PJ Media

Ronnie,

Thanks for the reply – I am indeed impressed by your encyclopedic knowledge of automotive design. Thanks also for clarifying that you were not responsible for the offensive title. Do you not understand that your entire premise was tainted at the outset by that? Paul Schilperoord has no such excuse, you know what his take is, and in my opinion, well, you know.

On a historical note, (h)itler was pure evil, but how could he have had anything to do with “stealing” Ganz’s work? Name any Ganz innovation that wasn’t already being used by others prior to (h)itler coming into power in 1933. The future can’t change the past. Ganz is certainly not responsible for the concept of the people’s car, that was all Ford. If Ganz had never lived, (h)itler would still have issued his call for the KdF-wagon, Ledwinka pitched the idea to Tatra in 1921, but they wanted to work the high end of the market. It was an obvious, common idea.

If the premise is that Ganz was a talented designer, ignored by history, because he was (J)ewish and German in the mid 1930s, OK, and that’s a shame, it should be rectified. If you indeed want to go further and say that he was responsible for several important innovations that contributed to the design of the VW and other similiar cars in the ’30, doubtless that is the case. But when you say that the he, not Porsche, designed the Beetle, and that it was stolen from him, I feel the need to comment (at length). Given your automotive background, you know what is involved in the engineering of a car and it’s manufacturing processes. Ganz did not design the beetle, period.

The Beetle’s design was ingenious in so many details, details that were not in evidence in Standard superior, although, in certain aspects, perhaps that can’t be said for the Tatra T97. I just don’t accept the idea that were it not for (h)ilter and the evil Ferdinard Porsche, deadheads would be driving standard superiors yet today, which is what the title seems to imply.

Am I motivated to defend Dr. Porsche? You bet, I happen to agree with many others that he was the Car Engineer of the Century. When you look back over his career and the number of huge innovations, he deserves the honor. The first petrol/electric hybrid at the turn of last century? If Ganz designed the beetle, I guess Porsche designed the Prius (a future article perhaps?).

Porsche was never a Nazi, but after the war, the French jailed him for over a year and half, without trial, to keep him out of the Car business. He was cleared of being a Nazi collaborator, but of course he lost his fortune. Ganz wasn’t the only guy who suffered as a result of Nazis.

You’re giving Hitler credit for making a speech advocating a “volkswagen” at the same auto show where Standard was displaying Ganz’ “Superior Volkswagen”, already in production and on sale

I’m not giving (h)itler credit for anything, as I said previously it was a common idea, Ford was using the phrase a decade and half earlier, but in English of course. If(h)ilter stole the phrase from Ganz, why didn’t he steal the car itself immediately, it was right there, wasn’t it? A particularly weak point in the entire premise.

“Porsche apparently admitted that he had been “looking over Ledwinka’s shoulder”, because Hilter said that was the kind of car he after.”

Hitler had nothing to do with that. To begin with, even Porsche’s defenders claim that he was working on small car prototypes (Zundapp Type 12, NSU Type 32) before Hitler’s 1933 speech

We are speaking of Ledwinka’s work on the Tatra T97, it was under development at the same time Porsche was working on the KdF-wagon. Hitler wanted a car like the earlier Tatra’s and Ledwinka was working on the T97. Another historical note, The German army banned their officers from driving Tatras during the war, they were fast and oversteered badly. Too bad they didn’t have enough for everybody.

It’s picky to quibble about spelling, so I haven’t said anything about your other misspellings

Thanks, only a-holes try to score points just because someone isn’t the best writer in the world. I’m am envious of your writing ability.

It’s interesting that you capitalized Nazi but neglected to capitalize Jew.

Perhaps I spoke too soon, please see note 3 of the posting gudelines (3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.) I have several friends that are Jewish, but not a single one that is a Nazi. If you haven’t been paying attention, I’ve been the one that didn’t care for the whole race/nationality aspect of the article.

So, because Porsche was a gifted engineer he wasn’t capable of moral shortcomings? Remember, we’re talking about a man who used slave laborers in his factory. He was willing to take ideas from Ledwinka, and he was willing to design weapons for the Nazis, but he was too moral to steal from a Jew?

Porsche never owned or operated a factory, he had a design bureau. Did he work on several tank designs for the Nazi? Sure, what would you have done in his place? Refused? If, so you’re a braver man than me, or Porsche, apparently. He was never a Nazi, and was cleared of having been a collaborator.

At the end of the day,(h)ilter could have appropriated Ganz’s design for the Standard Superior anytime he want to, but he didn’t. He wanted something much better and Porsche delivered it. Given the number of Standard Superiors sold something tells me that that thing wasn’t quite where it needed to be on the old supply & demand curves.

I had never heard of Ganz or his automotive contributions, his story deserves to be told. I don’t think that is necessary to cut down Porsche in order to do so. Frankly the story could be told much more effectively by showing how his “automotive visions” influenced the work of one of history’s great designers and history’s most enduring automotive designs.

Having reread your article, perhaps my beef is more with whoever came up with that title and with Mr. Schilperoord’s approach to the Ganz story. To this day, there are those, particulary in Europe, who try to take the credit from the Wright brothers.

BTW, swingarm axles and trailing arm, torsion bar fronts are very much alive today in off road racing. The strength of the swingarm axles far outweighs the camber problem, the tires aren’t going to sit all that square in that terrian anyway. The trailing arms have the unique property of not only moving up and down, they swing back and away, which cushions the impact and helps to climb over whatever they hit. Those features, with the rear engine, are why there are dune buggies and sand rails. VWs were more than cute.