Land was acquired at Waldbröl, east of Cologne and Bonn, where Ley was the Gauleiter-the local authority. Because this didn’t extend to building a factory, Robert Ley put his “Strength Through Joy” labor organization forward as he had for the VW works. Karl Rabe’s project list indicates that Porsche’s work on this tractor and its refinements was financed by the Volkswagen project budget. “Well,” said the bemused Kales, “they’re cheaper than iron!” When the Allied military came to inspect these tractors after the war, they asked the resident Porsche man at VW, Josef Kales, why they had rocks in their cargo platforms. Boulders were used for this when ploughing for example. This left space in front for a boxed cargo platform.Ĭarrying a load in the cargo area was important for the tractor’s stability under power, suppressing dangerous nose-lifting. Three more prototypes in 1939 seated the driver more conventionally in the rear, using the same engine. These were virtual “breadboard” studies with a new air-cooled vee-twin engine and the driver seated in front. Though the birthday may have been missed, one Type 110 tractor was ready before the year’s end and another in 1939. The first was to be ready on September 3rd, 1938-Porsche’s 63rd birthday-and the other two 10 days later. On June 2nd, 1938, a week after the cornerstone-laying ceremony at the VW factory, Rabe set out the activity plan for building three prototypes-the standard Porsche number. His engineers studied various aspects of the job including its materials needs. On November 24th, 1937 Porsche’s chief engineer Karl Rabe issued the first document on a tractor project, giving it the Type number 110. “Inexpensive to buy and maintain, suitable for large-scale manufacture, adequate performance for all work concerning farming and agriculture, robust and simple to operate.” This was his clarion call for a true Volksschlepper or Volkstraktor (People’s Tractor). Porsche set out his desiderata as follows: With main design work finished on the VW, his team had time to address the tractor. His Auto Union contract having expired, Porsche renewed his relationship of the 1920s with Daimler-Benz. When 1937 commenced the outlook for a tractor project improved at the three Porsche office floors in the seven-story Ulrichsbau at Kronenstrasse 24 in Stuttgart, the last major work of esteemed architect Philipp Jakob Manz. But when Porsche and Adolf Hitler met, their discussions often touched on Germany’s need for tractors to accelerate the work of its farmers, not only at home but also in the conquered territories that would comprise the future Greater Germany. Soon he and his team were fully engaged with the Grand Prix Auto Unions and the massive task of creating the Volkswagen car and factory. Indeed, many of Porsche’s military creations were put to just those uses when peace broke out.Īfter he established his own design office in Stuttgart in 1930-31, Porsche concentrated on the products for which he saw the greatest potential: passenger cars and racing cars. Although intended to pull field kitchens, artillery, and ammunition, his machines also had potential for agricultural service in peacetime. Ferdinand Porsche’s technical vocabulary embraced the tugs and tractors that he built at Austro-Daimler during World War I.
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