Est-ce que Hitler et Porsche ont volé le design de la Coccinelle à un Juif ?

Josef Ganz, a brilliant Jewish engineer, was producing and selling a nearly identical car three years before Hitler and Ferdinand Porsche introduced their Beetle.

Source: article de Ronnie Schreiber (Did Hitler and Porsche Steal the VW Beetle Design from a Jew?) dans Pajamas Media

Paul Schilperoord is a Dutch automotive engineer, writer, and missionary. His mission is to bring to the world the story of another automotive engineer and writer, Josef Ganz.

Ganz was born in 1898 in Budapest to a German father and a Hungarian mother. He made his career in Germany, where he contributed and edited technical automotive publications, patented and licensed his inventions, and worked as a consultant to automobile and motorcycle companies. He contributed to BMW’s first in-house car design, the AM1, and he worked on Mercedes Benz’s landmark 170 model as well. He was an outspoken and passionate advocate for the concept of a light, simple, inexpensive car that the average person could afford, starting in 1923. He called his concept the Volkswagen and used the name Maikäfer (May Beetle) for the prototypes he made for his client companies.

In 1933, Standard Fahrzeugfabrik introduced the Standard Superior Volkswagen at the Berlin auto show, based on Ganz’ designs. Mechanically, it has a platform chassis with a center tube, a rear transaxle with a horizontal engine, a swing axle suspension in the back, and independent suspension in the front. The body is a simple aerodynamic shape that looks very similar to that of the VW Beetle.

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Schilperoord’s years of research has resulted in his book about Josef Ganz, Het Ware Verhaal van de Kever: hoe Hitler het ontwerp van een Joods genie confisqueerde (The True Story of the Beetle: How Hitler Confiscated the Design of a Jewish Genius). The True Story’s release will be celebrated later this month at a special event coinciding with the Nationaal Oldtimer Festival on the grounds of the legendary Zandvoort racetrack in the Netherlands. Ganz’ 1931 Maikäfer (May Beetle) prototype for Adler will be on display, and Schilperoord will drive it on the track. A complete but unrestored chassis of the 1933 Standard Superior will be on display as well as an unrestored "Swiss Volkswagen," designed by Ganz and built by Rapid in 1946. English and German editions of the book are in the works, as is a documentary film.