VW Bus Rolls Out: Icon of Counterculture Freedom
The van that became a symbol of free love and flower power was designed by a Dutch businessman who sketched it on a napkin while watching factory workers load VW Beetles. Ben Pon visited Wolfsburg in 1947 and saw workers using a makeshift flatbed cobbled from Beetle parts—he realized families needed something similar. VW engineers took his crude drawing and created the Type 2, which rolled off the line with its distinctive split windshield and rear-mounted engine. Within two decades, American hippies painted it with psychedelic swirls and drove to Woodstock, but Pon just wanted Dutch florists to deliver tulips more efficiently. The counterculture's ultimate ride was born from watching Germans haul car parts.
March 8, 1950
76 years ago
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