Volkswagen Beetle 1953

This VW is apparently a Beetle Type 1, produced in 1953. It was on display in the Great Court of the British Museum, London, as part of the exhibition "Germany--Memories of a Nation"--objects from 600 years of German history. We found the show utterly fascinating.

Neil MacGregor, the museum's director and the major force behind the exhibition, gave a superb lecture on it, which you can listen to here:

I owned a Beetle for a year in Switzerland in 1964; I bought it used, so it was probably from around 1960 or even earlier--not much younger than this museum piece (loaned by the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, England).