had saved 990 Reichsmarks. Many thousands of citizens accepted the offer. However, not a single vehicle was ever sold to civilians, since starting in 1939, only military-grade Volkswagens—such as the Kübelwagen and Schwimmwagen—were manufactured.
Here I present an original savings card belonging to the late Mr. Fischer , which he never threw away, even though none of his deposits were ever reimbursed.

Original "KdF-WAGEN-SPARKARTE" that survived WWII; This receipt proves that  full payment has been made. However, a vehicle was never delivered (that’s one way to cheat your own people and put all the money into the military).

It wasn't until 1945 that the first civilian Beetle went back into production. 

For the sake of completeness, I'm showing these postwar emblems here. Starting in 1950, the Export version of the Beetle featured a hood ornament made of colored enamel depicting a wolf on a castle = Wolfsburg. Of course, the export version was also available for purchase in Germany; it was a slightly more luxurious version of the Beetle.

Size	3.8 cm x 5.4 cm (emblem only)
Year	1951 - 1959
Estimate

 

Due to the extremely high production volumes, Volkswagen sourced parts from various enamel coating plants; in this case, from KSP.

 

The  hood emblem was  simplified in 1960 with a tendency toward the abstract. An evolution that can be observed in many emblems of long-standing automobile manufacturers.

 

Size	3.8 cm x 5.4  cm (emblem only)
Year	1959 - 1962
Estimate

And then there was another prototype emblem, which, in terms of abstraction, falls between the two emblems shown earlier.

 

Size	3.8 cm x 5.4 cm (emblem only)
Year	c. 1959
Estimate

 

In addition, there were a few vendors who offered a city coat of arms as an accessory that could be swapped out for the Wolfsburg emblem. Here is an example for Hamburg.

 

For more emblems see older posts or top right ( list of car makers ).

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