The birth of Gezuvor in Berlin
Soon after coming to power in 1933, Adolf Hitler commissioned plans for a motor car designed to be affordable enough for a mass market. Fearing that such an undertaking would be unprofitable, the automobile industry was not interested in realizing it, and the project was entrusted to “Strength through Joy” (Kraft durch Freude – KdF), a Nazi-affiliated leisure organization. To this end, KdF established the Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens (Gezuvor) in Berlin to organize the construction of what was to become Europe’s largest automobile factory. The question was just where it was to be built.
After a short period of deliberation, KdF decided to build a new city in central Germany to host the plant. Located close to the Mittelland Canal and adjacent to the railway and motorway routes between the Ruhr area and Berlin, the town was known by the functional name of “The Town of the KdF Car near Fallersleben”. One year after the founding of Gezuvor, Adolf Hitler laid the foundation stone for the car plant. It was only after the end of the war that the British military government renamed the production site Wolfsburg and the KdF-Wagen as Volkswagen.
About the Deutschlandmuseum
An immersive and innovative experience museum about 2000 years of German history
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