More than 6.5 million were made and many are still on the road today all over the world.
Ironically, one of the most successful motors ever built was actually concieved as a sketch in a pocket notebook.
It was inspired by the general-purpose wagons that ferried parts around the VW Beetle factory just after the Second World War.
The original van was not actually Volkswagon's brainchild but that of VW's Dutch importer Ben Pon, who drew the first sketches of the camper van in 1947.
The camper can make a convincing claim to being the world's first multi-purpose vehicle when the earliest version was launched in 1947. With the driver and passenger enjoying an uninterrupted view from the forward control cab and the air cooled, flat four "boxer engine" sited in the rear, the acres of space in between offered a huge load area.
The workhorse van was quickly developed by designers into a micro-bus making it arguably the world's very first people carrier too.
After the micro-bus came the camper van itself in 1959
That was another pioneer-this time of mobile homes.
The VW camper started off in very basic fashion with folding beds and a tiny cooker, sink and refridgerator.
Families holidayed in them, friends loaded them up with sports gear and tripped-out hippies painted theirs in cool, psychedelic colours.
Reliable as clockwork at a time when cars regularly broke down or failed to start, the VW camper was economical and dependable.
It might have been flawed, with a wimpish 1,192cc engine, vague steering and a non existent heater, but no-one seemed to care.
The camper had the vital X-factor--- that certain something that turns imperfect vehicles into much loved icons of their time.
It brought out the gipsy in sensible people who quit perfectly good jobs to set off in their VW campers to travel around the world.
Despite production ending many years ago- except in Mexico- Camper vans remain a perfect escape for motorists wanting to turn their backs on the problems of modern living and set off into the sunset.
You can pick one up for as little as £1000, while a pristine camper "Sambo" van could set you back as much as £15,000.
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