Do you have a voltmeter or just using the idiot lights on the charger? You could have burned/melted either of the battery terminals inside the battery and get no juice out of it. You also could have burned/melted the ground cable where it attaches to the body of the car or engine, or the cable itself. Check that connection and the cable. If you have the pos red wire connected to the battery, you could try a temporary battery jumper cable from the neg battery terminal to the engine block, and see what works. Somewhere you have an open circuit if nothing works at all.

You wrote your battery charger showed a full charge. That should rule out any problems within the battery.

Are you double sure about the fuses? You’ve had to write twice now that you had checked them and they are ok. But it is really hard to believe you could short the main hot wire off the battery and without blowing a fuse.

If you have a locking steering column, you also will likely have a fuse in the main power wire to the ignition switch. I know I do. It will be tucked into the column underneath.

A dash mounted ignition switch may have this also, not sure.

Also not sure if VW’s have a fusible link in the main power wire to the starter. Wouldn’t hurt to look there as well.

PMOSSBERG2012-05-21 18:28:32

A huge long-shot, but I read this on the Samba forum:

…check the fuses and headlight switch. Remember
that the headlight switch controls the headlights AND when you turn the
key for ignition that circuit also runs through the headlight switch. a
bum switch will knock out the engine and headlights.

And while you are inspecting the fuses for the umpteenth time, check ALL the connections, make sure they are tight.

PMOSSBERG2012-05-21 18:35:35

The speedster guys were Tom and Myself. Changed bearings and fixed brakes. All inside of 2 hours. Now on to you, there is a secondary fuse or relay on all original VW. Should be on yours as well its either located near fuse box or in engine compartment to the right. They used to be located behind or under rear seat. Now if you have a ford or cheavy type its in the engine compartment generally on the firewall. Trace the wires from the starter to the small tin can that looks like a film canister and to primary fuse box. the relay is that canister. Check that. Now you might have a secondary fuse box these generally had 4 fuses in one place and then behind the glove or mitten box was a second one this one had 2 fuses in it. Ild start following wires from my starter back. Sounds like a fuse or relay. There was a show on stacy davids garage sunday that talked of this very problem. You really had to arc bad to get this result. Did it hurt.

   with power lead and ground lead.you might try using a continuty checker. Pointed probe with light bulb and an alligator clip. or basic garage light socket with 2 leads.

I would not expect grounding out the positive terminal of the battery at the battery would blow any fuses.  At that point, fuses are no longer in the circuit.  What I would look for is a connection in the negative circuit has opened up.  

Shorting the pos battery terminal to the steering post would not energize the horn or send any current through it, that comes from a positive wire through the horn button. The steering post is a ground.
Like I said above and Al Greig said, a direct short from the pos battery post to ground doesn’t involve any wiring or any fuses, other than the ground cable. There has to be something that burned out on the ground side of the circuit and I think you should start tracing that backwards from the battery, and then also check the connection to the ground wire to the fuse distribution panel if it comes off the same place..

   Going through wiring diagram in manual section switch gets power from the fuse panel. Not like vw wiring. so light switch should be out of picture.  No electrical working at all is major supply or ground issue. Being battery was being charged, was posts and cables cleaned to bright and shinny condition? Oxidation causes a dull gray scale on the posts and cables and sometimes can cause no electricy to flow. If posts were cleaned and are bright and shinny, next to check is poweer getting to starter motor? Regulator? Test light is easy way to check for power  at each component. Check for power at cable attachment and were it ends. Disconnect component place test light between cable and component light should light. If light lights cable is good. Cables sometimes corrode internally and no current will flow. They also sometimes will seperate internally.