The VW Beetle's Sinister Beginnings

Driving a vintage VW Beetle is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Perhaps it's the strangely angled steering wheel that recalls driving a delivery wagon, or the distinctive "putt-putt" sound of the rear-mounted air cooled engine. Everything about them was designed to be as simple as possible. The first post-war Beetles were made near Wolfsburg in 1945, and by 1971 over 1.3 million of the happy-looking little cars were being churned out each year. German production ceased in 1978 (supplanted by the Golf), but the original Beetle was manufactured in Mexico until 2003 - a stunning 58 year run.

What many people don't realize is that this charismatic little car has a decidedly sinister history.

Irving Robbin explains in the Antique Digest: "It all began at the end of the summer of 1933 when Ferdinand Porsche was summoned to the Hotel Kaiserhof in Berlin for a meeting with Hitler. Porsche had an outstanding reputation as an engineer. He had been chief designer for Daimler-Benz, Auto-Union, and now had his own engineering consultation firm. In a private conference, Hitler told the engineer his plans for a car.

It should be small, perhaps a four-seater, have a good durable engine, get 40 miles to the gallon, and be air-cooled since most Germans did not have garages. In 1933, Hitler had described the modern Volkswagen! He even called it a Volkswagen - the people's car - and stipulated that it sell at a low price. Porsche then asked for an idea of the price. With laughter the dictator answered, 'At any price, Herr Doktor Porsche. Any price below 1,000 Reichsmarks!' "

What Hitler might not have known was that Porsche had already designed several small rear-engined cars that bore a striking resemblance to the eventual Beetle. This is his second attempt, the NSU Typ 32, built in 1932. There's something incredibly Herbie-like going on here:

Building a car for less than 1,000 Reichsmarks seemed like an impossibility to Dr. Porsche - it was approximately 1/3 the price of a mass-produced North American car. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that in 1938 Hitler was able to announce the imminent arrival of the KdF-Wagen (KdF stood for Kraft durch Freude - Strength through Joy) -- a vehicle that could be purchased with the equivalent of only 8 month's salary.

A purchase scheme was announced which allowed workers to contribute 5 marks per week toward purchasing the car. It's doubtful that anyone ever received a car through this scheme. The outbreak of World War II saw the people's savings redirected into the war effort and wartime production was a mere 640 cars - and most of those went to ranking Nazi officials. The factory was retooled to produce a jeep-like variant - the Kubelwagen. No one dared complain too loudly, for fear of attracting the attention of the Gestapo - the Nazi secret police.

Ironically, the Beetle was reborn from a ruined car factory in 1945 under British control. Ownership of the Volkswagen company was eventually transferred to the West German government, and production increased from a mere 9,000 cars in 1947 to a stunning 575,000 cars by 1959. The people's car had finally arrived.