The Extraordinary Life of Josef Ganz: The Jewish Engineer Behind Hitler's Volkswagen [Hardcover]

Paul Schilperoord (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2011

The astonishing biography of Josef Ganz, a Jewish designer from Frankfurt, who in May 1931 created a revolutionary small car: the Maikäfer (German for May bug). Seven years later Hitler introduced the Volkswagen. He not only 'took' the concept of Ganz's family car, he even used the same nickname. To this day the VW Beetle or Bug is considered one of the most important of all automobile designs. It incorporated many of the features of Ganz's original Maikäfer, yet until recently Ganz received no recognition for his pioneering work. The Nazis did all they could to keep the Jewish godfather of the German compact car out of the history books. Now Paul Schilperoord sets the record straight. In a biography that reads like a spy thriller, he tells how Ganz was imprisoned by the Gestapo, until an influential friend with connections to Göring helped secure his release. Soon afterwards he was forced to flee Germany while Porsche created the Volkswagen for Hitler using many of his groundbreaking ideas. Ganz was hunted by the Nazis even beyond Germany's borders and narrowly escaped assassination. After the war he moved to Australia, where he died in 1967. This biography is a great read for anyone interested in World War II, Jewish history, the evolution of car design or simply the life stories of extraordinary individuals.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...intriguing." -- The New York Times

"...controversial and enlightening...with the feel of a thriller." -- The Wall Street Journal

"...the book has created a stir in the motoring world." -- The Times (London) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

European journalist, science and technology writer, and car expert. Born in The Netherlands and currently living in Florence.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: RVP Publishers (December 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1614122016
• ISBN-13: 978-1614122012
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #924,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars good read, except that it tries to gain points on conspiracy theories January 13, 2012

By Book Lover from EU

This book would be much better if it simply allowed itself to be a biography of the great Josef Ganz, rather than trying to prove that he was "the founder of the Beetle". Ganz is and was exceptional, but his being exceptional does not depend on him having to have created a car which was not created by him, but was of course influenced by him and his work, as it was influenced by many others.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Wishful Thinking January 3, 2013

By Robert Whitney

Amazon Verified Purchase

Josef Ganz was a talented auto magazine editor and engineer. He was unsuccessful in his dreams of building a people's car due to the times in which he lived and being Jewish during the Nazi rule. He never was really able to get solid financial backing to put his ideas in place. Josef Ganz was never connected to the Volkswagen Company or the VW Beetle. He was just one of many auto engineers who dreamed of building a People's Car. He did build a small car named the Standard Superior 1933-1935, but he never was the father or spiritual father of the VW. One of the problems with this book is, the use of the name Volkswagen. The reader has trouble telling when the author is using it as a generic name widely used to describe all small affordable cars in that period or Volkswagen the auto manufacturing company. Porsche used the term Volksauto, Hitler in 1938 named the Beetle the KdF wagen, the British, in 1945, officially named the car the Volkswagen. Seeing Ganz's Standard Superior, built in 1938, would not remind one of a VW, but seeing Porsches V-3 in 1936 or his V-30 one would notice a very striking resemblance to the 1949 Beetle or the 2012 VW Beetle. The V in V-3 is short for Versuch, which stands for experimental and not volkswagen. When the author uses the name Swiss Volkswagen in the book, it is not speaking of a VW Beetle but rather in a generic sense, to his small Standard Superior, which he tried to get manufactured in Switzerland. This book is confusing to readers not familiar with the true history of the VW Beetle. Porsche was familiar with Ganz and they respected each other. Had the playing field been level at that time, they would have been friendly competitors of rival auto companies. After the war, Josef Ganz was in poor health and in financial straits in Australia. He contacted Heinz Nordhoff asking for a consulting job. They were negotiating that when health problems struck Ganz and they were never able to complete negotiations. Nordhoff did send Ganz some money to help him through a tough spot. This is a wonderful book about a talented man and his dreams, but no, it is not about a man in anyway connected to the VW Beetle or it father or spiritual founder.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work, lived up to expectation November 9, 2012

By EarlB

I'm not really into cars. I heard about this guy's research about Ganz before he wrote the book, and I was interested. Before purchasing it, I was worried that it would be purely technical and engineering in content with little about Ganz himself. But now that I'm reading it, it's just great - a perfect balance of interest, not drifting away from Ganz; this Schilperoord guy really did his research. It's also wonderful to see that the translation is good, which is unfortunately unusual with these foreign-language books. What's more, the reader also appreciates that it's not a conspiracy type of book: that is, it doesn't over-emphasise that Hitler stole Ganz's Volkswagen.

A great read, well worth the time and price. My only setback was that it doesn't have an index, which is useful for reference after one's finished reading it, but the book itself makes up for that.