Sounds like it's time for another history lesson from AnyMal: In 1936 Ferdinand Porsche did design what became known as VW Beetle, however, he had nothing to do with establishing and naming VW the company. In fact, VW Beetle wasn't even Porsche's idea in a first place. The concept of a car that is cheap to produce and could be afforded by an average German family was a brainchild of Adolf Hitler. It was Hitler who commissioned Ferdinand Porsche ( a Jew!) and Willie Messerschmidt (the man behind some of the finest Luftwaffe planes) to come up with initial design in 1935. Both designers produced prototypes within one year and after initial trials Porsche's design was accepted as more reliable and inexpensive to produce. Another idea that belonged to Hitler was to have the new factory financed entirely by the proceeds from selling the cars that weren't even built yet. Here is how it worked; a person would buy a stamp sheet with initial payment, then each month they would receive one stamp in exchange for a monthly payment; when the sheet was filled, a person was eligible to receive their car. In one year, enough money was raised to begin construction. Hitler's orders were strict; to have factory up and running by 1938. After the site near Wolfsburgh was chosen, around the clock construction was launched to meet fuerher's deadline. The name "Volkswagen" (people's car) was decided upon and was also credited to Hitler. However, by the time factory opened in late 1938, Germany's priorities shifted dramaticaly; it's entire economy was rapidly re-tooling to support the quickly growing demands of the military. By the time World War II started in 1939 only few thousand VW cars were produced and the factory was ordered to switch to the production of much needed Schwimmwagen and Kubelwagen vehicles.
The actual name Beetle did not come along until after the WWII and was given by the British who resurrected the factory after war, but that's another story.
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