A superb and rare photo of the 1951 Volkswagen Beetle
, and in Germany known as the Volkswagen Käfer ( VW
Bug in English).
The
Volkswagen Beetle, officially
known as the type 1, and originally called in German ‘Käfer’, is an economy car
produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen (VW) from 1938 until 2003.
Although the names "Beetle" and "Bug" were quickly adopted
by the public, it was not until August 1967 that VW itself began using the name
Beetle in marketing materials in the US.
In most countries the Beetle is known as either the "Type I" or as
the 1100, 1200, 1300, 1500, or 1600 which had been the names under which the
vehicle was marketed in Europe; the numbers denoted the vehicle's approximate engine size in cubic centimetres.
In 1998, many years after the original model had been dropped from the lineup
in most of the world (production continued in Mexico
until 2003), VW introduced the "New Beetle" (built on a Volkswagen
Golf Mk4 platform) which bore a cosmetic resemblance to the original. Starting
in 1931, Ferdinand Porsche and Zündapp developed the "Auto für
Jedermann" (car for the everyman). This was the first time the name
"Volkswagen" was used. Porsche already preferred the flat-4 cylinder
engine, but Zündapp used a watercooled 5-cylinder radial engine. In 1932, three
prototypes were running. All of those cars were lost during the war, the last
in a bombing raid over Stuttgart in 1945.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler gave
the order to Ferdinand Porsche to develope a "Volks-Wagen" (the name
means "people's car" in German, in which it is pronounced, a basic
vehicle that should be capable of transporting two adults and three children at
a speed of 100 km/h (62 mph). The People's Car would be made available to citizens of the Third
Reich through a savings scheme at 990 Reichsmark, about the price of a small
motorcycle at the time (an average income being around 32RM/week). Erwin
Komenda, Porsche's chief designer, was responsible for the design and styling
of the car. Production only became financially viable, however, when it was
backed by the Third Reich. War broke out before the large-scale production of
the "People's Car" could commence, and manufacturing capacity was
shifted to producing military vehicles. Production of civilian VW automobiles
did not start until after the post-war occupation began. Initially called the
Porsche 60 by Ferdinand Porsche, it was officially named the KdF-Wagen when the
project was launched. The name refers to Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through
Joy), the official leisure organization in the Third Reich. It was later known
as the Type 1, but became more commonly known as the Beetle after World War II.
Prototypes appeared from 1931 onwards. Much of the Beetle's design was inspired
by the advanced Tatra cars of Hans Ledwinka, particularly the T97. This car
also had a streamlined body and a rear-mounted 4 cylinder horizontally-opposed
air-cooled engine. The Tatra V570, a prototype for a smaller car, also shows quite
a resemblance to the later Volkswagens. Tatra launched a lawsuit, but this was
stopped when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. At the same time, Tatra was forced to stop producing the T97. The
matter was re-opened after WW2 and in 1961 Volkswagen paid Tatra 3,000,000
Deutsche Marks in compensation. These damages meant that Volkswagen had little
money for the development of new models and the Beetle's production life was
necessarily extended. In occupied Germany,
the Allies followed the Morgenthau plan to remove all German war potential by
complete or partial pastoralization. As part of this, in the Industrial plans
for Germany, the rules for which industry Germany
was to be allowed to retain were set out. German car production was set at a
maximum of 10% of the 1936 car production numbers. The Volkswagen factory at Wolfsburg
was handed over by the Americans to British control in 1945; it was to be
dismantled and shipped to Britain.
Thankfully for Volkswagen, no British car manufacturer was interested in the factory;
"the vehicle does not meet the fundamental technical requirement of a
motor-car ... it is quite unattractive to the average buyer ... To build the
car commercially would be a completely uneconomic enterprise." The factory
survived by producing cars for the British Army instead. The re-opening of the
factory is largely accredited to British Army officer Major Ivan Hirst
(1916–2000). Hirst was ordered to take control of the heavily bombed factory,
which the Americans had captured. His first task was to remove an unexploded
bomb which had fallen through the roof and lodged itself between some pieces of
irreplaceable production equipment; if the bomb had exploded, the Beetle's fate
would have been sealed. Hirst persuaded the British military to order 20,000 of
the cars, and by 1946 the factory was producing 1,000 cars a month. During this
period the car and its town changed their Nazi-era names to Volkswagen
(people's car) and Wolfsburg, respectively. The first 1,785 Beetles were made in a factory near Wolfsburg
in 1945. Following the Army-led restart of production, Heinz Nordhoff was
appointed director of the Volkswagen factory, under whom production increased
dramatically over the following decade, with the one-millionth car coming off
the assembly line by 1955. During this Post-war period, the Beetle had superior
performance in its category with a top speed of 115 km/h (71 mph) and 0-100 km/h (0-60 mph)
in 27.5 seconds on 7.6 l/100 km (31mpg) for the standard 25 kilowatts
(34 hp) engine. This was far superior to the Citroën 2CV and Morris Minor,
and even competitive with more modern small cars like the Mini of the 1960s and
later. The engine fired up immediately without a choke. It had tolerable
road-handling and was economical to maintain. Although a small car, the engine
has great elasticity and gave the feeling of better output than its small
nominal size. During the 1950s, the car was modified progressively: the obvious
visual changes mostly concerned the windows. In March 1953, the small oval two
piece rear window was replaced by a slightly larger single piece oval rear
window. More dramatically, in August 1957 a
much larger full width rear window replaced the oval one. 1964 saw the
introduction of a widened cover for the light over the rear license plate.
Towards the end of 1964, the height of the side windows and windscreen was
slightly increased giving the cabin a less pinched look: this coincided with
the introduction of a very slightly curved windscreen, though the curve was
barely noticeable. The same body appeared during 1966, with a 1300 cc engine in
place of the 1200 cc engine: it was only in the 1973 model Super Beetle that
the beetle acquired an obviously curved windscreen. The flat windshield
remained on the standard beetle. During the 1960s and early 1970s, innovative advertising
campaigns and a reputation for reliability and sturdiness helped production
figures to surpass the levels of the previous record holder, the Ford Model T,
when Beetle No. 15,007,034 was produced on 17 February 1972.
By 1973, total production was over 16 million, and by 23 June 1992, there had been over 21 million produced. In 1971, while production of
the "standard" Beetle continued, a Type 1 variant called the Super
Beetle, produced from model year 1971 to 1979 (1302s from 1971 to 1972, and
1303s from 1973 onwards), offered MacPherson strut front suspension, which
required a significant redesign of the front end. This resulted not only in a
better turning radius (despite having a 20 mm
(3/4 in) longer wheelbase), but because of the replacement of the bulky dual parallel
torsion bar beams which had intruded upward into a large area within the trunk,
and the stretched "nose" of the vehicle which permitted the
relocation of the spare tire from a near vertical to a low horizontal position,
this opened up approximately double the usable luggage space in the front compartment.
1972 Super Beetles had a slightly larger rear window, larger front brakes, and
four rows of vents (vice two rows previously) on the engine deck lid. The tail
lights now incorporated reversing lights. The "four spoke" steering
wheel and steering column were re-enginneered to the "energy
absorbing" design for better crash safety.
You
can always contact us for more Volkswagen and other automotive photos!
This
is a very nice and very rare non period photo that reflects a wonderful era of
Volkswagen ‘s automotive history in a wonderful way. This is your rare chance
to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format
of ca. 7" x 12" (ca. 19 x 30 cm). It makes it perfectly suitable for framing.