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Happy Birthday, Beetle!    

In the middle of the 1930s Adolf Hitler - leader of the Nazi Germany - ordered Ferdinand Porsche to create a new "car for the people". Thus the history of Volkswagen started.

Porsche began to construct the prototypes of the car. There were some main ideas - the conceptions of the future vehicle - that Porsche had to stick to while developing the car:

- max weight 650 kg,
- cruise speed of 100 km/h,
- air-cooled engine with 26 hp,
- fuel consumption 7 l per 100 km,
- cheap price.

Having gone through several stages of development (series "VW 3", "VW 30"), the first Volkswagen car was presented in 1938. It included all the features ordered by Hitler, the engine was placed at the rear of the car, and the shape of the car was quite specific - it was very round. That was the reason why it got its nickname "Beetle". An American reporter thought it looked like an insect, and so the "Beetle" was born. 

Next page > Further Development of VW