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Hi,
Not only was Porsche one of Hitler's cronies, but several innovations or designs were attributed to him, which he had little or nothing to do with just to bolster the Nazi Party's position with the People. One such instance was the myth that Porsche was the Father of the Volkswagen.
Actually, the Father of the People's Car (a phrase coined in Czeckoslavakia in 1923 but later adopted by the Nazis) was a designer named Hans Ledwinka working for the Koprivnicka Wagenbau of Czechoslovakia, better known as the Tatra Werks. The model was named the Tatra T-97, and featured a rear mounted horizontally opposed 4-cyl. air-cooled engine and transaxle.
This Factory, and it's designs, lay in the Sudetenland (german speaking area of Czechoslvakia) which was annexed by Germany in accord with the Munich Agreement between Great Britain (Neville Chamberlain) and Germany (Adolf Hitler) in 1938.
Porsche had been commissioned in late 1934 by the Nazi Party controlled Imperial Federation of the German Automobile Industry with 20,000 imperial marks (RM) to produce an inexpensive German Car. His designs were not meeting the requirements of the commission and in 1938, the original plans were scrapped in favor of adopting the captured plans of the Tatra T-97 which was renamed the KdF Wagen (Car). KdF stands for Kraft durch Freude which literally means Strength through Joy - one of the Nazi Party's most popular slogans.
Again, to bolster Party propoganda, Porsche was given credit for the design. But a Tribunal in 1963 ruled that the design was indeed stolen from the Tatra Werks in 1938 and was designed by Hans Ledwinka. Volkswagen AG was forced to pay 3M DM (Deutch Marks) to the heirs of the Tatra Werks owner and Hans Ledwinka. Volkswagen did not appeal the ruling and paid the required restitution. A pic below of a Tatra T-97, and the cover of a 1939 KdF Wagen Sales Brochure - you decide...
Happy Motoring!... Jim'99
Last edited by MNBoxster; 12-05-2006 at 08:50 AM.
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