, Kleinwagen Ingenieur terest in automotive engineering. Although his initial principal respon- sibility was to support railcar design, Ledwinka also was asked to pre- pare engineering drawings for the company’s new automobile, the Präsident. He worked under the guidance of another up-and-coming automotive engineer by the name of who was but a half-dozen years his senior. Based on limited but successful production and sales of Präsident , Nesselsdorf management initiated design of a second model given the designation Type A. Edmund Rumpler and another engineer by the name of Karl Sage were given responsibility for developing the Model A B u i l d i n g T h e B r a n d transmission. Their efforts did not produce an acceptable product and both engineers left Nesselsdorf apparently as a result of their perceived Phil Carney failure. Ledwinka was then assigned responsibility for the transmission design and he devised one that incorporated four forward speeds and a steering column mounted shift lever. This accomplishment by the he mechanical elements used in the 356 Sportswagen trace young engineer did not go unnoticed and Hans Ledwinka was promoted directly back to Porsche’s engineer’s work on the . to head Nesselsdorf’s small automotive department at the age of twenty- TBut did all of the technical inspiration for the Volkswagen one. come from Professor Porsche and his team? Certainly Porsche and the With his promotion to department head perhaps Ledwinka thought people he directed can be credited with five years of effort to turn an at- he had sole responsibility for determining company direction for auto- tractive idea for cost-effective, reliable transportation into reality. This motive products. Unfortunately, he shortly found out that the company was no small feat of course since it required not only good engineering directors did not share his conviction that the future of the automobile but also building Europe’s largest manufacturing plant, maneuver- lay in steam power. As a result, in September 1902, Young Hans moved ing around ’s existing auto industry and manipulating a domi- to Alexander Friedmann’s company in . This stay of employment nating political movement. The question on the table however is: were lasted only a few years before Ledwinka returned to Nesselsdorf. It was the professor and his engineers the creative source for all the ideas used not simply a matter of steam power failing to meet its promise; it was also in the Volkswagen? This has been debated a good bit by enthusiasts and due to the business shakeup happening among the dozens of car the German legal system because there are several other people who builders that existed at the time. had small car ideas similar to the Volkswagen. I call this group of people the Kleinwagen In- genieure, (small car engineers). In addition to , this group includes Hans Ledwinka, Béla Barényi, and Josef Ganz. This artticle will attempt to elucidate the claims of Hans Ledwinka. In a later article, Barényi, and Ganz’s allegations will be described. Ledwinka’s Formative Years Hans Ledwinka was born in Klosterneuburg, Wien (Vienna) on February 4, 1878. Although he would spend most of his adult life and professional career in Czecho- , he always considered himself an Aus- trian and spoke only German. Young Hans displayed a technical aptitude very early in life and he spent his adolescence working as an ap- prentice in his uncle’s machine shop. He ac- quired his formal education at the Vienna trade school Die Technische Fachschule für Maschi- nenbau. In September 1898, just short of his twen- Ferdinand Porsche (left) and Hans Ledwinka (right) had a professional relation- tieth birthday, Ledwinka joined on at the Nesselsdorf Wagenbaufabrik . ship that allowed for the sharing of ideas. Some of this technical cross-fertiliza- At the time Nesselsdorf was a manufacturer of railway wagons but com- tion may have resulted in inspiration for engineering that found its way into the pany management had just made a decision to enter into the fledgling Volkswagen and 356 Sportswagen. The woman in this early 1930’s photograph is motorcar industry. As a result, these would be formative years for Led- Elizabeth Junek. She was celebrated Czech Bugatti race driver in Europe. winka and his early assignments at Nesselsdorf certainly created his in- (Photograph courtesy of Jacques Mertens)

18 Volume 33, Number 1 • 356 Registry Despite Nesselsdorf’s earlier success with its first two models, after- Ledwinka built his swing-axle designs on the principles originally de- wards their cars found disfavor in the press and with the car buying pub- veloped by Edmund Rumpler. But the Ledwinka team continued to lic. The press called the Nesselsdorf designs obsolete and inefficient. But produce a number of refinements and alternate gearing approaches. part of the problem was that the company rarely publicized its products. The patents, one of which is Their cars were normally not displayed at trade shows nor did they race in shown at left, date back to competitions. So upon his return, Ledwinka was given the awesome re- as early as 1924. Porsche sponsibility of restoring Nesselsdorf’s automotive reputation to the fore- also used a on front of the industry. It was an extreme challenge for a young man but the Volkswagen. But his Ledwinka would not disappoint. idea at right used a universal In late 1905 Hans Ledwinka and his assistant Antonín Klička began joint that was elegant in its simplicity. design of the Model S. A prototype was built even before the company di- rectors authorized development. The car introduced multiple innovations including the use of hemispherical combustion chambers, a transmission directly mated to the engine block, an oil-immersed cone clutch, and a modular engine design. Buyers praised the Model S features and those of its successors the Models T and U. The models were available in a variety of body styles including small and buses. Political, Geographical and Business Realignments When came, Ledwinka-designed and Nesselsdorf-pro- duced military trucks distinguished themselves with the Austrian army. They were known for their ruggedness and their power. This reputation caused an increase in commercial vehicle production at Nesselsdorf and Ledwinka asked company officials for funds to expand the automobile shop. Fund- ing was authorized but before it got to Ledwinka’s motorcar department, the factory manager diverted the money towards construction of a new rail- car shed. So Ledwinka quit and this time he took with him some of the best associates and technicians he had trained at Steyr. During World War I, Steyr was a highly acclaimed arms factory. De- spite their success in the armament business company owners must have had a premonition that the war was not going to end in favor of the Aus- trian-Hungarian Empire. Therefore they decided to enter into the automo- bile business by acquiring the firm of Österreicher Fiaker Automobil Gesellschaft (Austrian Cab-Automobile Company) or ÖFAG in Vienna. They Ledwinka came with the idea of using metal ducts to force cooling air to the loca- also hired Hans Ledwinka and his team to produce their first car. Based on tions where it was most needed. obtained patents for this advancement ap- their experience with the Nesselsdorf Model T, the Ledwinka team was able plied to almost every possible engine configuration. On the surface it seems like to design and produce the Steyr Waffenauto Typ II in 1920. Within five the Porsche VW development teams ignored these patents. The Porsche engineers, years, 5,000 cars rolled out of the Steyr factory doors and they became however, did improve on the idea by forcing the ducted air over an oil cooler which one of Europe’s largest automobile manufacturers. Ledwinka pushed com- made for an enormous improvement in engine cooling efficiency. pany officials to invest in one of his strong personal interests, trucks. Man- agement agreed to this suggestion and Steyr became well known for conclusion that returning to Tatra was in his best interest. Due to either production of heavy-duty vehicles. He designed an advanced six-cylinder contract arrangements or just professional courtesy, Ledwinka supported engine with ball bearing crankshaft, overhead cam and canted valves called a lengthy transition period between his previous and future employers. He the 12/40, which was used in a formal and also a sports racer. At the began working for Tatra as early as 1921 but was still supporting design and 1922 Targo Florio it took seventh place (the same race in which Porsche’s production work at Steyr as late as 1928. Because of this arrangement (and Austro-Daimler “Sacha” racers competed, the highest finisher of these because Ledwinka again took much of his technical team with him), there managing 19th). Ledwinka was not able to get concurrence from his man- is little doubt that significant technology cross-fertilization occurred be- agement to support another of his personal interests, a small, simple car tween Steyr and Tatra. Another interesting bit of technology cross-fertiliza- because the bookkeepers foresaw no demand for such a vehicle. tion occurred in 1929 when Ferdinand Porsche took over Hans Ledwinka’s As a result of WWI border realignments, the Morovian city of Nes- former position at Steyr in January of that year. Professor Porsche found selsdorf became the Czechoslovakian city of Kopřivnice. And as a result of himself in the position of managing and refining the automobile designs 1919 business agreements, Nesselsdorfer Wagenbaufabrik became the Ledwinka created while he was at Steyr. Tatra Werke (named after the local mountain range). In 1921, Ing. Maxi Peschl, a Tatra director, approached Ledwinka about returning to Tatra. Bringing Tatra to the Forefront The company was interested in expanding their automobile business and Upon arrival at Tatra, Ledwinka and his team began filling in the de- was looking for a chief engineer that could lead the technical efforts. In all sign details needed to produce their first simple, economical “People’s likelihood, Ledwinka aired his personal grievances with both Nesselsdor- Car.” Ledwinka was certain that just shrinking a large car would not achieve fer and Steyr during his discussions with Peschl. Peschl must have been his goal. Instead, he decided a successful small car was only possible by de- both empathetic and convincing because Ledwinka eventually reached the veloping the design from the ground up.

www.356Registry.com • May / June 2009 19 The platform for Ledwinka’s model T11 (and its successor the T12) winka did not consider the central-tube chassis a personal invention. It small car was based on a strong central-tube. The design was simple and was first used in 1904 by Edmund Lewis on the car Lewis designed for economical to build, and it had the useful feature of enclosing the drive Rover and which became one of Britain’s best selling cars. shaft and other linkages between the front and rear of the vehicle. Led- At the front of the Tatra T11, an air-cooled, two-cylinder engine was directly mounted to a transmission. Sheet metal helped direct cooling air where it was needed. At the back of the chassis was another important in- novation, an independent rear suspension. To accomplish this, the Tatra en- gineers refined the design approach developed by Edmund Rumpler for Adler in 1903. This design reduced unsprung weight resulting in much greater dynamic stability while simultaneously improving passenger com- fort. It was a significant enhancement over the approach patented by de Dion-Bouton in 1893 which used universal joints. The T11 and T12 were very popular and 11,065 cars were produced in eleven different body styles before production ended in 1933. In 1931 the T57 was introduced. It rigorously followed the technical lines of the T11 and T12 but used an 18 hp four-cylinder engine. It received great no- Looking conventional on the outside, this photo of the T-11 chassis/drivetrain re- toriety throughout Europe including Brittan but at the equivalent of $1,180 veals it was anything but under the skin. Below, the large T-87 was an expensive it was by no means an inexpensive people’s car. Nevertheless because of its and luxurious high-speed autobahn touring car. performance and styling there were sufficient buyers to keep the car in production through 1949. Ledwinka continued to design and Tatra con- tinued to build a number of traditional front-engine cars. Some used air- cooled engines and others were water-cooled. But in 1931 Ledwinka and Tatra design engineer Erich Übellacker produced a prototype that departed significantly from their earlier design approaches. It used a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine attached to a . Although Ledwinka’s chief reason to move the engine to the rear was to reduce interior noise, he observed that this engine placement also accommodated the stream- lining concepts proposed by Paul Jaray. These aerodynamic styling features were incorporated into a second prototype known as the V570 which was produced in 1933.

Without a doubt there are a lot of similarities between the Tatra T 97 design The was a beautiful example of what a “People’s Car’ might have been. and the VW design (below). Perhaps these similarities were due to a common It represented luxury and performance but it was not economical. Hitler’s inva- conclusion for a common set of requirements, but the person who first comes sion of ended T97 production but probably not because the T97 up with the idea first should be credited for their contribution. There are many was a viable alternative to the KdF Wagen. (Photos courtesy of Tatra Museum) indications that this principle was overlooked during Volkswagen development. (Photo above: courtesy of Tatra Museum. Below: Porsche archives)

20 Volume 33, Number 1 • 356 Registry Ledwinka’s Kleinwagen winka’s patents in the design of the Volkswagen in- The first series production car resulting cluding: use of rubber buffers between body parts, from the Ledwinka’s rear-engine prototyping ef- a central-tube chassis, ducted air-cooling, an in- fort was the T77 which was introduced in 1934. tegrated engine-transmission assembly, rear en- It was a radical departure from previous auto- gine placement, independent rear suspension, motive designs with an aerodynamic body sup- and streamlined body styling. According to jour- porting a tall vertical fin. It was a large, nalist Griffith Borgeson Ferdinand Porsche ad- six-passenger car with the driver positioned in the mitted as much saying, “Well sometimes I looked middle and passengers on either side. A boxed over his shoulder and sometimes he looked over section provided the equivalent of a backbone mine.” Some stories say that Porsche asked central-tube. At the rear was an air-cooled V8 that Hitler to honor Ledwinka’s claims but Ger- produced 75 hp (on the T77a) and propelled the many’s new Führer off-handily dismissed the car to 150 kph. Independent suspension was found matter knowing his upcoming annexation of at all four corners. This model was followed in Czechoslovakia would make the entire issue 1936 by the T87, perhaps the most memorable purely academic. Tatra car designed by Ledwinka. Following WWII, Ringhoffer, the owner of The weight over the T77 rear axle caused han- Tatra , sued Volkswagen when it became apparent dling issues. So on the T87, the Ledwinka team ad- that the Beetle was a success story. Tatra claimed three patent infringe- dressed this problem by using a smaller 2.97 liter alloy engine which saved ments regarding chassis design and on October 12, 1961 the Düsselsdorf 430 kg (947 lbs). Still the weight distribution was decidedly biased with Regional Court ruled in Tatra’s favor on one claim, dis- 38% over the front axle and 62% over the rear. The T87 was one of the missing the other two. Tatra historians Ivan fastest road cars at the time. In Germany, an important market for the car, Margolius and B. De Dubé say that Volkswa- it sold for RM 8,450 ($3,400) so it definitely served only the well-healed gen and Tatra settled out of court for end of the market. It was considered a beautiful car and an autobahn tourer DM 3,000,000 in 1967 but the Volk- and it was this feature that saved the car from elimination after Germany an- swagen archive recognizes a settlement nexed Kopřivnice and Tatra on October 10, 1938. Initially, the Nazis ter- of just one million Deutschmarks. minated all Tatra car production but Autobahn designer Dr. Fritz Todt Regardless of the court case re- requested and obtained permission to continue T87 production. Todt sults and the amount paid, historians owned one of the cars himself and felt the T87 was the very raison d’être and enthusiasts of the Tatra marque will for the Autobahn. Initially, German officers and their chauffeurs favored likely continue to claim that the Volk- the T87 for long distance traveling but they were inexperienced with its swagen was really designed by Led- high-speed capability and the unfavorable handling characteristics result- winka and it was only Hitler’s ing from the large rear-weight bias. There were several one-car accidents ruthlessness that resulted in Porsche receiving and the forbid T87 usage after a number of its personal were the credit. Objective evidence however shows that injured in off-road excursions. this is a highly biased point of view and fails to distrib- At about the same time the T87 was introduced, a smaller version ute credit to the many contributors that made the Volk- known as the T97 was also introduced. The T97, like the T77 and T87, swagen and 356 designs possible and so popular. used a backbone chassis, independent suspension both at the front and rear, an air-cooled rear-engine, and an aerodynamic body The legal maneuvering associated with the patent settle- style. The T97 was a four-passenger car with ment is deceptive if not examined in some detail. Three a four-cylinder boxer engine at the back. An chassis patent infringements were claimed: No. 601.577 innovative feature on these cars was the use of (May 23, 1933), No. 636.633 (December 18, 1932) and No. distributing cooling air through sheet metal 746.715 (January, 25 1934). The settlement as determined ducts. Ledwinka and his team applied this ef- by Landgericht Düsseldorf, at Bundespatentgericht in Mu- ficient air-cooling system design to almost nich (and in a revision at Bundesgericht in Karlsruhe) dis- every radial, V or boxer engine configuration missed the claims against patents 601.577 and 746.715 they put on their drawing boards. and affirmed infringement of Patent 636.633 (illustrated T97 production was shut down by Ger- here). Examination of the drawings associated with many after they took control of Tatra. The mo- patent 636.633 show some similarity with the design tivation often forwarded is that Hitler had his used in the VW but it is the patent words that caused VW own personal definition of a “People’s Car” and to settle. The claimed invention is a three point mount- he felt there was no need for a competitor. The ing system for an engine-transmission assembly used more likely reason however was that Germany any in possible configuration of engine, transmission needed Tatra to focus production on military ve- and drive axle placement. From the author’s perspec- hicles. Besides, the T97 was selling at RM 5,600 tive no such generalization should have been consid- ($2,250) which was a far cry from the RM 990 ered patentable. Perhaps this is why Volkswagen AG ($400) target price that Hitler had set for his peo- lawyers paid Tatra AG lawyers to annul (invalidate) ple’s car. Patent 636.633. It may seem ironical, but between According to various stories, Tatra claimed 1948 and 1950 Austro Tatra bodied the greatest num- prior to WWII that Porsche used several of Led- ber of “Gmünd” 356s.

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