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History Daily

The Rise of the Volkswagen Beetle

History Daily

History Daily

History

4.42.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

February 17, 1972. The 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle comes off the assembly line, making it the world's best-selling car and breaking a record held for more than four decades by the Ford Model T. This episode originally aired in 2023.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:04.1

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0:06.0

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0:12.0

daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at IntoHistory.com.

0:30.8

It's February 17, 1939, at a motor show in the Mesa Exhibition Center in Berlin, Germany.

0:36.5

A journalist strokes his hand along the smooth bodywork of a car in the center of the busy hall.

0:40.3

Next to him, a salesman runs through his patter about the brand new model,

0:46.0

the Kadeef wagon, an affordable and practical car that every German family will soon be able to purchase.

0:50.5

A journalist asked whether he can look at the engine, and without waiting for an answer,

0:51.6

lifts the hood.

0:54.8

But there's nothing underneath, just an empty compartment.

1:00.7

He furrows his brow and asks if the car is just a dummy. The salesman laughs and beckons the journalist to the rear of the vehicle. He opens the trunk and points to the car's 25-horsepower

1:06.9

engine. The journalist nods impressed by the innovative idea to put the engine in the back.

1:12.1

He asks whether he can see the engine running. The salesman looks unsure, but the journalist

1:16.7

says he can't really give the car a good report if he doesn't see it in action.

1:22.0

After a moment's hesitation, the salesman fires the engine up. The journalist smiles at the

1:26.8

humming sound reverberating around the hall.

1:29.2

People turn their heads and stare, and after a few seconds, a red-faced, a fiscist-looking man bustles over.

1:35.5

The man pulls the journalist away from the car, and the salesman kills the engine.

1:40.1

The journalist starts to protest, but the man shushes him and tells him not to disturb the

1:44.7

Fuhrer. He points across the hall to a group of men in military uniform. At their center is the

1:50.7

instantly recognizable leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler.

...

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