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December 27th marked the 60th
anniversary of Volkswagen resuming production of the Beetle after WWII, effectively marking the date in 1945 that the
company was reborn as a commercial carmaker.
4Car reports that British auto industry execs
were invited to Wolfsburg after the war to consider producing the KdF-Wagen (the Beetle’s first name), but thought
it funny looking and decided to stick with the small British cars of the day. Nonetheless, the Beetle played a major
role in Germany’s post-war reconstruction, creating over 6,000 jobs in Wolfsburg alone and being used as
specialty transportation for peacekeeping troops.
21,529,480 Beetles have been produced since 12/27/45, the
last one rolling off the assembly line in July of 2003.