Thinking Small: The Long, Strange Trip of the Volkswagen Beetle

by Andrea Hiott

  12.8. “I just snuck”: Scorsese, No Way Home.

  Chapter 13

  13.1. “Tree Frog”: in German, Laubfrosch.

  13.2. “The one will be too heavy”: L. Betz, Das Volksauto. Rettung oder Untergang der deutschen Automobile-industrie (The People’s Car: Salvation or decline of the German auto industry). Stuttgart, 1931, 45, 73. Sachs, 43–44.

  13.3. gathering some of the best: Porsche would have some of the best engineers in the world working with him: Karl Rabe, Josef Kales, Erwin Komenda, Karl Froehlich, Josef Mickl, Josef Zahrednik, and Franz Xaver Reimspiess. All of these men deserve books written about them, and all of them are the true creators of the People’s Car, for Porsche relied on them and they worked as a team. It was Reimspiess that made the logo, the same VW still uses today.

  13.4. Adolf Rosenberger, investor and account for Porsche: Adolf Rosenberger was Jewish and would resign when Adolf Hitler was elected to office in 1933. Rosenberger left Germany, though Porsche still employed him for some time as their “foreign representative” in the United States and in France. The Porsches and Rosenberger would continue to argue over finances. Rosenberger would claim that the Porsches had not paid him what he was owed. The Porsches would claim to have helped him flee and to have been giving him money even when he was no longer working for them. After the war, Rosenberger wanted the firm to give him money under the table; they would not. In the end, the Porsches gave him a new Volkswagen, and legally paid him a smaller sum of money than what he’d asked. Rosenberger moved to California and stayed there the rest of his life.

  13.5. The first projects of the Porsche design firm went toward a midsize, two-liter car called the Wanderer.

  13.6. The design of the car’s body came in large part from Erwin Komenda.

  13.7. Tatra: Much later, long after Porsche and all his designers were gone and after the torsion bar had proven to be an asset in the Volkswagen, Tatra would sue VW over this issue, and win. Hans Ledwinka and Tatra played a big role here. Once one starts looking deeply, however, there are examples of “Beetle-like” cars all over the place from around this time. So many people were experimenting with so many of the same ideas, options, and tools. Porsche and his engineers most certainly used a lot of what they saw around them, especially the very advanced Czech companies like Tatra. In the end though, for whatever mysterious reason, there was only one car that became the Bug.

  Chapter 14

  14.1. “The motor vehicle”: Sachs, 47. From Hitler’s speech on 11 February 1933.

  14.2. Goering would later oppose the idea of the Volkswagen, claiming it would nationalize private industry and hurt the country in the end.

  14.3. “No symbolic groundbreaking”: Sachs, 48.

  14.4. “Just as horse-drawn vehicles”: Die Strasse, 1939, no. 20, 242.

  14.5. “The erasure of stubborn differences”: Sachs, 53.

  14.6. widespread construction of the first modern highway: The first bit of autobahn did not come from Hitler but from the Weimar Republic, but Hitler was the first to make it into a program and to actually build the plans that had been made. Mussolini had also attempted to build highways.

  14.7. “Nothing to cramp or delay you”: Sachs, 52. From W. Bade, Das Auto erobert die Welt. Biographie des Krafwagens, Berlin, 1938, 316f.

  14.8. “German car makers have made”: Motor, 1935.

  14.9. “It should look like a Beetle”: This is attributed to Hitler in various books about the Beetle, but with no references, only word of mouth. “Wie ein Maiekaefer soll er aussehen. Man braucht nur die Natur zu betrachten, um zu wissen, wie sie mit der Stromlinie fertig wird.”

  Chapter 15

  15.1. Mercedes: Created by Daimler, this was always Hitler’s favorite car, the one he was sure to be seen in around town. The car had been named after Mercedes Jellineck, the daughter of Emil Jellineck, a former patron of the company and a wealthy and influential Jew.

  15.2. Auto Union race car: Giving them race-car funds was one of the best moves Hitler could have made. Porsche’s Auto Union Type C race car would become one of the most famous race cars in German history. The government’s annual funding would also lead to the famous Silver Arrows, the racing cars that dominated the European races from 1934 until the outbreak of war. In those years, Germany was clearly emerging as a dominant automotive power again. An issue of the magazine Der Nürburgring filled its front cover with a photo of him: “Adolf Hitler, the patron of the German motor car,” it read.

  15.3. Kaiserhof Hotel: Very famous Prussian hotel. It used to be close to the Reichskanzlei and was a sign of power and prestige.

  15.4. For the hardcore VW fans: I have used slightly different dates here than Chris Barber does in his very excellent book on the Beetle. There is no definite date (the month, we know, but we don’t know which came first), and in my research, the way I have presented these meetings is the way that made sense with the documents I found. Barber puts Werlin’s visit after the Exposé was mailed.

  15.5. “In my opinion, a people’s car does”: Porsche Musuem, FP and the VW, 15.

  Chapter 16

  16.1. “chess match for power”: Kershaw, Location 4899.

  Chapter 17

  17.1. “Well, I suppose there’s nothing”: Porsche gets different phrases like this attributed to him in his biographies. They are all paraphrases. See Nelson, 40–41.

  17.2. “Who is a Jew”: Goering is often quoted with this phrase, though it was a popular one at the time and probably did not originate with him. Many Germans had Jewish friends or acquaintances who didn’t count for them as “real Jews.” Karl Lueger, the mayor of Vienna who Hitler so liked when he lived there, once said something quite similar when the press asked him why he talked so badly of Jews but then still had friends or dinner partners who were Jewish businessmen.

  17.3. “There can be only one Volkswagen”: Hitler/Domarus, 880.

  17.4. “the most significant public monument in America”: Brinkley, 291.

  17.5. The Porsche plant: Hawranek, Der Spiegel Online, 21 July 2009.

  Chapter 18

  18.1. “a psychologocial balance”: Hitler documentary, Fest.

  18.2. ——— “We will not lie and we will not cheat”

  18.3. “Germany needs and desires peace”: Arendt, 37.

  18.4. “Let there be no doubt”: Hitler speech from 1937 Auto Show.

  18.5. extended learning trip to the United States: A member of the DAF, Bodo Lafferentz, was sent with them as well to watch over things and a man from Porsche’s workshop, Dr. Feuereisen, a man who would later work for VW and be an engine of the service department, was also with the group.

  18.6. “without having to be supervised”: Ferry Porsche, 107.

  18.7. German banker unaware of war: “Little of this sentiment was really understood on the German side. A German banker visiting the City of London in May 1939 was mystified by the endless talk of war and the evident preparations for its imminent arrival.” Overy, 356.

  18.8. “There are 75,000”: Ghislaine Kaes’s “Lecture on the Trip to North America by Dr. Ing.h.c. Ferdinand Porsche in 1936,” given 29 January 1937. Recorded in VW’s Place of Remembrance.

  18.9. “Automated operations require”: Otto Dyckoff, Place of Remembrance, 26.

  Chapter 19

  19.1. “an unscrupulous criminal”: Hitler, speech from 1939 Auto Show.

  19.2. “sense of spaciousness almost unmarred by interior columns.” “The building drew attention as a harbinger of a new era in industrial design. Factories would no longer be doomed to the look of ‘old prison workshops’ …,” Brinkley, 136.

  19.3. “visually with the center of town”: Rosenfeld, 89–115.

  19.4. ——— “considered this axis”

  19.5. “Chianti bottle and dagger ruled”: Nelson, 78.

  19.6. to help Germans save their money: The car was being advertised for 990 marks. In reality, the car would have cost each person closer to 1200 marks due to hidden added costs such a
s a “delivery fees,” which made little sense as customers were expected to travel to Wolfsburg and pick up the cars themselves.

  19.7. “nothing would induce him to pull the trigger”: Ferry Porsche, 7–8.

  Chapter 20

  20.1. Hoover: He did not allow direct and obvious intervention in the domestic market, but he did set up some potential solutions that FDR would later capitalize on. Hoover’s real mistake, however, was to allow direct intervention in the international market by greatly restricting international trade, a move that had devastating economic consequences.

  20.2. “After all,”: Fireside Chat, 12 March 1933.

  20.3. “Politics was the first big business”: Bernays, Propaganda, Location 889.

  20.4. German government became openly totalitarian: There was also a slide toward paranoia, which added a new level of violence and horror to industrial relations. Hitler was afraid of leaks about the People’s Car, for instance, and jailed one Opel exec after his trip to America because he thought the man had given away the secrets of the car. Porsche and his team would eventually be told to smash all the original VW prototypes to keep them out of enemy hands.

  Chapter 21

  21.1. “One stated: After what has happened there …” All Ranicki quotes here are from The Author of Himself, 39, 40. Phoenix Books, London, 1999.

  21.2. This conversation between Porsche and Hitler is reported in various books, though of course none of us knows the exact words, it was something to this effect.

  Chapter 22

  22.1. “Through night and blood”: Clausewitz, Location 14.

  22.2. “Until four-thirty this morning”: Roosevelt, Radio Address, Location 3413.

  22.3. “That Hitler came into political existence”: McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964, p. 262.

  22.4. “You, the people of this country”: Roosevelt, Fireside chat, 3 September 1939.

  22.5. The National Association of Manufacturers, NAM, had formed in a previous cycle of recession at the end of the 19th century as a way of supporting foreign export.

  22.6. “Even a neutral”: Roosevelt, Fireside chat, 1939.

  22.7. “Tonight over the once peaceful roads”: FDR, Fireside Chat, 1940.

  22.8. Bertrand Russell: In an open letter to Russell at the time he was removed from his position in NYC, Albert Einstein wrote his often quoted phrase: “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

  22.9. “We are now in this war” FDR, Fireside chat, 1941.

  22.10. “Private industry will continue to be the source”: FDR, Gearing up for the war in 1940 chat.

  Chapter 23

  23.1. Chauffeurska: Hitler’s close inner daily circle was in large part comprised of his drivers. Hanfstaengl called this “sycophantic entourage” his Chauffeurska. Kershaw, Location 5801.

  23.2. “I belonged to a circle”: Speer’s testimony, Nuremberg, Germany, 7–19 June 1946.

  23.3. “With the success of a sleepwalker”: Reuss, page 215, translation of Mommsen.

  23.4. “I think you have a rather good idea there”: Ferry Porsche, 145.

  23.5. Speer was right about the organization having a lack of standards or efficient rules. Only in 1944, for example, would the Volkswagen factory be officially designated as the prime car manufacturer for the Nazis.

  23.6. Porsche also courted by Stalin: Porsche knew Russia firsthand because he had been invited there by Stalin. He accepted the offer, was given a tour of their country and industry, and was even offered a job as the director of the development of the Soviet auto industry, a job which he had considered taking but eventually declined, saying he did not want to leave his home, or live in a country where he could not understand the language.

  23.7. “working towards the Fuhrer”: Kershaw explains this beautifully in his books on Hitler, but basically it was the idea that anyone in the country always had the feeling that in their everyday acts they were doing what was best for the country and since Hitler was the symbol of the country, he embodied that country and one did everything that would please him.

  23.8. Nordhoff at Opel’s Brandenburg plant: It was here that the air-cooled engine of Porsche’s VW also made it into Nordhoff’s life once more: It had once been thought that Hitler did not like this particular engine, but now the Nazis had decided air-cooled engines were best for war, and thus the truck factory was encouraged to design a truck that could use one. An air-cooled engine for a heavy-duty truck was impractical so Opel engineers developed one that used both air and oil to keep itself cool: Oil absorbed heat from the cylinder barrels, but the heads were cooled by air. This truck never made it into mass production, however, but its design gave Nordhoff quite a headache.

  23.9. “The future looks dark”: Heinrich to Charlotte: 12 August 1943, Privatarchiv Barbara Cantacuzino. Edelmann, 61.

  23.10. “He is a real genius”: Taylor, 26.

  23.11. “Hitler drove around the country”: Trudl Junge, 71.

  23.12. “At most a half-dozen men”: Ferry Porsche, 141.

  23.13. Mein Kampf from loudspeaker: Niemand Wusste was Morgen sein würde. Wolfsburg, Volkswagen AG, CD 1, Title 3.

  23.14. Women workers at VW: Some women arrived pregnant. Many others got pregnant while working there. In one of the more horrific crimes of the time, 365 children would eventually die, most before the age of one, in connection to camps such as these within the town. The doctor overseeing the factory nursery would later be sentenced to death.

  23.15. Burned his foot by holding it to a hot stove: “Under no circumstances could I continue living this way. Since I was rejected each time I reported myself sick because (as the ineterpreter told me) neither blood nor any injuries were visible, I thought out a plan. In the middle of the night while everyone was asleep, I went to the red-hot stove in the hut and pressed my left foot against the back of it utterly fearlessly … The next morning I reported myself sick and was certified unfit to work on the huts … Since I was working in the kitchen, I began to regain some of my strength.” Cesare Pilesi, Place of Remembrance, 72.

  Chapter 24

  24.1. “anguish and disbelief and bewilderment”: Ferry Porsche, xi–xiv.

  24.2. Ferry and Hitler: Ferry, though he at times cooperated with the Nazi government to a great extent, was leery of Hitler, but he would later write in We at Porsche that he’d always been impressed with Hitler’s automotive skills: “… here, I thought, was a man who had taken the trouble to study and understand this particular problem of the Volkswagen. He asked a surprising number of technical questions, all of which made good sense.” Porsche, 91.

  24.3. Indiscriminate bombing: The Japanese bombed Shanghai civilians in 1937, before Hitler began ordering bombs dropped on civilian targets.

  24.4. “The German people celebrate the Führer’s birthday”: Goebbels speech on Hitler’s birthday, 1943.

  24.5. ——— “Confidence is”

  Chapter 25

  25.1. “If the war is lost, the nation will also perish”: Hitler to Speer, Hartrich, 31.

  25.2. ——— “all industrial plants, all important electrical facilities, waterworks, gasworks, all stocks of food and clothing, all bridges, all railways and communications installations.” 31.

  Chapter 26

  26.1. Images of destroyed Germany: from Spiegel documentary films and archival footage, especially Die Stunde Null.

  26.2. “England would be chained”: Rasmussen, 88.

  26.3. “a certain American aircraft company”: Walker, Harper’s, 1946.

  26.4. “with a few modifications”: Turner, 165.

  Chapter 27

  27.1. Hirst: The thoughts I give to Hirst here are taken from his own recollections that can be read in full in the Volkswagen publication Ivan Hirst.

  27.2. “constructive pragmatism”: This term is borrowed from Changing Lanes, a publication from the archive of VW that they have made available in English as well as German.

  27.3. The Works Council: An important
part of German history, and of the Volkswagen factory. In Germany, trade unions have a partner or counterpart called the Works Council. A Works Council, or Betriebsrat, is made of elected workers from a company and functions as a representative body for the workforce and meets with trade unions as well as with the executives of the company to negotiate and discuss whatever issues (economic or social) might arise. They are elected for four-year terms, and they can come from any trade union affiliation or political party, and no outside labor group affiliations are necessary for them to be elected. Works Councils were first legally recognized in Germany after the First World War in 1918. With the Works Councils Act of 1920, the name became official as a law was passed requiring all business enterprises with more than 20 employees to set up a Works Council. 1n 1930, Germany had more than 150,000 different Works Councils registered. In 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor, all those Works Councils were thought to give too much control to the workers, a threat to the greater authority, and all of them were subordinated to a new arm of the Nazi Party called the German Labor Front, or DAF. The German workers were not happy about this, and some of the Works Councils continued “under the table” and at their own risk. Works Councils resumed again after the war.

  27.4. It was all the workers could do: According to Volkswagen records, 938 cars were created in February and 1,052 in May. The British and Their Works, 24.

  27.5. ——— “Ten thousand cars and an empty stomach”: The original reads: Mehr und schmackhafteres Essen, sonst können wir vieles nicht vegessen! 10,000 Wagen, nichts im Magen, wer kann das vertragen?”

  27.6. “There was one genuine currency”: from documentary George Marshall and the American Century.