19. Birth of a People’s Car
The low rate of German car ownership made the country a huge potential market for an affordable automobile, and many sought to take the lead by launching “people’s car” projects (volks wagen in German). One such was Ferdinand Porsche, a famous racecar and luxury automobile designer, who sought to interest manufacturers in his small and affordable family car concept. In 1933, Porsche built a model, a forerunner of the VW Beetle, which he named the Volksauto. It had a torsion suspension and a beetle shape, with a rounded front hood for better aerodynamics to compensate in part for a small air-cooled rear engine.
When the Nazis came into power, Hitler jumped on the “people’s car” bandwagon, and in February, 1933, just weeks after becoming Reich Chancellor, he announced plans for a “people’s motorization”. In 1934, the Fuhrer issued a decree to produce a basic car that could transport two adults and three children at 62 mph, at the cost of only 990 Reichsmarks – about U$ 400 in the 1930s. Hitler fell in love with Porsche’s design, but Germany’s auto industry could not produce a car for that price in its existing plants. So Hitler ordered up a state-owned factory to produce the Volkswagen.
