<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">It is a careless and unobservant writer that makes this claim. There were many predecessors of Porsche’s design that sought to provide motorization of the German public. If for that idea they want to use the term “volkswagen” (note the lower case “v”) then yes, Porsche was not the first.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">However, those other vehicles were mostly two seaters, had meager power even by VW’s standards, and other than the tubular frame, rear engine, and swing axles (not uncommon for designs even at that early age), they are nothing like the 4-5 passenger, 100 kph, torsion-bar-suspended, steel-bodied cars that Porsche designed.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The slope to the hood and rear bodywork is similar (and similar to others of the time), but it far, far smaller and could never provide mobility for a family. It bore no relation to the project either Porsche or Hitler envisioned.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Carefully-worded descriptions make the cars seem similar, but if you put them side by side, and removed the bodies to see how they were engineered, would make you laugh at the idea of them being similar on any more than a superficial level.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Ganz was ripped off, to say the least, no doubt about it. Not by Porsche, but by the Nazi government, who seized his drawings, lied about him to discredit him, and drove him from the country under threat of arrest on phony charges arising from lies propagated by competitors, then went after him again when he tried to develop his car for the Swiss. Certainly he deserved justice and recognition for his designs and his advocacy in his magazine of the concepts.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Claims of Ganz’s “fatherhood” of the VW Beetle (not just the idea of an affordable small car, but of “Hitler’s Volkswagen” and the “VW Beetle" just don't hold up to even a cursory review of Schilperoord’s book and others like Barbers. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The first claim on the website, its use of the term “VW Beetle” is probably trademark infringement worthy of litigation. And immediately after this, the site claims that Ganz’s May Bug "<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><font color="#20252b" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.10000000149011612px;" class="">soon became 'Hitler’s Volkswagen project’” makes it hard to even read further, since it is based on two clear lies right from the start.</span></font></span></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The Ganz story is tragic and fascinating, and he deserves respect and recognition. But the claims of his fatherhood do not stand up to a “DNA engineering test.”</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">It is wrong for Ganz’s followers to claim credit for the Volkswagen Beetle (note capitalization), as it was for others to claim he ripped off others and committed extortion. One set of lies should not be an excuse for another. It smacks of sensationalism to capitalize on the VW’s popularity with the public, and its appetite for conspiracies.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">-Phil</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div class="">------------------------------<br class="">Message: 4<br class="">Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2018 15:19:54 -0400<br class="">From: <a href="mailto:donrob@yachtsales.com" class="">donrob@yachtsales.com</a><br class="">To: <a href="mailto:type3@vwtype3.org" class="">type3@vwtype3.org</a><br class="">Subject: [T3] Volkswagen Mark 1, 1933<br class="">Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:6ef70d2b62da287749312569145a6f76@yachtsales.com" class="">6ef70d2b62da287749312569145a6f76@yachtsales.com</a>><br class="">Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed<br class=""><br class="">The first Volkswagen was not designed and built by Porsche:<br class=""><br class=""><a href="https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2018/09/14/josef-ganz-built-beetle-predecessor-makes-post-restoration-debut/?refer=news" class="">https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2018/09/14/josef-ganz-built-beetle-predecessor-makes-post-restoration-debut/?refer=news</a><br class="">------------------------------<br class=""></div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></body></html>