Thread by @studentactivism

This is such an odd, and oddly persistent, urban legend. (Hitler didn't design the Beetle.)

https://twitter.com/dylanmatt/status/1444395349108568073

The earliest designs for what would become the Beetle date from before the Nazi rise to power, and were dusted off and —by actual car designers—when Hitler was like "I'd like to get a cheap car with certain broad specs into production."

But then the war happened, and as a result the Beetle didn't go into mass production until the late 1940s. There weren't a zillion of them zipping around Berlin during the Nazi era—more like a hundred, tops.

So yeah, Volkswagen originated as a Nazi company, and the postwar Beetle was largely (though not fully) based on Nazi-era plans. But it wasn't designed by Hitler, and it wasn't really even a Nazi-era car.