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Battle for the Beetle

Condition: BRAND NEW ISBN: 9780837616957 Author(s): Karl Ludvigsen Format: Paperback Year: 2012 Publisher: Bentley Publishers Dimensions: 156 x 234 x 25 (w x l x h) Pages: 480

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Description: The untold story of the post-war battle for Adolf Hitler's giant Volkswagen factory and the Porsche-designed car that became an icon for generations around the globe. The Volkswagen was the showpiece of the achievements of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. Backed by the F hrer himself, it struck fear into the hearts of all who owned and managed Europe's car industry. Designed to 'out-Ford Ford,' the Beetle would dwarf their efforts with its low price and high production. After World War II what was to be the fate of this odd bug-shaped car and its colossal bomb-battered factory? View picture detail Legend has it that the victors underestimated the potential of the car that would become the automotive icon of several generations, indeed the world's most-famous and most-produced automobile. Karl Ludvigsen's interviews and researches in British, German, American, Australian and Belgian archives prove the contrary. His hitherto-untold story of why and how they didn't get the factory makes revealing and engrossing reading. History buffs and followers of World War II and its aftermath will relish the way Ludvigsen depicts afresh the creation of the VW by renowned and 'untouchable' engineer Ferdinand Porsche, the building of its factory by Hitler crony Robert Ley, 'a notorious womanizer who drank too much,' and the wartime career of the huge Wolfsburg plant as the prime contractor for the jet-powered V-1 flying bomb, the world's first successful cruis