The Early History Of The Beetle

The Earliest Beginnings pt.1

THE WORLD'S MOST SOLD CAR

Three people are responsible for the Volkswagen Beetle being the most purchased vehicle in the history of the automobile. Adolf Hitler, who conceived the idea of a car cheap enough for the German working man to afford, Ferdinand Porsche, who created the distinctive air-cooled rear engined design and, in the post war years, Heinz Nordhoff who turned the Hitlerian dream into a reality.

Porsche goes alone with the Volksauto

After working for Daimler Benz and Steyr in the 1920's, in 1930's Ferdinand Porsche founded his own design and engineering firm, he received his first commission, from the German automaker Wanderer.

Oddly enough, the design for this 1800cc sedan bore the designation Type 7- some assert the number was meant to impress clients with the experience of the firm's design team, although it hardly seems likely that Porsche's credentials could be suspect after his successes in the preceding decade.

The Zundapp type 12, a scaled down Wanderer

The design of the Wanderer was not revolutionary; in fact, it was similar in appearance and size to other small sedans of the time. It was certainly more conventional than the car design Porsche developed for the German motorcycle manufacturer Zundapp in 1931, the type 12.

Anxious to broaden Zundapp scope, Dr. Fritz Neumeyer commissioned Porsche to build a prototype car What emerged was the Type 12, a small sedan with a five cylinder 1.2 litre radial aircooled engine mounted in the rear, a stipulation demanded by the motorcycle manufacturer that proved less than ideal. Neumeyer soon realised he had grossly underestimated the costs of creating a new car and pulled his support from the project before Porsche had made any real progress with the design.

Porsche was fortunately able to resurrect the Zundapp design in 1932 when another motorcycle manufacturer, NSU, approached him about producing a car. With the hard-won experience of the Type 12 project, Porsche was soon able to build the Type 32, a fully functional prototype that avoided many of the mechanical problems of the earlier car. The NSU car retained the same layout as its Zundapp predecessor, but in place of the radial five-cylinder engine was a horizontally opposed four cylinder 1 litre unit.

Unfortunately for Porsche, contractual agreements with Fiat forced NSU out of the carmaking business, leaving Porsche only the prototype to show for its efforts.

The NSU Type 32

Both the Zundapp and NSU cars foreshadowed the later Volkswagen design-indeed, the visual similarity between these two and the Peoples' Car? prototypes is unmistakable. Dr Porsche was certainly aware of other experiments similar to the VW design. Other manufacturers, notably the Czech company Tatra, had already combined an air-cooled four cylinder engine on a central-tube chassis in the T11 and T12 cars produced in the twenties and early thirties, and Edmund Rumpler had patented swing axle designs as early as 1903. Even Mercedes-Benz had experimented with a rear engined car-the TA 20H in 1927 while Porsche was employed there.

Ferdinand Porsche must certainly receive credit for refining in these various ideas into an affordable mass-production car.

The NSU Type 32 earlier shot with no rear window

Porsche gains Hitler's backing

Below, Ferdinand Porsche shows the model to Adolf Hitler of the car which was to eventually become the VW. What Hitler wanted in his Peoples Car?: it should have a top speed of 100km/h (62mph), a fuel consumption of 7 litres per 100km (approx 42mpg), it should be able to carry 2 adults and 3 children, it must be air-cooled and above all should cost no more than RM (Reichsmarks) 1000 (£86).

Hitler views the people's car - and what is thought to be a sketch by him

Porsche's first reaction was to turn the idea down, however he accepted and it was allotted the Type 60 number in his design register and the first drawing were dated 17th April, 1934. Hitler disliked them, with the NSU Type 32 inspired front and bonnet-mounted headlights, so he sketched a new front which was subsequently adopted.

Hitler, a keen car enthusiast himself (though he didn't drive) said: It should look like a beetle, you've only got to look to nature to find out what streamlining is?.

Hitler's sketch and the 1933 Type 32 Porsche created for NSU with a 4 cylinder air-cooled boxer engine, (horizontally-opposed) and Porsche's patented torsion bar suspension (from which the Porsche company has drawn royalty payments ever since). This car was to be the basis of what was to become the VW although Porsche experienced great difficulties with the design. The backbone chassis (originally with a wooden floor, but this evolved into a proper metal platform ), torsion bar suspension and general body profile were quickly resolved.

A chassis from the VW30 prototype	inspired - the flat 4 E engine

The main problem lay with designing a cheap, satisfactory power unit. The Type 32 motor was dispensed with on the grounds of cost, weight and fuel consumption. A series of unsuccessful engines were built. A Vertical four, a variety of twins with sleeve and overhead values found to be excessively noisy. However a new Austrian recruit Franz Xavier Reimspiess came up with a four cylinder boxer motor which was relatively quiet and cheaper than the twins in development. This 984cc over-square four is substantially the same design, refined and used to power over 20 million Volkswagens. Reimspiess was also responsible for the world famous VW monogram.

In 1935 two Prototypes, The VW3s were built in the double garage of Porsche's home at 48-50 Feuerbacherweg, Stuttgart. Because he had no workshop facilities at 24 Kronenstrasse where he had set up his consultancy business in December 1930 after a long and distinguished career in the motor industry. He worked there, with a team of collaborators as a consultant and constructor for other companies, such as the recently formed Auto Union (Horsch, Audi, Wanderer and DKW) and Mercedes-Benz. To give his business the all-round technical expertise it needed, he made sure that certain key people were with him, people he had worked with and grown to respect using his long years in the motor industry.

The VW3 (1935) - in Wolfsburg

Under the new order, Porsche was to lay down the ideas and rough concepts, while the rest of the team filled In the details and made it work. His colleagues included Josef Kales, an air cooled engine specialist; Karl Frohlich, a transmission expert; Karl Rabe, who had been his chief engineer at Austro-Daimler; Josef Zahradnlk for axle and steering design, and Josef Mickl, his aerodynamics adviser. Mickl at 45 was the oldest member of the team and Ferry Porsche, Ferdinand's son, was the youngest at 21. For a short time, there was also a business manager by the name of Adolf Rosenburger but being Jewish, he was forced to flee the country in 1933.

The two 1935 prototypes, the VW3's, were joined by three further experimental ones in 1936 and this trio powered by Reimspiess's new engine, were handed over to the German Automobile Manufacturers Association for a punishing 30,000km test programme. This meant covering 750km (466 miles) every day, with the varied route including parts of the Black Forest, the Alps and a long stretch of the new Autobahn between Stuttgart and Bad Neuheim.

The demanding schedule soon revealed some shortcomings in the design. The most serious being, fractured cast iron crankshafts (adopted because of cost). These were replaced by stronger ones from Krupp; but they also fractured. It was decided to dispense with the feature and conventional forged crankshafts were ordered from Daimler-Benz. Less seriously, some gear levers broke and there were problems with electric fuel pumps, so a mechanical one was later standardised.

January 1937 the Manufacturers Association issued a report generally favouring the VW design, however it believed the car couldn't be manufactured for the projected RM 990, and to be honest „ the association, made up of well known German motor manufacturers who usually made luxury cars, rather hoped this mad people's car idea would quietly go away.

The VW30 from front and rear. This model really tested the mechanics and shape of the peoples car

Hitler had other ideas and from May 1937 the Volkswagen became a state-funded project and the responsibility of the German Labour Front, an organisation which had taken the place of the abolished trade unions. The Front immediately made available RM 500,000 and Daimler-Benz was commissioned to produce a further batch of 30 cars, the VW30's, at this point. The bonnet mounted headlights were gone and the true beetle shape was formed.

On their completion a second series of tests similar to the one supervised by the Manufacturers Association were undertaken by members of the SS. Once these tests were successfully completed Erwin Komenda finally refined and simplified the car's styling.

Next month we move on to the final prototypes of the people's car.

1938 VW38 wooden mock-up

January 1937 the Manufacturers Association issued a report generally favouring the VW design, however it believed the car couldn't be manufactured for the projected RM 990, but was prepared to take the concept over. Hitler had over ideas and from May 1937 the Volkswagen became a state-funded project and the responsibility of the German Labour Front, an organisation which had taken the place of the abolished trade unions.

The Front immediately made available RM 500,000 and Daimler-Benz was commissioned to produce a further batch of 30 cars. On their completion a second series of tests similar to the one supervised by the Manufacturers Association were undertaken by members of the SS. Once these tests were successfully completed Erwin Komenda finally refined and simplified the car's styling.

Komenda first created a wooden mock up that brought the final form of the Peoples car as we all know and love.

A rear window had not be included in the original design but this was incorporated by the Reutter coach building firm in the winter of 1937/38. A divided window was introduced and, with the output of the engine's cooling fan boosted, the number and size of louvres were reduced and located below the new window. At the front a one-piece boot cover, similar to the Type 32, was installed. Also, for the first time, small running boards were featured, the VW3 and VW30s had become very dirty during testing. Here at last, was the Volkswagen in its completed form. Another batch of 44 cars of this final design were ordered from Diamler-Benz and at the same time the engine capacity was increased by 1cc to 985cc.

One of the few surviving examples of the VW 38 series (chassis number 3803) owned by VW and used by Ferdinand Porsche until 1945. It is possibly the very car Hitler was driven to Fallersleben Railway Station by Ferry Porsche after VW Factory foundation stone laying. Most of the German car industry was located in the south of the country. Aware of the fact that Henry Ford built his factories close to the sea, canals or rivers to give ease of access for materials or exports, Hitler chose a site on the banks of the Mitteland Canal in the north of Germany near the village of Fallersleben.

Porsche has already been sent to America in 1936 and 1937 to study production techniques and to woo back skilled German personnel who had emigrated to America. In addition, orders for machine tools and manufacturing equipment were placed with American Companies. In May 1938 as Adolf Hitler ceremonially laid the foundation stone at the factory site, he announced the name of the new vehicle (to the horror of Porsche) as the KdF-Wagen. KdF stood for Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy), and the planned town to house the factory's workers was to be named Stadt des KdF-Wagens (Town of the Strength through Joy Cars).

A KDF saving book

In August 1938, Labour Front chief Robert Ley announced the only method by which the public could acquire one of the new cars. The KdF could only be bought on a hire purchase system but the car would be sold when the final - rather than the first - payment was made. A savings book would be issued on receipt of RM 1 fee and this would be considered the equivalent of placing an order for the car. The basic version would cost RM 990 (£85) a version with a roll back sun roof would cost RM60 (£5)) more.

There was only one colour (in line with Ford's Model T: "You can have any colour as long as it is black) and that was blue-grey. In addition there would be a RM 200 (£17) fee to cover two year's third party and part comprehensive insurance. The idea was that there would be no agents or middlemen, and customers would have to travel to the factory to collect their cars. If this was not possible an additional RM 50 (£4) delivery fee was charged. By the end of 1938 the Labour Front had received 169,741 applications, a figure that was eventually to rise to 336,668 ordered units.

Porsche approached the Labour Front to produce a competition version of the KdF-Wagen but was turned down as it was not "in the spirit of a utilitarian Peoples Car". So he pushed ahead on his own with a design of a coupe with a mid-positioned water-cooled V10 engine which incorporated no KdF-Wagen parts. Then the authorities recognised the a sports design based on the KdF would provide good publicity. Porsche was authorised to proceed with the concept with a view to running the car in the projected Berlin-Rome-Berlin road race in September 1939. Three examples of the Type 64 were built, closely following KdF chassis and engine layout. The power unit however was boosted from 22 to 50 bhp with larger valves, twin carburettors and higher compression ratio.

However the plans for both the race and to put the KdF-Wagen into mass production at the end of 1939 ended with Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1st. Two days later Britain and France declared war. Porsche however had a Type 64 as his personal transport and used it on those deserted wartime Autobahnen. It represented the first stirrings of the Porsche marque destined to blossom in the post-war years as the Porsche 356 of 1949, the first real Porsche sports car and Ferry Porsche's first great work assisted by Karl Rabe, his father's "right hand". On the 15th August, 1940 the first KdF-Wagen left the production line. At this stage the Porsche Type 60 designation was dispensed with and the car was re-titled the VW Type 1. A few cars were manufactured up until 1944, but wartime output only totalled 640 units. They were mostly distributed among the higher echelons of the Nazi Party, from Hitler downward.

Forunner of the Porsche - The VW 60K10 built for a Berlin-Rome rally, which never took place.

The final part of the early VW history relies on the victors of war, and the foresight of the British authorities that took over a ruined car factory in 1945, the story started with the genius of Porsche and the dubious ambition of Adolf Hitler, but the all but extinguished flame that is the beetle was rekindled, ironically, by the British army.

THE WAR YEARS

The wartime Beetle, the Kubelwagen

In February 1940, a vehicle far more suited to the state of war, based on the KdF-Wagen chassis, entered production. The Kubelwagen (or bucket car, named after its seats) had its origins back in 1934 when the German Automobile Manufacturers Association, in a document relating to the Type 60's carrying capacity, added as a postscript that it should have sufficient room for three men, a machine gun and ammunition.

The 1937 proto Kubelwagen

In 1937 a spare VW30 chassis was crudely modified to take three seats and a machine gun. In 1938 a more refined version with canvas doors was under going tests in the Stuttgart area. This was rethought in 1939 and a more angular unit with steel body work was constructed. A number of these Type 62s were built and saw action in Poland, the first theatre of war. The Kubelwagen was largely the work of Ferry Porsche. It was found that the Kubels lowest speed was 8km/p (5mph) - about twice the desired speed which was geared to how fast a soldier could walk with a full pack. This was remedied by Porsche by retaining of the KdF-Wagen's gearbox intact but adding reduction gears in the rear hubs, the front suspension was also modified by lowering the position of the stub axle. This reduced the Kubels speed to an acceptable pace and also raised the ground clearance.

The 1939 second Kubelwagen prototype	Another 1939 model - closer to the production version

Pproduction during the war years totalled 50,435 which was small in comparison to the production of the Jeep, the Allied equivalent, which totalled 639,245. Derivatives of the Kubelwagen followed, including the amphibious Schwimmwagen of which only 14,283 were built. The air-cooled Kubelwagens performed well in the deserts of North Africa and the sub-zero temperatures of the Russian front. Rommel ordered 500 Kubelwagens specially modified for desert conditions with a protected ignition system and a larger than standard air filter. But due to an administrative error, the consignment was sent to Russia and Rommel had to make do with the standard model. These were fitted with smooth tires, which were better suited in sand, of the type used on aircraft undercarriages.

The amphibious model, the Schwimmwagen

Like all German companies capable of mass production and in addition to KdF-Wagen related production, the VW factory produced wings and fuselages for the Junkers Ju 88 Bomber along with spares for BMW aero engines. Large quantities of stoves for troops bogged down in the Russian winter were also manufactured. In March 1943 Volkswagenwerk began production of a pilot less aircraft, receiving about £125 for every V1 it produced, although a projected target of 500 per month was never reached.

Due to the aircraft contracts being undertaken, on the 8th April, 1944, the American Eighth Air Force undertook the first of six bombing raids on the factory. Because of its location, exposed and easily pinpointed three quarters of the works was completely destroyed. The Allies reached the nearby village of Fallersleben on the 10th April, 1945. They didn't enter KdF-Stadt because it was not marked on their maps. Incredibly for VW a stroke of luck, the factory fell within the British military zone.

The french take delivery of post war Beetles

In 1944 the Porsche design bureau was moved to the safety of Gmünd in Austria and continued there until the war ended in 1945. When hostilities ceased members of the Porsche family were lured back to Baden Baden in the French military zone of Germany and were asked to design a "Peoples Car". No sooner had they arrived than a rival political party won power and they were arrested for assisting the German war effort. It took Porsche's daughter, Louise Piech six months to free Ferry Porsche and until 1947 to extract her father Ferdinand and her husband Anton, who had been assisting in the French "Peoples Car" project. (Professor Ferdinand Porsche died January 1951 aged 75 years.)


Source:  Wheelspin