A Brief History of the Volkswagen Beetle

After 80 years, the long and winding road is coming to the end for the Beetle. Volkswagen announced this week that it will end production of the iconic car in 2019.
The Beetle was originally commissioned in the 1930s by Adolf Hitler as the "people's car" (or volks wagen in German). Designed by Ferdinand Porsche, the curvy car was affordable, practical and reliable. Three decades later, the "Bug" (as it was affectionately known) became a symbol of the 1960s and the "small is beautiful" ethos.

Germany stopped producing Beetles in the late 1970s, but in 1998 Volkswagen rolled out the New Beetle, which was meant to be a visual flashback to the original Type 1 design but was essentially a VW Golf. Another variation was introduced in 2012, but sales have been steadily declining—down to around 15,000 last year from some 43,000 in 2013—so now the Bug will be squashed.
To pay tribute to the car that helped make Volkswagen the world's largest automaker, VW will release two last models, the Final Edition SE and the Final Edition SEL. Until then, here's a look back at Beetle-mania...

A 1939 Volkswagen Type 1 convertible, with Ferdinand Porsche in the back seat.Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

1938

In an effort to produce an affordable car for German workers, Adolf Hitler had commissioned engineer Ferdinand Porsche to design a simple, economical vehicle for the people. The Type 1 (as it was known) had a rear, air-cooled engine and borrowed design elements from an earlier Porsche car (the Type 12 he built for Zündapp) and several models from the Czechoslovakia automaker Tatra. In May, Hitler laid the cornerstone of the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany. Civilian production was almost immediately stopped because of World War II, but some cars were built for military officers. Hitler was given the first convertible.

A Beetle on streets of Germany in the 1940s.Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

1946

Following the end of the war, the factory was put under British control. By the end of 1946, more than 10,000 cars were manufactured. A decade later, one million had been sold.

A 1960 version of DDB's "Think small" ad.VW

1959

Under the supervision of William Bernbach of the New York advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB), copywriters Julian Koenig and Helmut Krone created the now legendary "Think small" ad for Volkswagen with a tiny Beetle in a plane of white space. "Maybe we got so big because we thought small," the ad touted. Forty years later, Ad Age named it the best advertising campaign of the 20th century.

A 1963 Love Bug that starred in 'Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.'Barrett-Jackson

1968

The Type 1 was officially given the name "Beetle" (from "der Käfer," German for beetle, which was used in brochures). That year, Disney released the first of six movies featuring an Herbie the Love Bug, an anthropomorphic 1963 Beetle with a racing-style number 53 on the hood. In 2018, one of the cars used in the 1977 movie Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo and 1982's Herbie Goes Bananas set a record for a Beetle at auction, selling at Barrett-Jackson for $128,700.

The 1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle.Bettmann

1971

Volkswagen introduced a premium model known as the Super Beetle. The car had a new front suspension and more trunk space—under the hood. The next year, on February 17, 1972, Beetle No. 15,007,034 rolled off the assembly line, surpassing the record held by the Ford Model T for four decades as the best-selling car in the world.

The New Beetle behaves at the premiere of 'Austin Powers: the Spy Who Shagged Me'Photo by Jody Cortes/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images

1998

Meet the New Beetle. After 60 years, VW gave the car its first major update with lines that recalled the Type 1 on what was basically a Volkswagen Golf platform. The car came with a 115-hp 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, and in a nod to its flower-power roots, the dashboard had a small vase. The following year, Mike Myers drove a groovy version in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me known as "The Shag Mobile."

The 2019 Beetle Convertible Final Edition LargeVolkswagen

2018

With sales having declined since 2013, Volkswagen announced that the Beetle had reached the end of the line. There will be two last models, the Final Edition SE (which starts at $25,995) and the Final Edition SEL (beginning at $29,995)—and both are available as convertibles. So is it really the last ride for the beloved Bug? As Hinrich J. Woebcken, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, said in his announcement, "Never say never."

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/msolomon/2018/09/14/luxury-lineage-a-brief-history-of-the-volkswagen-beetle/