From an idea to a world of experience

It’s almost twenty-five years ago now that we first opened our doors on 1 June 2000. We’ve created a new chronology to follow the road we’ve taken from an idea to a centre of experience on public display free of charge in the Piazza basement. Learn about how we grew in design and architecture from the initial project planning phase to the present and explore selected highlights and background info about our theme park.

Our chronology comes in four sections:

Town history

We’ll be starting with a look at the history of the town of Wolfsburg and the Volkswagen factory. Historical photographs from 1940 and 1964 show how a predominantly agrarian region developed into an industrial location.

Autostadt – the vision

Ferdinand Piech had a vision of a company presence for Volkswagen AG at the company headquarters, a vision that became reality at the Expo 2000 World Exhibition held in Hanover. The goal was to bring people to Wolfsburg, to ensure top quality in delivering new vehicles to their customers, and to establish the base as the group's communications platform.

Urban space and architecture

The Kollerachse architectural strip and city bridge connect the automobile town of Wolfsburg to the 28-hectare VW site, harmoniously integrating the site into the town’s townscape. The automobile-themed park itself was designed as an architectural ensemble. This part of the chronology shows designs and sketches of the pavilion architecture.

Highlights

Selected highlights from almost twenty-five years of Autostadt include a number of outstanding events in its history. Construction at Autostadt began in 1998 before the grand opening in 2000, then came Mondo Club, off-road track construction, an award as outstanding location for extracurricular learning, the Movimentos festival weeks, the third Michelin star at our Aqua restaurant, and so much more. This chronology ends with a look into the present with summer concerts, the Future of Motion exhibition, and the newest pavilion at Autostadt dedicated to the Volkswagen R brand.