Volkswagen filed its V over W badge with the patent office in 1938, yet when a graphic artist claimed authorship in 2005, the company said the designer was unknown.
- Country
-
Germany - Active
- Since 1937
- Founded by
- German Labour Front (DAF)
- Website
- Official website ↗
A people’s car with a dark start
The name says it plainly. Volkswagen means the people’s car, and Volkswagen’s own chronicle describes the project of the 1930s as the German people’s car. What that chronicle is just as open about is who set the company up.
On 28 May 1937 the German Labour Front, the DAF, founded the “Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens” in Berlin. A year later, on 26 May 1938, Hitler attended the foundation stone ceremony for the plant near what is today Wolfsburg and named Ferdinand Porsche’s car the KdF-Wagen. On 16 September 1938 the company became Volkswagenwerk GmbH. Civilian cars never got going. The plant was turned over to the war economy, and Volkswagen’s chronicle records that some 20,000 people, including roughly 5,000 concentration camp inmates, were made to work there until 1945.
Then the British arrived. From June 1945 the British Military Government ran the company in trusteeship, and Major Ivan Hirst, in Volkswagen’s words, played a decisive role in turning the armaments factory into a car company. Mass production of the saloon began on 27 December 1945. Heinrich Nordhoff, a former Opel manager, took over on 1 January 1948, and in October 1949 the British handed the company to German federal trusteeship. In 1960 it became a stock corporation, Volkswagenwerk AG, registered in Wolfsburg.
A cog, a V and a W
The first badge put a V above a W and wrapped them in a cog. According to Volkswagen, as reported in 2005, the logo was filed with the patent office of the Third Reich in 1938. The cog has an uncomfortable relative. The VW project was part of the Nazi “Kraft durch Freude” scheme run by the German Labour Front, whose own emblem was a swastika inside a cog, and the legal news service Out-Law noted that the VW logo appears to be derived from it.
After the war the cog went. A version with the cog changed to a plain circle was filed for protection in 1948, and Volkswagen’s chronicle confirms that the Volkswagen trademark was registered with the German Patent Office in Munich in October 1948. The V over W in a ring has been with the brand ever since.
So who drew it?
Nobody can say for certain, and that is the honest answer. In 2005 the Austrian graphic artist Nikolai Borg, then 86, went to court claiming he had been commissioned to design the logo just before the Second World War. He didn’t ask for money, only a joint statement naming him as its author. Volkswagen denied the commission and said the designer was unknown.
Many books and websites credit Franz Xaver Reimspiess, a Porsche engine designer, with the drawing. That claim is widely repeated, but it doesn’t appear in the Volkswagen statements reported at the time of the Borg case, so treat it as a popular attribution rather than an established fact.
Two letters, nothing hidden
The roundel is about as literal as a car badge gets. V and W are the initials of Volkswagen, stacked one above the other inside a circle. There is no animal, no coat of arms and no secret code to find.
What has changed is the way it is drawn. Before 2019 Volkswagen used a three-dimensional, shaded badge. According to the Shropshire Star, the 2019 change was the first major rebrand since 2000.
Flat for the electric age
In September 2019, at the IAA motor show in Frankfurt, Volkswagen showed a new brand design next to the all-electric ID.3. The stacked VW stayed, but the shading went. According to Volkswagen New Zealand, the new logo is flat and two-dimensional, reduced to its essential elements and designed for flexible, digital use. The lettering is thinner, and a “moving frame” lets the logo sit in different positions on a layout.
It was an in-house job. Volkswagen says the strategic foundations came from a joint team of Volkswagen Design and Marketing, with Chief Designer Klaus Bischoff playing a key role. The badge was also given a voice: a sound logo took the place of a brand claim.
Blue, white and light
Volkswagen describes its earlier logo as blue and white. The 2019 design added a new blue tone and more colour variants, and it made light part of the identity: the logo is meant to be illuminated on vehicles, brand buildings and dealerships.
From the saloon to the ID.3
For decades Volkswagen was a one product company. Then water cooling arrived, and the badge started turning up on a very different kind of car.
Landmark Volkswagens, decade by decade
- 1945: Volkswagen saloon. Mass production of the car later known as the Beetle began under British administration on 27 December 1945.
- 1950: Transporter. Mass production began in Wolfsburg on 8 March 1950.
- 1955: Karmann Ghia. The Ghia Coupé was launched in Georgsmarienhütte in July 1955, with a convertible following in 1957.
- 1973: Passat. The first of a new generation with front-wheel drive and a water-cooled engine, closely based on the Audi 80.
- 1974: Golf. Production began in Wolfsburg on 29 March 1974. A few months later, on 1 July, the last Wolfsburg Beetle left the line.
- 1976: Golf GTI. The sporty Golf, with a 110 hp engine and a top speed of 182 km/h.
- 2019: ID.3. The all-electric hatchback that shared the Frankfurt stage with the flat new logo.
Today the VW roundel is one badge among many in the Volkswagen Group, which also includes Skoda, Seat, Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini. For more on how badges like this are put together, see how car logos are designed.
Frequently asked questions
What does the VW logo stand for?
The letters V and W are the initials of Volkswagen, which means the people’s car. They are stacked one above the other inside a circle.
Who designed the Volkswagen logo?
It isn’t settled. In 2005 Volkswagen said the designer was unknown, while the graphic artist Nikolai Borg claimed in court that he had designed it. Franz Xaver Reimspiess is often credited too, but that attribution doesn’t appear in Volkswagen’s reported statements.
When was the VW logo first registered?
According to Volkswagen, the original logo, with a cog around the letters, was filed with the patent office in 1938. A post-war version with a plain circle was registered with the German Patent Office in Munich in October 1948.
Why did Volkswagen change its logo in 2019?
The flat, two-dimensional logo unveiled at the IAA in Frankfurt in September 2019 was designed for flexible, digital use. It arrived together with the electric ID.3 and a new brand design.
Cog, ring and ID.3: the people's car papers
- Founded
- 1937
- Founder
- German Labour Front (DAF)
- Country
- Germany
- Headquarters
- Wolfsburg, Germany
- Parent company
- Volkswagen Group
- Current emblem
- A flat, two-dimensional V over W in a circle, introduced in 2019
- Known for
- The Beetle, the Transporter and the Golf
- Website
- Official website ↗
