Posted 10 months ago
elanski
(105 items)
In 1938 a factory was built in Wolfsburg to manufacture the Kdf-Wagen and a savings scheme introduced administered by the German Labour Front to make the car to accessible to ordinary Germans: Workers could purchase savings stamps worth 5 Reichsmarks per week which were stuck into special savings books. The total cost was 990 Reichsmarks (roughly 10 months of average wages). Once the book was complete, savers would exchange it for a car
However, due to the outbreak of war in 1939 not a single civilian car was ever delivered. All funds and resources were directed to using the cars and factory for the Nazi war machine. The few vehicles that had been produced were reallocated to the SS and the Afrika Korps.
After the war the fate of the savings money became a major controversy. VW (now under completely different ownership) faced many legal battles from people trying to get their money back. It took until the 1960s to be resolved when VW finally agreed to offer savers a 600 DM discount off the price of a new car. Most people accepted but it was still far less than they had paid.
This week’s model is by Rio models. It is a 1:43 die cast Kdf-Wagen shown as a SS staff car circa 1944. The famous split rear window is now present, as you can see. Picture 4 is a page from the original 1938 sales brochure demonstrating how a family of five could fit comfortably inside the car. Note the storage behind the rear seats as well as in the 'frunk'. If only they knew they would have to wait another 10 years to find out if it was accurate.
