Internationalization and the Reorganization of Production and Marketing in the Volkswagen Corporation

Since the mid-1970s the Volkswagen Corporation, the largest motor vehicle manufacturer in the FRG and fifth largest in the world, has clearly been relocating stages of production to its foreign subsidiaries. Especially in the 1970s, the production and assembly of vehicles, aggregates and motor vehicle components abroad were significantly increased and integrated into an interlocking intra-company combine. As late as 1970, when the three largest US car manufacturers had already decentralized their production worldwide, VW’s foreign subsidiaries still played only a minor role. Their share of the total output amounted to only a fraction of what, year in, year out, was rolling off the assembly lines in the FRG and being exported to all parts of the world. Volkswagen, especially the best-selling ‘Beetle’, was the national symbol of the West German post-war economy: ‘Made in Germany’. Eighty-five per cent of VW’s production took place in the FRG, roughly 62 per cent of which was exported abroad.