(March 9, 2010) WOLFSBURG, Germany — This year the Autostadt, which was opened on the June 1, 2000, is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and a new record was reached on Feb. 25 when the number of visitors topped 20 million.

Instead of honoring the 20 millionth individual guest, the Autostadt decided to donate 20 000 Euros to the relief operation founded by the board of the Volkswagen Group together with the Montfort Missionaries for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

The Autostadt is an attraction adjacent to the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg with a prime focus on automobiles. It features a museum, pavilions for the principal automobile brands in the Volkswagen Group, a customer center where German customers can pick up new cars, and take a tour through the enormous factory, a guide to the evolution of roads, and cinema in a large sphere.

It is also home to the largest glass doors in the world and the longest printed line. The line starts from outside Wolfsburg and travels through Autostadt to a point on a farm. It is about 4 miles long.
 
The decision to open an automobile theme park in June 2000 saw the beginning of a very unusual success story. Otto Ferdinand Wachs, the Autostadt’s CEO comments: “The Autostadt’s continuing popularity throughout the last 10 years proves quite categorically that its underlying founding vision, to launch a new form of communication between Volkswagen and its customers with the aim of intensifying the relationship both quantitatively as well as qualitatively, has proved successful. The Autostadt has continued to develop from its beginnings as an innovative experiential world concentrating on mobility as its theme and has, in the course of its existence, established itself as one of Germany’s leading tourism destinations”.