Andrea Hiott, the author of this book did a tremendous amount of research and produced a fascinating book on the creation of the Volkswagen Beetle from its early days as Hilter's People's Car to the revolution it created in the sixties in the U.S.. Remember the hippies, the love bug decorated with flowers and the VW bus, Remember Woodstock.
The story begins with Ferdinand Porsche, who had no formal education but was nonetheless a genius. Like many genius, he was bright but had little social skills and had little patience for people. He worked for many car companies but would only last a few years as his designs were very expensive and he did not get along with his co-workers. By the time Hilter had become quite powerful and influential in Germany. Ferdinant had already started his consulting firm advising companies on car concepts. Hitler's passion and one of the things he wanted for the people of Germany was a car that they could afford but in order for it to be affordable it had to be small. Ferdinand had already been working on a small car and was very well known. Hitler chose Ferdinant Porsche to be the one to create the People's Car and created Volkswagen and gave it to Porsche to run. The small car Porsche created and Hilter was so proud to show off was the car that would become the Beetle. Even in those days, it was very recongnizable as the car we know today as the Beetle or love bug.
After WWII, Germany was very damaged with most of its infrastructure detroyed. The Allies, more specifically France, Britain, the U,S and the Russian occupied Germany and split it in four sectors. They had to decide how they were going to reconstruct Germany. When the Russian started conquering and occupying other countries, France, Britain and the U.S. joined their sectors which would later become West Germany. For many years Volkswagen was under British control and is probably one of the reasons, it still exists today. Some of the other Allies, needed time to be convinced that a strong Germany was better for Europe than an agricultural Germany. But with the Russian threat, they decided to rebuilt Germany into an industrial country and getting a strong ally.
The book goes on to describe the many different people and individuals that made Volkswagen the company it is today. It also talks about the Jewish advertising firm that took them on as a client in the U,S. Created a revolution with their advertising and propelled this little funny looking car into the American conscientness. The round car with the big eyes. Probably the car along with the VW bus that we associate with the sixties, the hippies, Woodstock and the Vietnam war protest. There was also movies made where the star was Herbie, the love bug.
I highly recommend this book. I loved it!