page_title: Automotive industry by country
section_title: Germany
hierarchical_section_title: Automotive industry by country / Europe / Germany
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. VW-Werk, Wolfsburg Montage-Käfer
context_page_description: The United States was the world's largest automobile producer by volume from the early years of the 20th century until the 1980s, when it was overtaken by Japan. In 2009, China became the world's largest vehicle producer.
context_section_description: The petrol engined automobile was invented in Germany by Karl Benz. Furthermore, the four-stroke internal combustion engine used in most automobiles worldwide today was invented by Nicolaus Otto in Germany. In addition, the diesel engine was also invented by German Rudolf Diesel.
  Germany is famous for the high-performance and high-quality sports cars made by Porsche, and the cars of Mercedes, Audi and BMW are famous for their quality and technological innovation. Daimler-Benz's predecessor Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was the industry's oldest firm, Daimler-Benz company dates from 1926. In 1998, it bought the American automobile manufacturer Chrysler, then sold out in 2007 at a heavy loss, as it never managed to bring the division to long term profitability.
  In the popular market, Opel and Volkswagen are most well known. Opel was a bicycle company that started making cars in 1899; General Motors bought it out in 1929, but the Nazi government took control, and GM wrote off its entire investment. In 1948, GM returned and restored the Opel brand. Volkswagen is dominant in the popular market; it purchased Audi in 1964, which eventually led to the formation of today's Volkswagen Group. Volkswagen's most famous car was the small, beetle-shaped economical "people's car", with a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine. It was designed in the 1930s by Ferdinand Porsche upon orders from Adolf Hitler, who was himself a car enthusiast. However, production models only appeared after the war; until then, only rich Germans had automobiles. By 1950, Volkswagen was the largest German automobile producer.  Today, the Group is one of the three biggest automotive companies in the world, and the largest in Europe; and is now part-owned by Porsche Automobil Holding SE.  As of 2010, seven different car manufacturers belong to the industrial concern: Volkswagen, Audi AG, Bugatti Automobiles SAS, Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., Bentley Motors Limited, SEAT, S.A., Škoda Auto, along with commercial vehicle makers Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, MAN AG and Scania AB. During German reunification West Germany incorporated non-large (near 200 thousands per year) production of Wartburg, Trabant cars and IFA trucks in East Germany.
  With annual output near 6 million now, Germany is absolute leader of auto production in Europe since the 1960s, and in World was the third during the 1970s – middle of the 2000s and fourth now (concedes to China, United States and Japan only).
caption: Volkswagen assembly line, Wolfsburg, in 1973
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