historyWikipedia1937 · Germany
The Volkswagen Beetle began as a 1930s Nazi-era people's car that was never delivered to savers
Volkswagen was founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front as part of the Strength Through Joy program, aiming to give ordinary Germans an affordable car. Ferdinand Porsche designed the basic layout, with an air-cooled rear engine, torsion-bar suspension and a rounded body, and Hitler pushed for a car priced at 990 Reichsmarks. Around 336,000 people paid into a savings scheme, but the project was never commercially viable, and because of World War II none of the savers received a car. After the war, the British Army ordered 20,000 vehicles, and the factory's future was rescued under British administration, turning the car into a postwar success.
The car used an air-cooled flat-four engine mounted at the rear, which avoided the need for a radiator and water system. Its simple, durable design was made in large numbers, which kept the price low once production was in place.
The company's history shows how a state-backed project became one of the best-selling cars ever made. Its wartime use of forced labour was acknowledged by the company in 1998, and it later set up a restitution fund.
Governments have repeatedly backed people's cars, from Ford's Model T to Fiat's cheap models in Italy. Many such projects began as political ambitions and succeeded only when they were rebuilt around commercial production.
One of the first foreigners to drive a Volkswagen was the American war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who used a captured one in Tunisia in 1943.
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