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This is now a Ferdinand Porsche hate account. Why? Because

Ferdinand Porsche stole Joseph Ganz's Volkswagen

It's impossible to run this account, scouring the internet for a friendly car I haven't seen yet, and not absorb at least a little bit of automotive history. I have no idea if anyone has ever noticed, but my focus kind of wanders around the world, moving from country to country or region to region as fancy strikes me. It makes things easier if I haven't planned ahead to remember "oh yeah, I've been looking at cars from Italy" or Germany or wherever. On the best days, I feel like I can piece together the industrial history of a country as I trawl through the model after model. This last week, as I've been focusing on the vehicles of Weimar Germany, there has been one consistent story emerging time and time again: Ferdinand Porsche is an asshole.

There was not a lightweight, swing-axled, rear-engined automobile built or prototyped in pre-War Germany that Porsche didn't steal from. And Porsche himself admitted it. When asked about the similarities between Tatra's designs for the T-97, designed by Hans Ledwinka, and Porsche's "own" eventual Volkswagen Typ 1, Porsche remarked "Well, sometimes I looked over his shoulder and sometimes he looked over mine."

Contrary to Porsche's claims that there was some kind of mutual understanding to his thieving, however, by mid-1938, Tatra had filed 10 claims against Volkswagen for infringing on Tatra's patents. When he learned of this, Porsche let his dear friend Hitler know. Hitler told Porsche that he would take care of it.

Germany invaded Czechosolovakia that September.

(After the war, the lawsuit was allowed to proceed, and Tatra was awarded 1,000,000 Deutsche Marks in a settlement)

Joseph Ganz received no such restitution. Joseph Ganz, a Jewish man originally from Budapest, rose to popularity in the 1920s as the editor-in-chief of Motor-Kritik with bombastic articles arguing for the replacement of the old, outdated designs of the era with safer, more efficient, more people-friendly "people's cars." The very idea of a "volkswagen" began with Joseph Ganz.

Standard Fahrzeugfabrik was one of the many companies that took interest in Joseph Ganz's ideas, and was one of the only to also take interest in Ganz's facilities as an engineer. Working with Ganz, they developed the Standard Superior in 1933, based on his original 1931 prototype the "Maikäfer" (literally "may beetle." Porsche even stole the nickname.) With seating for an entire family, and even seats intended especially for children, Standard began marketing the new car as a true Volkswagen.

Joseph Ganz's tenure at Motor-Kritik and as fledgling car designer came to an abrupt end in 1933. The Gestapo trumped up false charges against him, accusing him of using his position at the magazine to extort and blackmail the automotive industry, and arrested him in May 1933. He was released and fled Germany in 1934—the same year Hitler ordered his close personal friend Ferdinand Porsche to design a volkswagen of his own. Soon after, Hitler ordered the cessation of the production of Standard Superiors and Ferdinand Porsche erased all memory of a Jewish man's influence on one of the most popular cars of all time, claiming for himself the very idea of a "people's car."

Joseph Ganz died in relative obscurity in Melbourne, Australia.