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Review Spring 2018 Issue Number 58 Automotive History Review Spring 2018 Issue Number 58 VW in Postwar Europe Travel History of Trailers Motometers in the USA The Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. An Affiliate of the American Historical Association battle between competing forms of power for early automobiles. One would have to imagine my surprise to actually come into con - tact with a genuine 1912 Rauch & Lang Victoria just a few miles from our new home in Florida. My fiancée, Ann, and I decided to meet some friends early on the morning of April 15th at a “Cars and Coffee” meeting at the DuPont Registry building in St. Petersburg. Still a bit groggy after a cup of French Roast, I immediately perked up at the sight of what was obviously an electric vehicle. Upon looking the car and its showboard over, I found out that it was indeed a Rauch & Lang. It was in perfect condition and it was still in the family of the original Editor’s Note least partially obscure the fact that owner! Last issue, I mentioned how I was these were real people and events. I had the pleasure of speaking interested in incorporating modern History happens in color but is with Mr. Alexander Johnston photography wherever possible to often told in halftones, so some - Williams, of Clearwater Beach, help bring stories into a more direct thing is inevitably lost in transla - Florida. He is the owner of this perspective. Period photography is tion. electric masterpiece and he had necessary and should be part of the Featured in issue #57 was Bob quite a story to tell. telling of any story but I have Ebert’s extensively-researched his - The car was originally ordered always lamented the abstract, dis - tory of the Rauch & Lang electric by his great-grandfather, Alexander tancing quality that grainy, faded car company. It was a fascinating Johnston, who was a prominent old photos have. They tend to at read that put into perspective the continued on page 46 Automotive History Review (ISSN 1056-2729) is a period - ic publication of the Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. Automotive History Don Keefe, Editor Review Spring 2018 Issue Number 58 Officers President Louis F. Fourie Vice President Edward Garten CONTENTS Secretary Robert Casey Treasurer Rubén L. Verdés From the Editor Inside front cover Board of Directors Terms ending October 2018 Firm Competitiveness and Postwar Economic Robert Casey Carla R. Lesh Integration in Europe: The Case of Volkswagen Vince Wright in the ECSC and EEC Andrew Beckman ex-officio By Grace A. Ballor 4 Terms ending October 2019 Robert Barr Don Keefe The History and Evolution of Motometers Matt Short By Francis G. Clax 18 Terms ending October 2020 H. Donald Capps Kevin Kirbitz John A. Marino The Trailer Revolution: The Origins of Recreational Vehicles in American Culture Publications Committee By David Burel 30 Thomas S. Jakups, chair Kit Foster Louis F. Fourie Don Keefe Rubén L. Verdés Front Cover: The electric-powered 1912 Rauch & Lang Victoria owned by Alexander Johnston Williams. Photo by Don Keefe. Steve Wilson Back cover: A vintage countertop display for Boyce Motometers. © 2018 Photo by Francis G. Clax. The Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. All rights reserved. Correspondence in conjunction with Automotive History Review should be directed to: Back Issues of Automotive History Review  SAH offers sets of remaining issues of Automotive History Review for Don Keefe, Editor $145.00 postpaid in USA. Issues available are numbers 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 1448 Seagull Drive, Apt. 312, 12, 14, 15, 16. 23, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, Palm Harbor, FL 34685 USA 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57 plus the Index Further information about the Society may be obtained by to Issues 1-43. Single copies are $10.00 each, postpaid. Inquire for writing to The Society of Automotive Historians, Inc., c/o international shipping. Checks in US funds, MasterCard, Visa, Amex. Cornerstone Registration, Ltd., P.O. Box 1715, Maple Order from SAH, 1102 Long Cove Road, Gales Ferry, CT 06335- Grove, MN 55311-6715 USA or at www.autohistory.org. 1812 USA . Firm Competetiveness and Postwar Economic Integration in Europe: The Case of Volkswagen in the ECSC and EEC By Grace A. Ballor Photography and ads from the author’s private collection unless otherwise noted Abstract whose history as an auto manufac - became so successful in the post - By many accounts, Volkswagen, turer began under Adolf Hitler, war period that it undergirded the Page 04 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 05 German economic miracle. But tions and to preserve peace in protection of the regional common how did Hitler’s car become the Europe, Germany quickly became market systems established in the peoples’ car for all of Europe? This Europe’s dominant economic early stages of postwar economic paper argues that Volkswagen’s power in the immediate postwar integration. This myth of postwar survival and subsequent success period and has remained such ever German economic success as a were made possible by early post - since. The core of its post-war eco - product of German liberalism dis - war integration, namely by the nomic success, which is often torts the truth of economic history. institutions of the European Coal hailed as the “German economic Perhaps the best counter-argu - and Steel Community (1951), miracle,” was West Germany’s ment to the claim that postwar which first united six core member robust exportation of manufactured German liberalism produced the states and managed key resources goods, especially automobiles. 1 Wirtschaftswunder is the example for all of them, and Simultaneous to the rise of the of German automobile manufac - the European Economic German economy was the momen - turer Volkswagen, the leading firm Community (1957), which created tous project of economic integra - in postwar Germany and largest a common market for those mem - tion in Europe, beginning with the producer of cars in Europe from ber states and formed the founda - creation of the European Coal and 1960 to today. 4 tion of the European Union as we Steel Community by the Treaty of Founded by Adolf Hiter’s Nazi know it today. By analyzing Paris in 1951 and the establish - Labor Front in 1937, Volkswagen Volkswagen’s company history, ment of the European Economic continued to operate well into the relationship with the ECSC and EEC Community by the Treaty of Rome 1950s according to Hitler’s original and the company’s production and in 1957. Both the ECSC and EEC plan to mass-produce a single sales data from the 1950s and restructured the economies of model of a low-cost vehicle, the 1960s, this paper argues that even Western Europe and worked to cre - Volkswagen “Beetle.” Even with its with its efficient business model, ate a common market for certain efficient business model, because Volkswagen could not have over - goods. of Germany’s war guilt, the deci - come the stigma of Germany’s war While published scholarship on mated domestic economy in post - guilt or the fact that the “Beetle” German economic success in the war West Germany, and the fact had been a major Nazi propaganda twentieth century tends to focus on that the “Beetle” had been a major piece during the war if it were not the country’s “liberal economic Nazi propaganda piece during the for these institutions. Without insti - policies,” few have considered the war, Volkswagen owed its survival tutional regulation and moderated relationship between postwar and especially its success in the access to both resources and con - industry and postwar institutions. 2 1950s and 1960s to the regulated sumer markets in Western Europe, When making the case for the common markets created by the Volkswagen could not have trans - German postwar economic boom, ECSC and EEC. Without such insti - formed “Hitler’s car” into the vehi - or the Wirtschaftswunder , scholars tutional protection and without cle of choice for the burgeoning often focus on the infrastructure access to consumer markets in middle class in postwar Europe, laid by Hitler’s war machine and other Western European countries, nor could it have become itself a on the socio-political re-landscap - Volkswagen could not have trans - force for European integration. ing of Germany in the 1940s. 3 formed “Hitler’s car” into the vehi - As a result, they forget the strong cle of choice for the burgeoning Introduction continuity between pre-war, middle class in postwar Europe. Despite considerable losses in the wartime, and post-war institutions The case of Volkswagen, more Second World War and Allied and the extent to which the West than any other West German firm, attempts both to exact war repara - German economy required the presents the opportunity to consid - Page 04 Automotive History Review #58 Spring 2018 Page 05 Figure 1: Hitler with his cabinet members and Ferdinand Porsche at a design meeting in 1934, discussing the Type 32 prototype. Dr. Porsche is at the far left with his arm outstretched. er German economic ascendancy Such a study must necessarily Volkswagen’s history and success in the postwar period from all employ the methodologies of both are extraordinary, its place within angles: the totalitarian legacy of Economics and History, since nei - German heavy industry and the Nazi labor, production and con - ther approach can adequately postwar production economy at sumption programs, the influence address the complexities of the large enables this analysis of VW to of postwar Allied Occupation, the postwar economic situation. resonate with a huge majority of its shift in perception of Western Moreover, such a study must probe contemporary West German firms.
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