 It was established in 1961 as Stiftung Volkswagenwerk with a portion of the confiscated assets of the Volkswagenwerk GmbH.With a capital of 2.9 billion euros, as of 2016 it is the largest German scientific foundation.Since its founding, it has distributed 4.2 billion Euros in grants for over 30,000 projects, and now funds new projects at the rate of 100 million euros per year.