Volkswagen Beetle origins Part 2: New book's shocking claims

Who designed the classic VW Beetle? It wasn't the first rear-engine car named Volkswagen--1934 Ganz design was.

This is part two of an exporation of the classic Volkswagen Beetle's origins. The first part can be found here.

It's eye-opening to note that the 1933-35 Standard Superior, a Joseph Ganz design, was actually the first tiny rear-engine car with a streamlined shape, tubular chassis, and swing axles. And it was tagged "Volkswagen" in promotional materials. Ganz even called his second prototype Maikafer (May beetle).

According to Dutch historian Paul Schilperoord's new book, The True Story of the Beetle, Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring saw Ganz's Volkswagen at a car show and stole both the car's innovative engineering and its name. Joseph Ganz happened to be Jewish, so the Nazis saw no problem with stealing his work and allowing Czech automaker Tatra to usurp his patents. When Ganz took legal action over his patents he was thrown in jail. Later, Hitler commissioned Ferdinand Porsche to design his own version of the Volkswagen. With his genius for engineering, Porsche's brilliant design proved astonishingly durable as it stayed in production for 57 years.

Perhaps with the publication of Schilperoord's book and the documentary film he's promised, the murky origins of the Beetle's origins will be cleared up and Joseph Ganz will receive his due at long last.