Hitler Stole His Iconic "People's Car" Design From A Jew

Josef Ganz created and designed the Volkswagen Beetle, new book shows.

Was Hitler's Beetle actually designed by a Jew?
By ELAN MILLER * Jerusalem Post

Until now, it has been widely acknowledged that the ever-popular Volkswagen Beetle has a tainted  history, having been originally designed and commissioned by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. But could the history behind one of the most fashionable production cars ever be more complex? Paul Schilperoord, a Dutch journalist and historian, certainly thinks so.

Schilperoord alleges in his new book Het Ware Verhaal van de Kever ("The True Story of the Beetle"), to be released later this month, that Ferdinand Porsche's iconic Beetle, officially commissioned by Hitler, may well have been taken from a design by a Jewish engineer called Josef Ganz, who never received due credit.

In 2004, Schilperoord picked up an old edition of a magazine called Automobile Quarterly. In it, he discovered an article which claimed that, contrary to popular belief, the Beetle's original designer was not Hitler but rather a Jewish man, Josef Ganz. Intrigued by this assertion, Schilperoord embarked on what ended up as five years of extensive research which ultimately led to him publishing his forthcoming book.

Over the course of his investigations, Schilperoord unearthed the Beetle's true history - one vastly different from the one that the Nazi regime had us believe. Whereas the Nazi version of the Beetle's origins is that Hitler came up with the idea of a "People's Car," a car that would both cost less than 1,000 Reichsmark and simultaneously carry up to five people across the country at speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour.

But Schilperoord's account differs sharply. He claims that Ganz had outlined the Beetle concept a decade before Hitler claimed to have conjured up the idea of the then-revolutionary automobile.

According to Schilperoord, "In 1929, Josef Ganz started contacting German motorcycle manufacturers for collaboration to build a Volkswagen prototype. This resulted in a first prototype built at Ardie in 1930 and a second one completed at Adler in May 1931, which was nicknamed the Maikäfer (May-Beetle)."

Ganz's design was greatly innovative, with features such as an independent suspension system for each wheel, which was "a revolutionary step for the 1920s," Schilperoord notes. With a rear-mounted engine and a unique, streamlined chassis, his car was highly distinctive, too.

Although Porsche and Hitler made no mention of Ganz's contribution, Schilperoord claims that "Hitler's" Beetle, which came into production 10 years later, could only have derived from Ganz's work.

Lacking the financial backing to put his project into action, Ganz was appointed editor-in-chief of a car magazine, Klein-Motor-Sport, and simultaneously took up positions as a technical consultant to both Daimler-Benz and BMW, where he "developed his first cars featuring independent suspension with them," Schilperoord told The Jerusalem Post over the telephone last week.

In 1933, Schilperoord claims, came the decisive moment when Hitler happened to be in attendance at the IAMA (Internationale Automobil- und Motorradausstellung) Berlin motor show in which Ganz unveiled the Maikäfer's successor, the "Standard Superior," which was built by German company Standard Fahrzeugfabrik.

Hitler liked what he saw, and tasked Porsche with the job of creating a similar car, but in line with his anti-Semitic philosophy, "he obscured the fact that a Jew was behind the car's design," Schilperoord told Post.

Schilperoord also claims that there are too many of Ganz's hallmarks to be in any doubt that the Beetle that was eventually mass produced in the 1930s was derived from his original design. "Even the name Volkswagen was originally Ganz's," noted Schilperoord.

Ganz "was already working on the Volkswagen in the 1920s in Germany... already using the name [Volkswagen] in the Twenties," he said.

Later on in May 1933, the Gestapo arrested Ganz on falsified charges, accusing him of blackmailing the German automotive industry. "Hitler had only been in power for a few months and was already setting about arresting people and creating the dictatorship he dreamed about," explained Schilperoord.

Even though Ganz had friends in high places and was released soon after being taken into custody, his career had been dealt a fatal blow. His contracts with BMW and Mercedes were terminated, he lost his job as editor-in-chief at the magazine. The Standard Fahrzeugfabrik, which had recently released a new model with place for a family with two children, was now forbidden to use the name Volkswagen in its advertising; Ganz's livelihood had been destroyed.

If the Nazis were discouraged by the setback of Ganz's discharge from prison, they didn't show it. During The Night of the Long Knives in June 1934, when the regime carried out a series of political executions, with most of those killed being members of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary Brownshirts, an assassination attempt was made on Ganz's life. Fortunately for Ganz, his pet dog, an Alsatian, heard the would-be attacker enter the house and jumped on him, thus saving his master's life.

Not long later, a second assassination attempt was made. Again Ganz had a lucky escape; he happened to be in Switzerland at the time on vacation. When friends warned him that it was not safe to return, Ganz decided to stay on in Switzerland till after the war.

While in Switzerland, Ganz fought to restore his name and claim ownership of the Volkswagen concept, to no avail. Schilperoord claims that even once the war was over and Ganz was free to work on "a new small car for Automobiles Julien, he could no longer compete with the German Volkswagen - his own vision - which was now conquering the world in its hundreds of thousands and within a few years in its millions.

"A weary Ganz," according to Schilperoord, "moved to Australia in 1951 and lived there till his death in 1967. Hopefully now, history will restore his name as the true designer of one of the most revolutionary cars in history."

Photo: Volkswagen Beetle circa 1945-59.

Comments

[Dr. Dave]

So now do we all start driving german cars?

[Yochanan Lavie]

VW Beetles have always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Now I know why- it has a pintele Yid.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Adolf you can't steal my car (apologies Beatles, and Beetles)

Asked a dictator what he wanted to do
He said Abie, I wanna kill Jews
I wanna be evil, and make a big scene
And be an auto tycoon in between

chorus:
Adolf you can't steal my car
Yes you made me wear a star
Adolf you can't steal my car
I'd rather run over you

I told that creep that my designs were good
And he said Abie, it's understood
Working for nothing is all very fine
And I can show you a horrible time

chorus

Beep beep'm beep beep yeah

chorus

I told that creep I can sue him some day
When he said listen Abe I got something to say
I got no car and it's breaking my heart
But I'll steal your design and that's a start

chorus

Beep beep'm beep beep yeah
Beep beep'm beep beep yeah
Beep beep'm beep beep yeah
Beep beep'm beep beep yeah

[Mr. Apikoros]

There are several people who can legitimately claim to be the father of the Beetle.

The earliest was Bela , who designed a prototype in 1925, four years before Gans.

Gans, however, was responsible for the design of the Superior Standard, which looked very much like an early Beetle, and which came to production in 1933. The vehicle sold for 1,590 Reichsmarks, or approximately $600.

The actual VW Beetle didn't go into mass production until after WWII. About a dozen or less were built in 1938.

[Mr. Apikoros]

Pardon my linkage; this is my first attempt at doing so. I wanted to link the word "Barenyi" but succeeded in linking the whole last sentence.

[Hometown Postville]

Yochannan- have missed you lately! A good comeback! Is anyone surprised that Hitler stole yet another legacy of the Jews? BTW history buffs- was Hitler known to adhere to any religious denomination or only his own demented philosophies?

[Yochanan Lavie]

HP thanks. Hitler was raised Catholic, but became an atheist. Nevertheless, he promoted Germanic paganism as an alternative to Christianity.

[Hometown Postville]

YL- that figures! In the school where I work, we are currently studying Elie Wiesel's experiences in the death camps. It's so surreal I can understand why the younger generation sometimes questions if it ever happened.

[ah-pee-chorus]

YL : i dont think hitler ever was an atheist. in mein kampf he wrote,

"The folkish-minded man, in particular, has the sacred duty, each in his own denomination, of making people stop just talking superficially of God's will, and actually fulfill God's will, and not let God's word be desecrated. For God's will gave men their form, their essence and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lord's creation, the divine will."
also, the SS had the inscription "god with us" on their belt buckles. he clearly rejected christianity, but believed in a pantheistic divine providence.
not that it matters all that much, but christians would like to disclaim him and brand him an atheist while the truth appears a bit different. nobody wants him in their camp. including atheists.

[Harold F]

This another article about a nonJew stealing an idea from a Jew. Count Zepplin supposedly stole the of the zepplin from a Jew. What next? The Wright brothers stole the idea of an airplane from a Jew?

[alternative childcare]

Harold F: Why is this troubling to you? The Jews in Europe until the war were an integral part of the science and technology world, look at the German Nobel prize winners before the war. It was perhaps the most assimilated and educated community in Jewish history, with writers, painters, musicians, philosophers, etc. All their work was "Nazified" during the war and their work literally stolen from them (cf the recent exhibit in Frankfurt on Jewish stolen art).
The wright brothers weren't nazis, and what the Jews have done in the US has been appropriately attributed to them.

[Proton Soup]

so... Hitler stole from Porsche, who stole from Ganz, who stole from Barenyi. maybe every good idea, like every joke, is stolen.

[Mr. Apikoros]

Proton:

This is true of most inventions. It's unusual for something to be completely original; typically, there was plenty of research and development preceding a major breakthrough, or inventions can be developed by several different parties, independently. Look at TV. The US, the Russians, and the Germans can all take credit.

In Ganz' case, he had the patents on the Standard Superior, which were stolen by the Nazis. Judge for yourself if the vehicle is in fact a Beetle.

Sure looks like it to me, but there were many cars in the 1930's that had that shape, notably the 1934 Chrysler Airflow.

Note the word "Volkswagen" which means "people's car" was used (generically) in the ad copy.

[tinea capitis]

I love the classic Volkswagen Beetle design prevail forever is a model that everyone around the world recognize their particularity, how good is this issue.

[Jake]

Mercedes was named after the daughter of a jewish man who was marketing I believe Daimler cars in parts of Europe.

The corporate named morphed into Daimler-Benz / Mercedes Benz.

Hope someone an find the name of the man.

[Reese]

Emil Jellinek