The Story Of Beetle

With over 21 million manufactured in an air-cooled, rear-engined, rear-wheel drive configuration, the Beetle is the longest-running and most manufactured car of a single design platform anywhere in the world.

The Story 

Of Beetle

According to the Hitler Historical Museum, possibly biased, Hitler did design it on a piece of paper or a napkin.Sitting at a restaurant table in Munich in the summer of 1932, Hitler designed the prototype for what would become the immensely successful Beetle design for Volkswagen. However according to practically any other source I could find Hitler commissioned the Beetle to Ferdinand Porsche, and gave design specifications (speed, size, cost)  but the actual work was done by Porsche.

    Impressed by Porsche's design capabilities, Hitler delivered him the design brief of a car that could carry two adults and three children at a speed of 60mph with at least 33 mpg. The price was to be 1000 Reichmarks, not much more than a motorcycle at the time.

The Volkswagen was officially named the KdF-Wagen by Hitler when the project was officially announced in 1938.The name refers to Kraft durch Freude 'Strength Through Joy', the official leisure organization of the Third Reich. The model village of Stadt des KdF-Wagens was created near Fallersleben in Lower Saxony in 1938 for the benefit of the workers at the newly built factory. After World War II, it was known as the Volkswagen Type 1, but became more commonly known as the Beetle.