How the VW Beetle started as a flagship of Nazi Germany and went on to become one of the most influential cars of all time
Sales of the Beetle helped bankroll Hitler's regime before becoming a star of the Swinging Sixties
IT’S the end of the road for the iconic VW Beetle – a car which achieved the impossible.
The classic motor, which its makers announced yesterday will cease production next year, started out as a flagship of Nazi Germany.
Its sales bankrolled the horrors of Hitler’s regime.
Yet in the countries which sacrificed so much to end fascist tyranny, the car went on to become a star of the Swinging Sixties.
Hippies adopted the Beetle, daubing it in psychedelic designs and peace and love symbols.
Volkswagen means “people’s car”, and that’s how the Beetle was born in 1938 — as a reliable motor costing less than £100.
The Beetle factory — which had been run using slave labour during the war — was rescued by British Army Major Ivan Hirst.
As sales boomed, Hirst employed Heinz Nordhoff, a German General Motors executive.
Nordhoff improved and updated the design every few years — a pattern now used by every car company.
Most influential
Sales in the UK took off in the swinging Sixties when it became the car of choice for families, young professionals — and hippies.
In the US, a 1959 ad campaign based around the slogan “Think Small” helped to drive buyers — and by 1970 the car sold 570,000 a year.
A 1998 design revamp — actually a reskinned Golf — failed to win over fans.
The rounded old-shape Beetle continued to be made until July 2003 — but now it is finally the end for the car.
In a world moving towards electric engines and self-driving cars, VW is unlikely to bring the Beetle back.
But it will always be arguably the most influential car of all time.
THAT’S NOT ALL, VOLKS
THE Beetle’s history is full of amazing facts. JESS LESTER reveals 12 of the best.
1. Adverts in the 1960s boasted the Beetle could float for 42 minutes – and one sailed from Italy to Sicily powered by a propeller.
2. Unique versions include a $100,000 gold-plated and diamante studded car, one woven from wicker and another carved from wood.
3. The biggest number of people to squeeze into a Beetle is 57 – which is also the world record for a small car.
4. VW would give mums and dads in the US 300 dollars if their baby was born in a Beetle. Over 70 years, it paid out to 403 sets of parents.
5. The Nitro Bug – a modified Beetle – is one of the world’s fastest cars with a top speed of 280mph.
6. They were first sold in the UK in 1952 from a garage in Kent.
7. With more than 21million sales over seven decades, it is the longest-running and most manufactured car of all time.
8. The number plate on the white Beetle pictured on the The Beatles’ Abbey Road cover suggested Paul McCartney had died, wacky ’60s conspiracy theorists believed.
They reckoned the first part of the reg, LMW, stood for Linda McCartney Weeps. The second half – 28IF – supposedly meant Paul would be 28 IF he was still alive.
9. Some of the movies Beetles have been in include The Shining, Quantum Of Solace, Fight Club, Octopussy, Footloose, Transformers and, of course, Disney’s Love Bug films.
10. It was originally known as the Volkswagen Type 1. VW began calling it the Beetle in the late 1960s after the name was coined by a newspaper.
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11. Ferdinand Porsche designed the car in the 1930s for the Third Reich.
Hitler thought offering cars at motorcycle prices would win him support from the working class.
12. Andy Warhol painted ad images of the Beetle in the same brightly coloured style that he used for his famous pop art pictures of Marilyn Monroe.
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