Volkswagen Beetle motor car, 1965.

Volkswagen Beetle Motorcar, 1300cc, Registration No: FPM 422C, Maroon colour, 1965.

Volkswagen Beetle Motor car, 1965. In the early 1930s Dr Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) designed a car for purchase by the average working man. While the car was in development a number of backers came and went, until 1933 when the then new German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), remarked that motor cars ought be a component of the 'National Socialist Victory'. At a car show in 1934 Hitler said that he did not see why "good hard-working people" should be excluded from car ownership. Later that year Porsche gained a government contract to develop the Volkswagen (people's car, later known as the 'Beetle'), for a target price of 995 Reichs Marks. In 1937 Hitler took the project away from Porsche, and Daimler-Benz built batches of development models of the car, which by now was looking similar to the well-known post-war version. In 1938 work started to build a factory dedicated to VW production. The car's cost for the ordinary citizen was still a problem so purchase was through a subscription scheme.