Yeah... Ferdinand Porsche and Hans Ledwinka knew/admired/stole each other's designs...
Hitler was very enamored by Ferdinand Porsche(& his son Ferry). Hitler was a very big fan of Ferdinand Porsche way before Hitler came into political power.
It was Hitler's idea of a peoples car... the so called Volkswagen. Hitler wan't to give the project to Porsche... but MB and the other German car makers wanted a piece of the action. So a contest was born. Hitler had indeed drawn up some early sketches of his idea of a "people's car"... then everyone started up with their renders. The "contest" was between Mercedes, NSU, Tatra, Porsche(which became knows as the KdF wagen, which in turn became VW)...
From what I remember... the car had to travel at least 120 kph(for Hitler's new idea, the Autobahn) it had to get at least 10liters per 100 kph(or about 24 mpg) the car had to be cheap(I think under 5,000 Reichsmarks (RDM)) and the car had to be able to drive 100K kms(60K miles) without any major work. Mercedes was adamant that such a car couldn't be built. Dr. Porsche disagreed.
Hitler sent his SS men to ride along with the development engineers. I remember reading in Ferry's autobiographical... "Car are my Life"... that Ferry remembers how each night after testing the KdF Beetle on the Alpina roads/passes... that he would round up some pretty girls to keep Hitler's guards entertained(over dinner) while Porsche's mechanics would sneak outside to the cars and make repairs such as new sparkplugs or service work... all under the guard's noses. lol This was one way Porsche was more clever than the other auto makers of its time. Porsche had no love for those "other" car makers since he had worked for a lot of them before setting up his engineering firm!
I don't remember who's idea it was... but someone thought up a savings booklet for normal people to order a car. You just had to purchase these special KdF stamps in order to purchase a car. It was a sort of War Bond - program... only thing was not one car was delivered this way!
Here are some archived pics from the "people's car"...
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NSU wagen...
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Mercedes 170H...
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Mercedes 170H...
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NSU wagen...
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Hitler's KdF Wagen later renamed the Volkswagen(people's car)...
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KdF stamp savings card and catalog...
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KdF stamp savings card and catalog...
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Ferdinand Porsche... at his engineering firm in downtown Stuttgart... Now home to AutoMotor und Sport Magazine(from what I heard)...
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KdF test cars on the Autobahn....
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One of the "savings stamps" needed to buy a KdF Wagen under the Nazi's...
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If looks could kill... the "works" garage inside of the Porsche family home...
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Porsche family home on Feuerbacher Weg 48 - 50, Stuttgart...
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Hitler never learned how to drive... that's why you always see him in the front passenger seat(or rear seat) surrounded by his generals...
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a pin given out to party workers who laid the corner(foundation) stone of the KdF Werk or later known as Wolfsburg, factory...
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