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Volkswagen is an automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Germany. It forms the core of the Volkswagen Group, which is the world's fourth largest car producer after GM, Toyota and Ford, respectively.

The name means "people's car" in German, in which it is pronounced [?folksvag?n]. Its tagline is "Volkswagen - Das Auto" (in English "Volkswagen - The Car"). Its previous German tagline was "Aus Liebe zum Automobil", which is translated as "Out of love for the car" - or, "For Love of the Automobile", as translated by VW in other languages.

Adolf Hitler had a keen interest in cars even though he did not drive. In 1933, shortly after taking over as leader of Germany, he asked Ferdinand Porsche to make changes to his original 1931 design to make it more suited for the working man. Hans Ledwinka discussed his ideas with Ferdinand Porsche who used many Tatra design features in the 1938 Kdf-Wagen, later known as the VW K�fer - or Beetle. On 22 June 1934, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche agreed to design the "People's Car" for Hitler.

Changes included better fuel efficiency, reliability, ease-of-use, and economically efficient repairs and parts. The intention was that ordinary Germans would buy the car by means of a savings scheme ("F�nf Mark die Woche musst Du sparen, willst Du im eigenen Wagen fahren" � "Save five Marks a week, if you want to drive your own car") which around 336,000 people eventually paid into.