The People's Car

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

 Jeffrey send the following:
""1995 marks the fortieth anniversary of Volkswagen of America, Inc. ... The
first Beetle arrived in the US in 1949 ... But, without someone to explain
its idiosyncrasies and present its strengths, the odd insect-shaped car
didn't make much of an impression in America. Just two Beetles were purchased
in that first year, and only a few hundred in the next. By 1955, more and
more Americans had begun to hear of the odd little Beetle."  (Museum  of VW
History @www.volkswagen.com)"


An interesting gloss here, in that the Web page glosses over connections to
the Nazi regime.  I recall running across an ad in an old LIFE or SATURDAY
EVENING POST from the war years (if not sooner), showing a little Beetle
stuffed with Wehrmacht troops and decrying the state-controlled "People's
Car" of the Germans, at the expense (of course) of the independent and
properly capitalist American auto industry.  The gist of the article seemed
to be that big cars were a mark of financial and moral superiority.

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)