[T2] This day in history 1950 der BulliBurst

[Robert Mann]

<
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/vw-bus-icon-of-counterculture-movement-goes-into-productionAutomotive
>1950VW bus, icon of counterculture movement, goes into production
Volkswagen, maker of the Beetle automobile, expands its product offerings
to include a microbus, which goes into production on this day in 1950.
Known officially as the Volkswagen Type 2 (the Beetle was the Type 1) or
the Transporter, the bus was a favorite mode of transportation for hippies
in the U.S. during the 1960s and became an icon of the American
counterculture movement.

The VW bus was reportedly the brainchild of Dutch businessman Ben Pon, an
importer of Beetles to the Netherlands, who saw a market for a small bus
and in 1947 sketched out his concept. Volkswagen engineers further
developed the idea and in March 1950, the vehicle, with its boxy,
utilitarian shape and rear engine, went into production. The bus eventually
collected a number of nicknames, including the “Combi” (for combined-use
vehicle) and the “Splittie” (for its split windshield); in Germany it was
known as the “Bulli.” In the U.S., it was referred to by some as a hippie
van or bus because it was used to transport groups of young people and
their camping gear and other supplies to concerts and anti-war rallies.
Some owners painted colorful murals on their buses and replaced the VW logo
on the front with a peace symbol. According to “Bug” by Phil Patton, when
Grateful Dead musician Jerry Garcia died in 1995, Volkswagen ran an ad
featuring a drawing of the front of a bus with a tear streaming down it.

The bus was only the second product offering for Volkswagen, a company
whose history dates back to the 1930s Germany. In 1933, Adolf Hitler became
chancellor of Germany and announced he wanted to build new roads and
affordable cars for the German people. At that time, Austrian-born engineer
Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) was already working on creating a small car
for the masses. Hitler and Porsche later met and the engineer was charged
with designing the inexpensive, mass-produced Volkswagen, or “people’s
car.” In 1938, work began on the Volkswagen factory, located in present-day
Wolfsburg, Germany; however, full-scale vehicle production didn’t begin
until after World War II.

In the 1950s, the Volkswagen arrived in the U.S., where the initial
reception was tepid, due in part to the car’s historic Nazi connection as
well as its small size and unusual rounded shape (which later led to it
being dubbed the “Beetle”). In 1959, the advertising agency Doyle Dane
Bernbach launched a groundbreaking campaign that promoted the car’s
diminutive size as a distinct advantage to consumers, and over the next
several years VW became the top-selling auto import in the U.S. In 1972,
the VW Beetle passed the iconic Ford Model T as the world’s best-selling
car, with over 15 million vehicles produced.