The Volkswagen Beetle — the curvy car developed at Adolf Hitler’s direction that became an improbable symbol of the hippie counterculture of the 1960s — is set to become a thing of the past.

Volkswagen said this week that it will end production of the vehicle in July. Sales of the model by the German carmaker’s United States unit, the only division still turning out Beetles, had declined sharply in recent years. The unit plans to focus on larger family cars instead.

Volkswagen is ending production of the Beetle some seven decades after the car was first designed, concluding a journey in which it became one of the carmaker’s most recognizable models.

The original Beetle was designed for Hitler in the 1930s. At the time, only wealthy Germans could afford to buy cars, and it was supposed to make automobile ownership accessible to all. Hitler spoke at the dedication of the gigantic factory where the Beetle was built and took a ride in a convertible version.