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Ich fahr' in meiner kleinen Limousine (I'm driving with my tiny sedan) |
(Many thanks to Dr. Oliver Schnaedelbach for translation.)
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Ich fahr' in meiner kleinen Limousine (I'm driving with my tiny sedan) |
In 1924, when Adolf Hitler was locked up in
Landsberg prison for high treason, he dreamt up a nationwide meshwork of
highways.  Intending
to relieve both unemployment and dropping car sales, he surely was also
aware of the military value of these roads. For his idea as a nation of
car drivers, he needed an affordable small car. Hitler’s first cabinet
meeting after becoming chancellor in 1933 was devoted to the announcement
of the development of just such a car and a year later, Ferdinand Porsche’s
engineering bureau was trusted with the design. Hitler’s ideas about performance
were strict:  capable
of housing two adults and three children, the car should be able to attain
100km/h (62mph) on open roads at a consumption of 8litres/100km (about
40mpg). Allegedly the Führer had also mentioned the typical beetles‘
shape.
To save the weight of a drive shaft the engine was placed in the rear, and the aircooled boxer layout was chosen to economise on the sometimes troublesome water-cooling. In 1938 the first prototypes of the so-called model 60 were on the road. What was missing, was a factory.  Near
Wolfsburg in central germany the Deutsche Arbeitsfront erected a huge factory
complex and the village housing the workers was soon known as KdF-Stadt.
To finance the purchase of the vehicle, every german could pay 5 marks
a week into a savings account typified by stamp-like papers glued into
a booklet. In the end, this money only served to finance rearmament, since
WWII broke out before the first vehicles could be delivered.  The
basic construction then served as a jeep-like "Kübelwagen" or amphibious
"Schwimmwagen" in the armed forces. After the destruction of most of the
factory in air raids during the war, the company was renamed Volkswagen
by the british occupation administration, and KdF-Stadt was now Wolfsburg. |
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