The People's Car: A Global History of the Volkswagen Beetle

This project provides the first detailed and comprehensive study of the global history of the Volkswagen Beetle. The findings will be available in a Harvard University Press book for both an academic and more general audience, and in a BBC television series.
The Volkswagen Beetle possesses an exceptionally rich history full of surprising twists and turns. To advance ambitious plans for Nazi Germany's mass motorization, Hitler commissioned renowned automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche to design a sturdy 'people's car' that lay within the financial reach of average German consumers. The round-shaped car Porsche unveiled in 1938 was indeed to fulfil the dream of private auto ownership for millions. Yet it ultimately did so under circumstances Hitler never anticipated. Since the war prevented mass production during the Third Reich, it was only after National Socialism's downfall that Porsche's brainchild turned into the global hit that everyone now knows as the 'Beetle.' In the postwar period, the Beetle not only played a prominent role in taking Western Europe into the age of mass motorization but also triumphed in the United States, where it became the leading small car. By the late Sixties, both those living in suburban affluence and the members of the counterculture, who rebelled against suburbia as the epitome of conformity, drove Volkswagens en masse. Between 1938 and 1968, the Beetle - and only the Beetle - exerted a profound appeal among customers across the political spectrum from the extreme Right to the Left. In Latin America, meanwhile, the Volkswagen proved the extent and durability of its appeal by dominating the roads first in Brazil and subsequently in Mexico as late as the 1990s. When the curtain eventually fell on production in 2003, more than 21 million Beetles had rolled off assembly lines, making it the first car to have outsold Ford's famous Model T.
Its charm, however, by no means ceased with the end of production. It's not only that hundreds of thousands come together all over Europe and the United States each year to display, admire and drive lovingly restored old Volkswagens. Since 1998 admiration for the first VW has also fuelled sales of the New Beetle, the first of a growing number of revival cars inspired by automotive nostalgia. As millions across the world bought and drove it, the Beetle turned into far more than a machine for enhancing individual mobility. Like Coca Cola, it became a global icon that shimmers in many hues.
Concentrating on the car's success in Germany, Britain, the United States, and Mexico, my research will unravel the car's transformation from populist Nazi prestige project to global commodity on three analytical levels. First, the Beetle's exceptionally long lifespan allows for the study of social, economic, and cultural trends across the political disruptions in twentieth-century German history. Second, the Volkswagen's worldwide appeal brings into view a wealth of trends that advanced economic globalization after 1945. By paying particular attention to the Beetle's good fortunes in the United States and Mexico, my book will detail how developments in diverging economic environments contributed to the emergence and consolidation of global networks of commercial interaction. Finally, since the Beetle captured both the private and public imagination, this vehicle grants opportunities to investigate production, advertising, consumption, and subjectivity in conjunction. As a result, my work highlights the multi-faceted, at times contradictory impulses that underpin global commodity culture.

This project will have an impact beyond the academic world in three respects.

Communication and Engagement
I will address a broad audience ranging from academics to students to the educated public. I will offer my audience novel insights into the German past, globalization and the complicated history of a well-known material object that has played a prominent role in the lives of countless people. Given its international subject matter, my work on the Beetle commands an international market.
I will address this audience in two ways. First, I will produce a book for Harvard University Press that, while maintaining rigorous academic standards, will appeal to a broad educated audience. I have previously written for a wider market as my contributions to History Today illustrate. My publisher specializes in the production of intellectually ambitious, yet accessible books. It supports authors through a rigorous editorial process, markets its products internationally and arranges translations. It is therefore highly likely that my book will have an impact among a strong international readership.

Second, I am in discussions with BBC 4 about a series of TV-documentaries on small cars. In addition to the Volkswagen Beetle, these programmes would cover vehicles like the Morris Minor, the Fiat Topolino, and the Citroën 2CV. I previously collaborated with BBC 4 on an hour-long documentary entitled 'The Golden Age of the Liners,' which deals with the floating palaces of the first half of the twentieth century. Since BBC 4 sells its programmes beyond the United Kingdom, my involvement with this channel holds out the prospect of an international media impact for my academic work. The production of the documentary is scheduled for the summer of 2011.

Collaboration
Third, my work on the Beetle has a potential economic impact by bridging the divide between academic and business circles. I aim to organize a visit of Mexican economists to the United Kingdom in the autumn of 2011. The plan is to bring Mexican scholars together with British managers and policy makers working in the auto sector.
This visit will facilitate an information flow in both directions. It will benefit both British and Mexican participants by sharpening their awareness of the global contours of each country's auto industry. Mexican participants active in their country's trade union movement will profit from comparative insights into British industrial relations. Meanwhile, British managers and policy makers will gain new knowledge of the social and economic conditions in a country that has recently emerged as a serious competitor of the car manufacturing sector in the UK.

The plan to arrange a visit of Mexican economists in the UK grows out of my participation in a research network entitled 'The Mexican Car Industry in Global Contexts' at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City. Since 2008, I have been a member of this network, an affiliation that springs directly from my work on the Volkswagen Beetle in Mexico. Together with my collaborators (mainly Mexican economists), I will apply for a grant from a private Mexican foundation that will extend scope of our project to analyses of the global position of other countries' car industries, including that of the United Kingdom.
With Mexican funds and logistical support from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders in London, I will arrange the visit of my Mexican colleagues in the UK. An AHRC fellowship would allow me advance my work on the Beetle quickly and thus strengthen my position within the collaborative network in Mexico.