The Amazing History Of The Volkswagen Beetle

      Quite by accident, I had a wonderful and funny time yesterday afternoon. I stumbled upon  a long video about the history of the Volkswagen Beetle (Fusca for my Brasilian readers.) If you are curious and want to go in-depth, here is the link:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Beetle

 

     In the 1930's Hitler came to power in Germany. He took note of the low level of car ownership among German people. He was building an ultra-modern highway system for Germany called The Autobahn.

     Hitler was aware of Henry Ford and his pioneering work with the Model T that made car ownership possible for the average US worker. Hitler commissioned a major automaker to develop a car for the average German worker who only earned a wage of 32 Deutsch marks per week.

    The result was a car that we know well-the Volkswagen Beetle. It was a vehicle of great simplicity hiding some incredible innovation. It had an air-cooled engine sitting in the back of the car. Almost 4 decades later, I arrived in Washington, D.C. I was completing my time in the U.S. Navy. I knew that I was in an area with snow and ice. I would need a car that would handle the cold winters. An African American friend gave me some profound and most unexpected advice as follows:

      "Bro' get a Volkswagen."

         I ended up buying the sports version of the V.W. Beetle-the Karmann Ghia. When ice and snow hit the road, the rear-engine rear-wheel-drive car gave me wonderful traction on the roads.

    Only 600 VW Beetles were sold before World War II erupted. The factory was converted to produce military vehicles. At the end of the war, the factory fell into the British zone of occupation. (The Russians kept trying to take over the factory.) Two British Army officers found themselves in charge of the badly damaged factory in Wolfsburg. Major Ivan Hirst was the senior officer. He was not a typical military officer. He was a man of vision. He felt that the German people needed to be rehabilitated. One way to do this was to create a viable auto industry.

    He explored the factory, He found two working prototypes of the VW Beetle. He surveyed the factory in great detail. It was a mess, but the main components were in place. He started to clean up and fix the factory. He convinced the British government to make a big investment to bring the factory back to life. He hired an experienced German auto executive to run the factory. It was a controversial choice. The man had never been a Nazi Party member. However, he had worked for the Nazis producing military vehicles.

    As they say: "The rest is history." Volkswagen Beetles were eventually sold worldwide. Volkswagen is now one of the largest auto manufacturers in the world.