The Development of the “People’s Car” Volkswagen = VW.

Ferdinand Porsche (born inVratislavice near Liberec in 1875 – died in Stuttgart in 1951) was an excellent engineer who gained fame thanks to his high capacity racing cars – the eight cylinder SS and SSK cars produced for Mercedes Benz between 1923-32, a racing car for the Targa Florio race, a monoposto nicknamed “Silberpfeil” with a revolutionary construction and a mid-engine designed for the Automobile Union in 1934. He also worked on building a “people’s car”. He developed the car named “Sascha” for Austro-Daimler between 1921-22, between 1926-28, models W02 and W15 for Mercedes Benz, and in 1933, Project 32 for the NSU company. In 1934, Porsche met Hitler. They got on quite well, given that Porsche shared Hitler’s vision of a people’s car (Volkswagen – VW), something which had appeared in the writings of the Transportation Ministry and Propaganda Ministry:

The people’s car was 4 m in length and had the following specifications:

1. average petrol consumption below 8 litres per l00 km
2. steady driving speed of 100 km/h
3. an air-cooled engine so that water would not freeze in winter
4. a price of at most 1000 Reichsmarks (a BMW motorbike cost 1600 Reichsmarks)
5. room for 3 adults and one child
6. sufficient storage
7. the possibility for military utilisation

It’s likely they were friends. Rumour has it that Porsche once invited Hitler for supper, saying: “I’ve left you some sausage and beer. Does that suit you?” During a journey from the Russian front, Hitler took Porsche on board instead of one of his generals. Commenting, he said: “I have a lot of generals but only one Porsche”.

In 1934, Porsche signed a contract with the Reich Automobile Association for “motorization of the German nation on the basis of collective work with the best intentions”.

In 1936, Porsche visited the USA where he studied “mass automobile production”.

The country planned yearly production of 300,000 to 500,000 cars. In order to meet the requirements of this demanding assignment, Porsche tried two-cycle and four-cycle motors, two, three and four cylinder motors, flat engines and in-line engines. The upshot of these experiments was an ingenious motor. The VW 82 engine was an air-cooled, four-cylinder, four-cycle motor located behind the rear axle. This conception, with only minor modifications, was then used for the popular VW Beetle until 2003. In connection with this concept, the friendship between Porsche and Hans Ledwinka, the chief builder for the Tatra Kopřivnice Automobile Company, is cited. Porsche worked there too. The fact is that VW cars produced between 1934 and 1936 are similar to the prototype of the people’s car, the Tatra V 570 (the first Tatra car with the motor in back: a two-cylinder, flat air-cooled engine with a cylinder capacity of 854 cubic cm and a rack-and-pinion steering system, a very modern feature for the time), Bill by Hans Ledwinka between 1932 and 1933. This is a builder who had already been hard at work on a people’s car at Tatra since 1920.

The Škoda Mladá Boleslav Company showed prototypes of two people’s cars in 1932, the Š 932 (produced in two pieces), following the same conception – a flat, four-cylinder air-cooled motor of 1500 cubic cm capacity, located at the back, whose front section was very similar to the future VW Beetle car and Mercedes-Benz 130H.

In 1936, the Mercedes Company introduced the first cars using the VW concept (V1, V2, V3), whose shape corresponded to the draft drawn up by Porsche and Hitler, and later developed into models 130 H and 170 H.

In 1938, Hitler laid the foundation stone of the VW plant, which manufactured KdF cars. The acronym “KdF“ stands for Kraft durch Freude (power through enjoyment), which was an abbreviation for the people-oriented programme, of very broad scope and became an instrument of propoganda. It included full employment, sports activities, recreation, a car for everybody, etc. The car body was produced by the Ambi But company. Stocks of the VW company had been sold before the company was finished to those who planned to buy a car –the stocks thus served as vouchers for the car, so to speak. 300,000 of these stocks worth 990 Reichsmarks were sold, which amounts to a total value of 280 million Reichsmarks. Some interested parties were saving 5 Reichsmarks per week. In the years from 1938-1939, 210 KdF cars (VW – 60) were manufactured but these were assigned to party officials. The war meant that people’s cars were no longer a priority and the KdF VW 82 chassis was produced only for combat cars. After the war, there were many unfilled “vouchers” that were recognized by the company, which subsequently delivered the post-war Beetle to the vouchers’ owners.

The KdF 82 (Kubelwagen – nicknamed “Kaďour” in this country) is a light all-terrain vehicle with 2 rear wheel drive (2×4 drive), one of the most successful cars of the post-war era. The design of Ferdinand Porsche beat other marks (those of BMW, Mercedes, Adler and others) and was utilised for military purposes. Some of its properties surpassed its American rival, the Jeep Willis.

The chassis-less car body uses an auxiliary frame. About 51,000 automobiles that were various versions of this model were produced, and tradition has it that an average life expectancy for this car on the front was calculated at 3 days. That meant there was a necessity to produce large numbers of these vehicles. As the production speed accelerated, many features of the car were simplified – e.g., welding of mudguards for the chassis and so on.

The amphibious brother of this car was denominated KdF 166 (Schwimmwagen – known as “Vodník” in this country”). It was similar in concept to theKdF 82 but had four-wheel drive (4×4 drive), a different model of body and an ancillary folding screw propeller for riding on water. It was produced between 1942 and 1944, with a total production number somewhat under 14,300 units.

The chassis of the “Vodník” KdF 166 car (4×4 drive) was also used between 1941 and 1944 for the production of several short series of command vehicles with KdF 87 designation, a modification of the future Beetle.

Altogether about 564 military vehicles with the “Beetle” body were produced during the war, while only about 630 units of the non-military version of the Beetle were produced in the same time.

For the KdF 82 model, the army paid 2780 Reichsmarks, while the amphibian KdF 166 cost 4200 Reichsmarks.