Classic Volkswagen History

t the 1933 Berlin Auto Show, Adolf Hitler announced his plans of coming up with a small car, affordable by the average people in Germany. This statement was made with the intention of gaining the support of the people of Germany to his regime. Legend states that just before making the announcement to the world, Adolf Hitler approached Ferdinand Porsche (who was working as an auto consultant after offering his expertise to the leaders like Daimler-Benz and Auto Union) with his intention of a small car.

The car, according to the demands set by Adolf Hitler, had to be a four-seater that was capable of cruising at 62 mph for a 33 mpg besides being air-cooled. He called it as the "Volkswagen', meaning the "people's car." The biggest challenge that Hitler placed before Porsche was his demand for the car to be priced below 1,000 Marks.

The speech at the Berlin Auto Show was followed by Hitler's order for three prototypes of the new car within the next ten months. As Porsche, who had, in between designed a small car that more or less coincided with the demands set forth by Hitler, he concentrated his efforts in modifying these designs to meet the requirement.

In the year 1935, in the midst of his new blueprint, Porsche visited America to evaluate and learn on the assembly line production adopted by GM, Packard and Ford in manufacturing.

Later in 1936, Porsche submitted the three prototypes of the new car after putting it forward to a number of road tests to check for its stability and reliability. Erwin Komenda, the chief engineer of Porsche, was the one behind the design of the car, which is known as the "Beetle" today.