Wolfsburg

Wolfsburg is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony most known for hosting the headquarters of Volkswagen Group. While the castle that gave the city its name is as old as 1302, the city has been essentially created only in the 20th century around the original Volkswagen factory. It became more of a tourist destination in the 21st, with the creation of Volkswagen AutoStadt, the Phaeno science museum and the opening of a high-speed railway line to Berlin.

Understand
Wolfsburg hosts the worldwide headquarters of the car manufacturer Volkswagen. It was built and founded in the 1930s as a place to live for the employees of Volkswagen (literally: people's car) and the factory still dominates the scenery. While it was founded by the Nazis and Hitler personally loved all symbolism associated with wolves (he interpreted his first name to be related to the word "wolf"), the town only officially got its name after the war being called "Stadt des KdF-Wagens bei Fallersleben" (city of the strength through joy car near Fallersleben) during the Nazi era.

Wolfsburg is a rare case of a German town that was founded in the 20th century (other examples include Salzgitter and Eisenhüttenstadt). It is often ridiculed as bland, generic and without history. The suburb of Fallersleben (the author of Germany's national anthem, Hoffmann von Fallersleben is originally from that town) used to be an independent town and there is a castle, that gave Wolfsburg (literally castle of the wolf) its name. Some of the annexed suburbs predate Wolfsburg proper by centuries and still contain some pretty medieval and early modern buildings. During the 1950s and 1960s Wolfsburg attracted many immigrants and most of them came from Italy, who are still visible in the city today. Some of the Italian quarters have gotten the nickname Castellupo (Italian calque of Wolfsburg) over time. In the 1990s with VW in a difficult economic position and the town still dominated by the car company and little else - not even car parts manufacturers - offering employment or leisure activities the city entered a bit of a slump and both VW and the city government decided to do something about it, founding a jointly owned company ("Wolfsburg AG") to combat the decline, offer jobs in the service sector and pretty up the town. Given that the GDP per capita of Wolfsburg is the highest in Germany (and one of the highest in the EU) and Wolfsburg's population is growing again and has almost reached 1970s levels, the effort seems to have been mostly successful.

The Mittellandkanal and the railway line (which both existed before Wolfsburg was founded) served as primary drawing factors to put Volkswagen there, and still serve as a rough dividing line with most of the plant north and most of the city south of it.

Wolfsburg's location was seen as advantageous during the 1930s as it sat pretty much in the middle of what was then Germany (albeit a bit towards the North) and had both a major railway and a major canal right next to the VW plant. However, German partition cut off much of the eastern hinterland of Wolfsburg and the Autobahn connection of Wolfsburg is still less than would be expected for a major center of car manufacturing.

Wolfsburg also lacks a truly major airport, though VW handles corporate flights through a nearby airfield. According to a tale commonly told by VW workers, the British occupation powers that came after World War II rejected dismantling the plant and taking the patents because they thought the Käfer was a worthless design that would find few buyers and British cars were clearly superior. The Käfer would of course prove to be a major economic success and become the most sold car in the world until overtaken by the VW Golf (its indirect successor), remaining in production until 2001 in Mexico.

Get in
Wolfsburg is easily accessible by road and rail.



By train
The main line rail station is Wolfsburg Hauptbahnhof, Willy-Brandt-Platz 3, and there are regular services to many destinations. There is regular direct ICE service from/to Berlin (in fact some people use the ICE for their daily commute on that route) but for many other connections you'd have to change trains in Brunswick and/or Hanover. Flixtrain serves the city. There are big parking lots next to the train station and you can easily leave your car there for several days.

By road
Take junction 5 off of the A39 and head towards Wolfsburg-Morse.

By plane
While there is an airport close by, it is mostly used by VW and thus chances are for most flights you will fly from Hanover  or Hamburg. Frankfurt airport is also often an option worth considering.

By bus
Regiojet serves Wolfsburg, while Flixbus surprisingly doesn't. Flixbus does however serve many surrounding cities which are in turn served by public transit options to get to Wolfsburg.

Get around
Perhaps surprisingly for a city built on for and by the automobile, walking is the best option. Everything is close to each other in the city and the downtown core is largely pedestrianized. Wolfsburg has a public bus system that will get you to most suburbs and outlying parts of town. There is no light rail or tram, but regular rail service also has stops in Fallersleben (which is part of Wolfsburg, but much older) and several other places.

See
Wolfsburg is quite a modern city having been built, in the main, from 1938 on to house workers from the newly built VW factory. However, its castle dates from 1600 and today houses the Stadtmuseum. It has a rundown of the city's history from 1938, when the VW plant was founded, to the present day. There's also a small regional history museum and two art galleries that host rotating exhibitions.

Buy
Porschestraße is the principal commercial street of the town and was pedestrianized after serving as one of the prime traffic axes in the earlier years of Wolfsburg's history. There are several chains and malls along this road as well as some regular events such as farmer's markets.

Eat
Generally speaking, Wolfsburg has what you'd expect in food for a city of its size. However, due to its sizable Italian descendant population, Italian restaurants and pizzerias are cheap, plentiful and often of amazing quality.

Drink
Wolfsburg is not a university town and as such nightlife is nothing to write home about. There are a few bars, but Braunschweig is where the party's at for the most part.

Sleep




Go next

 * Gifhorn
 * Helmstedt
 * Königslutter
 * Brunswick close enough for some to commute daily, this town's historical centre is a welcome refreshment after the bland architecture of Wolfsburg.
 * Quedlinburg is a short ride on the Autobahn away and can be done in a day trip. Quedlinburg was an important royal residence as early as the 10th century and thankfully survived later centuries pretty much intact.