When you arrive in Wolfsburg by train, the first thing you see are the four giant brick chimneys above Volkswagen's factories. There is a large blue and white VW sign on the building. There is one of the largest car factories in the world, it says Mother said.
Wolfsburg was built according to plan in the first half of the 20th century, on a clear meadow near the town of Falersleben. Today Falersleben is part of Wolfsburg.
On July 1, 1938, the Nazis named the newly founded city the "KdF Vehicle City near Falersleben." KdF stands for "Strength through Joy" (Kraft durch Freude), and it was an organization that organized leisure and vacations for the working class.
Auto KdF was planned as a cheap offer for the masses - thus as a "people's car" (Volkswagen). But, between 1939 and 1945, almost exclusively military vehicles were produced. Mass production of the legendary VW Beetle, which was based on the plans of KdF cars, began only after the war.
Wolfsburg exists because of the Volkswagen concern, they say in the city that has since become the fifth largest in the state of Lower Saxony. When VW sneezes, the city gets sick.
The end of dreams?
But right now it's hanging over the city crisis of car manufacturers. Europe's largest manufacturer is planning to close its German plant and lay off thousands of employees for the first time in its history.
More than 60.000 people work at Volkswagen. That's almost every other resident of Wolfsburg. Wages at VW are above average. This is good for employees, but bad for the balance sheet of the concern, because Volkswagen pays around 62 euros per hour (including insurance), and that was the most expensive hourly wage in the auto industry in 2023.
With an average salary of 5238 euros (gross), Wolfsburg is one of the richest industrial cities in Germany. Only Ingolstadt, where the headquarters of Audi, which also belongs to the VW concern, is richer.
Christine Resser says that the typical German dream of a house with a garden, a car, a wife and two children is still alive here. She mediates in the sale of real estate.
Photo: Anna Chaika/DWChristine Resser (right) with a Deutsche Welle reporter
The rich years are past
Reser spent her whole life in Wolfsburg. Today, he feels the insecurity that reigns in the city. A lot of workers call her because they want to sell their houses "before they lose value", she told Deutsche Welle.
Others canceled their home purchase contracts before they even moved in. "People are afraid to buy a house, they prefer to hold onto their money until they know what VW will decide," she says.
Last year, the concern made a solid profit of over 18 billion euros and paid out 4,5 billion euros to shareholders as a dividend. But last year, Volkswagen's management launched an efficiency program that should save ten billion euros by 2026 in order to make the concern more competitive.
In August of this year, the management announced that additional cost-saving measures were necessary, including the closing of possibly two factories in Germany and a significant reduction in the number of employees in the homeland, where VW currently employs about 120.000 people.
Silence in front of the factory entrance
On this October afternoon, the soft autumn sun illuminates a large area of the factory. Hundreds of workers leave through entrance 17 after the first shift ends at 14 p.m. They are wearing overalls and sweaters or shirts with the VW logo.
When they arrive at the large parking lot in front of the factory, the mood is bad, almost no one is in the mood to talk to journalists or take photos. After numerous media articles in the past weeks about the crisis in the company, most of them do not want to keep answering the same question.
One still says that the workers fear for their jobs, the other that they only have hope that the future will be better. "We have overcome numerous crises, and we will overcome this one," he says.
How times change
Thanks to the large revenues of VW, Wolfsburg also got rich on the economy tax. But now the city shows signs of economic decline everywhere.
The city center, surrounded by wide streets with plenty of parking, is empty on this sunny afternoon. A few passers-by walk down Porsche Street, but mostly they pass empty storefronts. A few cheap shops and the lights of a casino remain.
Even in the few cafes on the main street, there are not many guests, as could be expected on such a sunny October day.
Giuliano Saliovski says that many of his guests used to come once or twice a week for dinner not so long ago, but now it's mostly once a month.
Saliovski is a refugee from Kosovo, he and his wife opened a hotel and restaurant in Wolfsburg a few years ago and are popular with their guests. Most of them are greeted by name.
The pandemic has significantly reduced the number of restaurant and hotel reservations, he says for Deutsche Welle, "but now there are even fewer." At this time of the year, he says, there were many bookings for Christmas, but this year there are none.
Despite everything, Saliovski still believes that the situation will "turn around". He even plans to expand his business in Wolfsburg and buy another building in addition to the properties he already owns.
Photo: Nadine Mena Micholek/DWSaliovski sees his guests less and less
Will the city become a museum?
The successful years of car production in Wolfsburg can be seen at the Volkswagen Museum in Diesel Street. There is a large collection of old-timers, among which is a Beetle that was produced twenty million times by 2003.
Or the VW mini-bus "Buli", which was a multi-purpose vehicle during the German economic miracle, with which the German "flower-power" generation of the sixties and seventies toured the world.
This museum is a must-see for every tourist in Wolfsburg, and more than 300.000 come every year, mostly because of VW. The so-called Autostadt (car city) covers 28 hectares. It offers an insight into the "world of mobility", where more than three million drivers have taken the keys to their new car.
Grim prospects
But fewer and fewer tourists are coming to Wolfsburg, says a taxi driver in an interview with Deutsche Welle. A few years ago, taxi drivers barely met the needs of tourists and business people.
Is this a sign that Wolfsburg's days as Europe's car capital are numbered? Could it be that Volkswagen, which sold the most cars a few years ago, can't get enough customers for its electric cars, which are supposedly the future of the industry?
The taxi driver has a clear opinion about Volkswagen and its role in the world in the age of the internal combustion engine: "Those days are long gone," he says. "It can only get worse."
