History

The German Postal Services

Deutsche Post

Deutsche Post AG, operating under the trade name Deutsche Post DHL, is the world's largest logistics group. With its headquarters in Bonn, the corporation has 467,088 employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide and generated revenue of € 51.48 billion in 2010...

 commissioned in 1961 / 1963 Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...

 to design them a postal van that would suit their needs.

VW started off with the Karmann

Karmann

Wilhelm Karmann GmbH, commonly known simply as Karmann, in Osnabrück, Germany was until 2009 the largest independent motor vehicle manufacturing company in Germany...

 produced (Type 151) Beetle Cabriolet as basis for the van due to its strength in build but later turned to the Karmann Ghia (Type 14) for basis as it was wider.

It was agreed Franz Knobel & Sohn GmbH (later called Westfalia Werke

Westfalia

Westfalia is the designation of various specially converted Volkswagen camper vans. It is named after Westfalia-Werke, the contractor that built the vans, which is headquartered in the town of Rheda-Wiedenbrück located in the Westphalia region of Germany....

) would build the vehicles for VW & the Deutsche Post

Deutsche Post

Deutsche Post AG, operating under the trade name Deutsche Post DHL, is the world's largest logistics group. With its headquarters in Bonn, the corporation has 467,088 employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide and generated revenue of € 51.48 billion in 2010...

, Swiss Post Offices & Lufthansa

Lufthansa

Deutsche Lufthansa AG is the flag carrier of Germany and the largest airline in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried. The name of the company is derived from Luft , and Hansa .The airline is the world's fourth-largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried, operating...

.

Its official name was Volkswagen Type 147 Kleinlieferwagen (small van) but due to its funny and badly proportioned shape it was affectionately called "Fridolin". From 1964 to July 1974, 6139 were produced.

Specifications

Engine: flat 4, 1192 cc, 34 hp (25 kW)

Length: 3970 mm (156.3 in)

Height: 1950 mm (76.8 in)

Wheelbase: 2400 mm (94.5 in)