Camping with a VW-Bus in Germany (1952)

In the 1950s, West German society became increasingly motorized: the number of passenger cars in use rose sharply from 515,608 in 1950 to 4,066,000 in 1960. The growing popularity of camping was a direct result. Between the early 1950s and 1957, the number of campsites in the Federal Republic tripled from 200 to 600. Between 1958 and 1961, overnight stays at campsites also increased threefold. The photograph shows a Bavarian family in front of the popular Volkswagen T1 bus, one million of which were built between 1950 and 1962. Photo by Hanns Hubmann.

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© Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz / Hanns Hubmann