History Horrors

Sometimes the vehicle designs that put a smile on our face while shopping for a new car have a past drenched in blood.

Hitler, the savy economic brainstormer, wanted a vehicle for the people. One that everyone could afford. That is is you were a pure German I guess. Those Jews could just walk on foot.

He called Ferdinand Porsche into his office back in 1933 to discuss his “people’s car.” You might recognize the name Porsche since it is now a status symbol car bought by people who have not opted for the other ostentatious status symbol: “The Hummer.”

Porsche was already experimenting with a vehicle similar to what Hitler described at the time of his conference. The idea was simple: make a car that the average German citizen could afford and was efficient with gas mileage. Porsche then finalized his design into the Volkswagen Bug. The one we associate in the sixties with hippie love.

In America, The Bug has been embraced as if it were designed in the states, a pop culture icon. So American in fact that Disney created “Herbie, The Love Bug.” No one seems to have acknowledged that it was actually “The Anti-Semite Bug.” The word has gotten out as of late due to The History Channel who every month or so seems to run all Hitler documentaries, including one on Hitler’s relationship with Porsche.

It’s true that you can’t deny the people innovative engineering and technology just because it was implemented by a war mongering madman. It’s simply interesting that a cheerful vehicle with personality like The Bug was pushed onto the assembly line by a guy who was the antithesis of everything we feel about “the people’s car.”