Ferdinand Porsche designed the original Volkswagen Beetle under the direct orders of Adolf Hitler, who wanted a cheap, mass-produced vehicle for the newly built autobahns.

A closer look

Ferdinand Porsche designed the original Volkswagen Beetle under the direct orders of Adolf Hitler, who wanted a cheap, mass-produced vehicle for the newly built autobahns. The dictator demanded it look like a beetle, be air-cooled so it wouldn't freeze in winter, and fit two adults and three children while puttering along at sixty miles an hour. Decades later, this exact same vehicle became the ultimate symbol of the 1960s counterculture, plastered with peace signs and driven by barefoot hippies promoting universal love. It is arguably the greatest public relations turnaround in corporate history, effortlessly pivoting from a fascist engineering project to the official transport of stoned teenagers going to Woodstock!