The evolution of the Volkswagen Beetle is a convoluted tale of political intrigue, engineering genius, and a conviction that the car could be a success. It could have been "killed off" by a small handful of people at several critical points in its history and the fact that the car survived after 1945 is a wonder unto itself.
The Volkswagen started out from the concepts put forward by several engineers including Edmund Rumpler, an aerodynamicist, Hans Ledwinker of the Tatra Automobile Company, and Ferdinand Porsche.
Ferdinand Porsche had started a design firm after leaving Steyr-Daimler-Puch in 1930. Many projects were forming and brilliant new ideas were at hand, but Steyr- Daimler-Puch was not the place for Porsche to pursue his ideas. Once free of te company, he designed a fully independent torsion bar suspension and was granted a patent for it in August 1931, little knowing it would prove to be one of the most innovative suspensions of the twentieth century.
His first automobile design commission, a large two-door sedan with cut-away sloping rear-bodywork, was for the Wander Automobile Company. Porsche did the engineering and Edwin Komenda drew up the body design at Porsche's new Stuttgart studio. The project fell on hard times but Porsche was determined not to let the hard work go to waste. The rounded aerodynamic lines of the design were carried into a light car project for the German motorcycle manufacturer Zundapp the following year.
The project went one step further with a new rear-engined prototype in 1932. The body wrapped down sharply at the rear, covering a water-cooled, five-cylinder, 1.2 litre radial engine which was mounted behind the axle. It was designed around a backbone chassis with independent suspension using a transverse leaf up front and torsion bar swing axles in the rear. These design elements eventually flowed into the final VW design.
At the same time, there were other forces playing heavily into this event which Porsche never envisaged. With a flurry of party banners and a slurry of dogmatic words, Hitler came to power in 1933.
Part of Hitler's political platform was to create a dream for the future of Germany. The country was an economic wreck, hurt by the demands for reparation from World War One, and global depression. Germany needed jobs and industry and Hitler had plans to provide both.
Part of the plan followed Henry Ford's creation of the Model T and Hitler's assumption that roads would be needed to carry the cars. His first, most enduring - and least tragic - plan was the building of a set of "Autobahnen" - motorways. This project was to have a multifold effect: creating tremendous employment across the country and lifting the economy to a level where people could afford to buy the "people's car".
At his first cabinet meeting, Hitler introduced his plan for the Autobahnen and "people's" car. Long on vision but short on engineering realities, Hitler laid out a list of requirements. The roads were to follow the same engineering ideas that the Italians had used with their "autostrade" motorways. Eventually, this network of roads stretched over 2500 miles.
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