Volkswagen beetle porsche hitler biography book

Bernhard Rieger examines culture and technology, politics and economics, and industrial design and advertising genius to reveal how a car commissioned by Hitler.

At the Berlin Auto Show in , Adolf Hitler presented the prototype for a small, oddly shaped, inexpensive family car that all good Aryans could enjoy. Decades later, that automobile—the Volkswagen Beetle—was one of the most beloved in the world. Bernhard Rieger examines culture and technology, politics and economics, and industrial design and advertising genius to reveal how a car commissioned by Hitler and designed by Ferdinand Porsche became an exceptional global commodity on a par with Coca-Cola.

In the United States, it was embraced in the suburbs, and then prized by the hippie counterculture as an antidote to suburban conformity. As its popularity waned in the First World, the Beetle crawled across Mexico and Latin America, where it symbolized a sturdy toughness necessary to thrive amid economic instability. Account Options Logga in. Bernhard Rieger.

Harvard University Press , 16 apr. Before the Peoples Car. We Should Make No Demands. Icon of the Early Federal Republic. An Export. Of Beetles Old and. The Volkswagen Beetle as a Global Icon. Some Shapes Are Hard to Improve.