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103-546: In 1936, a Czech engineer by the name of Ferdinand Porsche designed a prototype of a car that would be affordable enough for all Germans to buy. He then showed his idea to the then dictator of Germany, Adolf Hitler . Hitler liked his idea and ordered the manufacture of the car which was known as the KDF-Wagen or later known as the Volkswagen vehicle. With Hitler's approval, Porsche and his business partner Albert Speer set up

206-782: A generator which in turn drove the electric wheel hub motors . As a backup a small battery pack was fitted. This is the first petroleum-electric hybrid vehicle on record. Since sufficiently reliable gears and couplings were not available at the time, he chose to make it a series-hybrid , an arrangement now more common in diesel–electric or turbo-electric railway locomotives than in automobiles. Though over 300 Lohner–Porsche chassis were sold up to 1906, most of them were two-wheel drive; either front- or rear-wheel driven trucks, buses and fire-engines. Some four wheel drive buses were produced, but no four wheel drive automobiles. The vehicles achieved speeds of up to 56 kilometres per hour (35 mph), broke several Austrian speed records, and also won

309-528: A royalty on every Volkswagen Beetle manufactured. This provided Porsche with a comfortable income as more than 20 million Type I were built. In November 1950, Porsche visited the Wolfsburg Volkswagen factory for the first time since the end of World War II. Porsche spent his visit chatting with Volkswagen president Heinrich Nordhoff about the future of VW Beetles, which were already being produced in large numbers. A few weeks later, Porsche suffered

412-402: A steel body, welded to the central-tube platform chassis, instead of the aluminium body used in the initial limited Gmünd-made series. When Ferry Porsche resurrected the company he counted on series production figures of about 1,500. More than 78,000 Porsche 356s were manufactured in the following 17 years. Porsche was later contracted by Volkswagen for additional consulting work and received

515-572: A stroke . He did not fully recover, and died on 30 January 1951. In 1996, Porsche was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and in 1999 posthumously won the award of Car Engineer of the Century . Porsche visited Henry Ford 's operation in Detroit many times where he learned the importance of productivity. There he learned to monitor work. He was also surprised at how

618-516: A Central European country to be canonized by Pope John Paul II before the " Velvet Revolution " later that year. After the Velvet Divorce in 1993, the territory of Bohemia remained in the Czech Republic. The new Constitution of the Czech Republic provided for higher administrative units to be established, providing for the possibility of Bohemia as an administrative unit, but did not specify

721-512: A German army in 1004, ending the rule of Bolesław I of Poland . The first to use the title of "King of Bohemia" were the Přemyslid dukes Vratislav II (1085) and Vladislaus II (1158), but their heirs would return to the title of duke . The title of king became hereditary under Ottokar I (1198). His grandson Ottokar II (king from 1253 to 1278) conquered a short-lived empire that contained modern Austria and Slovenia . The mid-13th century had

824-573: A Proto-Germanic *Bajahaimaz . Boiohaemum was apparently isolated to the area where King Marobod 's kingdom was centered, within the Hercynian forest . Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII in his 10th-century work De Administrando Imperio also mentioned the region as Boiki (see White Serbia ). The Czech name "Čechy" is derived from the name of the Slavic ethnic group , the Czechs , who settled in

927-830: A casting plant and other facilities and receiving better captivity conditions in return. So on 8 April 1942 a new concentration camp, Arbeitsdorf, was opened with 800 inmates from the Neuengamme concentration camp . The camp commands of Neuengamme and Arbeitsdorf were united in the person of Martin Weiss , the camp commander of Neuengamme at this time. On 26 April 1942 inmates from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and on 23 June inmates from Buchenwald arrived. Mid-July 1942 camp commander became Wilhelm Schitli , former Schutzhaft -camp commander in Neuengamme. On 11 October 1942, six months after

1030-489: A contract from Hitler to design a people's car (or " Volkswagen " ), following on from his previous designs such as the 1931 Type 12 car designed for Zündapp . The first two prototypes were completed in 1935. These were followed by several further pre-production batches during 1936 to 1939. The car was similar to the contemporary designs of Hans Ledwinka of Tatra , in particular the Tatra V570 and Tatra 97 . This resulted in

1133-635: A factory in Fallersleben , a town 30 miles (48 kilometres) northeast of the city of Braunschweig , and because of the war, all production from this camp was to be used for military purposes only. In 1939 the Nazi looked for inmates to put in the camp. In 1942, Porsche and Speer started a project to see how they could use concentration camp inmates for cheaper, and large-scale production of their cars, in order to benefit their industry. The prisoners of Arbeitsdorf were skilled workforce used for construction tasks, building

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1236-552: A heated exchange both on and off the racing track between the two companies for the period until World War II. Having obtained state funds, Auto Union bought Hochleistungs Motor GmbH and hence the P-Wagen Project for 75,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁, relocating the company to Chemnitz . As Porsche became more involved with the construction of the Wolfsburg factory, he handed over his racing projects to his son, Ferry. The dominance of

1339-656: A lawsuit against Porsche claiming infringement of Tatra's patents regarding air-cooling of the rear engine. The suit was interrupted by the German invasion of Czechoslovakia : several years after World War II Volkswagen paid a settlement. Since being engaged by the National-Socialist authorities in building the Volksauto , Porsche was praised as the Great German Engineer . Hitler considered Czechs subhuman and Porsche

1442-572: A liberal democratic republic, but serious issues emerged regarding the Czech majority's relationship with the native German and Hungarian minorities. Following the Munich Agreement in 1938, the border regions of Bohemia historically inhabited predominantly by ethnic Germans (the Sudetenland ) were annexed to Nazi Germany . The remnants of Bohemia and Moravia were then annexed by Germany in 1939, while

1545-447: A new nation named and led by them with a united "slavic" ethnic consciousness. Bohemia was made a part of the early Slavic state of Great Moravia , under the rule of Svatopluk I (r. 870–894). After Svatopluk's death Great Moravia was weakened by years of internal conflict and constant warfare, ultimately collapsing and fragmenting because of the continual incursions of the invading nomadic Magyars . Bohemia's initial incorporation into

1648-641: A part of the Habsburg monarchy and the Austrian Empire . After World War I and the establishment of an independent Czechoslovak state , the whole of Bohemia became a part of Czechoslovakia , defying claims of the German-speaking inhabitants that regions with German-speaking majority should be included in the Republic of German-Austria . Between 1938 and 1945, these border regions were annexed to Nazi Germany as

1751-461: A rebirth as romantic nationalism developed among the Czechs. In 1861, a new elected Bohemian Diet was established. The renewal of the old Bohemian Crown ( Kingdom of Bohemia , Margraviate of Moravia , and Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia ) became the official political program of both Czech liberal politicians and the majority of Bohemian aristocracy ("state rights program"), while parties representing

1854-717: A referral, Porsche landed a job with the Béla Egger & Co. Electrical company in Vienna (later Brown Boveri , now ABB ), and moved there in 1893, at age 18. While working in Vienna, he enrolled as a part-time student at what is now the Vienna University of Technology , and went there whenever he could after work. Besides attending classes there, Porsche did not complete any formal engineering education. During his five years with Béla Egger , he built their first electric wheel-hub motor ,

1957-698: A seat at Mercedes, accepted the invitation of Rosenberger to join him, von Oertzen and Porsche in approaching the Chancellor. In a meeting in the Reich Chancellery , Hitler agreed with Porsche that for the glory of Germany, it would be better for two companies to take part in the racing car project, resulting in Hitler agreeing to split the money between Mercedes and Auto Union with 250,000  ℛ︁ℳ︁ to each company. This highly annoyed Mercedes, who had already developed their Mercedes-Benz W25 , and resulted in

2060-534: A serious problem, reducing the effectiveness of the vehicles, and forcing crews to destroy many otherwise operational vehicles. In November 1945, Porsche was asked to continue the design of the Volkswagen in France and to move the factory equipment there as part of war reparations . Whilst in France, Porsche was also asked to consult on the design/manufacture of the upcoming Renault 4CV , which led to serious conflict with

2163-422: A subsidiary company, Hochleistungs Motor GmbH (High Performance Engines Ltd.), to develop a racing car for which he had no customer. Based on Max Wagner's mid-engined layout the 1923 Benz Tropfenwagen , or "Teardrop" aerodynamic design, the experimental P-Wagen project racing car (P stood for Porsche) was designed according to the regulations of the 750 kg formula. The main regulation of this formula

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2266-510: A tripartite monarchy (Austria-Hungary-Bohemia) failed in 1871. The "state-rights program" remained the official platform of all Czech political parties (except for social democrats) until 1918. Under the state-rights program, appealing to the stability of Bohemia's borders over many centuries, the Czech emancipation movement claimed the right to the whole of the Bohemian lands over the Germans' right to

2369-557: The Panzerjäger Tiger (P) and known by the nickname "Ferdinand". The Ferdinand was driven by a hybrid electric powertrain, and was armed with a long barrel development of the 88mm anti-aircraft gun. The most common reason for losses was because the vehicle became stuck or broke down, and so the crews often had to destroy their own vehicles to avoid allowing them to be captured. It had a kill ratio of nearly 10:1, but as with most German wartime vehicles, lack of supplies made maintenance

2472-536: The Silver Arrows of both brands was only stopped by the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Porsche produced a heavy tank design in 1942, the VK4501 also known as "Tiger (P)". Due to the complex nature of the drive system, a competing design from Henschel was chosen for production instead. Ninety chassis that had already been built were converted into self-propelled anti-tank guns; these were put into service in 1943 as

2575-465: The Bohemian crown controlled such diverse lands as Moravia , Silesia , Upper Lusatia and Lower Lusatia , Brandenburg, an area around Nuremberg called New Bohemia, Luxembourg , and several small towns scattered around Germany. From the 13th century on, settlements of Germans developed throughout Bohemia, making Bohemia a bilingual country. The German settlers particularly brought mining technology to

2678-596: The Czech Republic . Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohemian kings , including Moravia and Czech Silesia , in which case the smaller region is referred to as Bohemia proper as a means of distinction. Bohemia was a duchy of Great Moravia , later an independent principality, a kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire , and subsequently

2781-718: The Elbe - Danube watershed . In the second century BC, the Romans were competing for dominance in northern Italy with various peoples, including the Gauls -Celtic tribe Boii . The Romans defeated the Boii at the Battle of Placentia (194 BC) and the Battle of Mutina (193 BC) . Afterward, many of the Boii retreated north across the Alps. Much later Roman authors refer to the area they had once occupied (the "desert of

2884-850: The Mercedes-Benz SSK dominated its class of motor racing in the 1920s. In 1926, Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie merged into Daimler-Benz , with their joint products beginning to be called Mercedes-Benz . However, Porsche's ideas for a small, light-weight Mercedes-Benz car was not popular with Daimler-Benz's board. He left in 1929 for Steyr Automobile , but due to the Great Depression Porsche ended up being made redundant. In April 1931, Porsche returned to Stuttgart and founded his consulting firm Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH, Konstruktionen und Beratungen für Motoren und Fahrzeugbau (designs and consulting services for motors and vehicles). With financial backing from his son-in-law

2987-610: The Potsdam Agreement . The Bohemian Germans' property was confiscated by the Czech authorities, and according to contemporary estimates, amounted to a third of the Czechoslovak national income. Germans who were valued for their skills were allowed to stay to pass on their knowledge to the Czech migrants. The expulsion severely depopulated the area and from then on, locales were referred to in only their Czech equivalents regardless of their previous demographic makeup. The resettlement of

3090-635: The SS-Ehrenring and the War Merit Cross . Porsche was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1996 and was named the Car Engineer of the Century in 1999. Ferdinand Porsche was born to Anna Porsche (née Ehrlich) and Anton Porsche, in Maffersdorf (Vratislavice nad Nisou) in northern Bohemia , part of Austria-Hungary at that time, and today part of the Czech Republic . Ferdinand

3193-653: The Sudetenland . The remainder of Czech territory became the Second Czechoslovak Republic and was subsequently occupied as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia until the end of World War II, after which Bohemia became part of the restored Czechoslovakia. In 1969, the Czech lands (including Bohemia) were given autonomy within Czechoslovakia as the Czech Socialist Republic . In 1990, the name

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3296-404: The rector of Charles University and a prominent reformer and religious thinker, influenced the rise of modern Czech. During the ecumenical Council of Constance in 1415, Jan Hus was sentenced to be burnt at the stake as a heretic . The verdict was passed despite the fact that Hus was granted formal protection by Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg prior to the journey. Hus was invited to attend

3399-549: The 1933 Berlin Motor Show German Chancellor Adolf Hitler announced his intention to motorize the nation, with every German owning either a car or a tractor in the future, and unveiled two new programs: the "people's car", and a state-sponsored motor racing programme to develop a "high speed German automotive industry"; to facilitate this, Mercedes-Benz were to be given an annual grant of 500,000  ℛ︁ℳ︁ . In June 1934, Porsche received

3502-599: The 1960 and 2000 reforms). However, the three lands are mentioned in the preamble of the Constitution of the Czech Republic : "We, citizens of the Czech Republic in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia..." Bohemia had an area of 52,065 km (20,102 sq mi), and today is home to about 6.9 million of the Czech Republic's 10.9 million inhabitants. Bohemia was bordered in the south by Upper and Lower Austria (both in Austria ), in

3605-559: The Austrian attorney Anton Piëch and Adolf Rosenberger , Porsche successfully recruited several former co-workers he had befriended at his former places of employment, including Karl Rabe , Erwin Komenda , Franz Xaver Reimspiess , and his son, Ferry Porsche . Their first project was the design of a middle class car for Wanderer . Other commissioned designs followed. As the business grew, Porsche decided to work on his own design as well, which

3708-556: The Bohemian aristocracy, started a campaign for restoration of the kingdom's historic rights, whereby Czech was to regain its historical role and replace German as the language of administration. The enlightened absolutism of Joseph II and Leopold II , who introduced minor language concessions, showed promise for the Czech movement, but many of these reforms were later rescinded. During the Revolution of 1848 , many Czech nationalists called for autonomy for Bohemia from Habsburg Austria, but

3811-602: The Bohemians could defeat the Bohemians." Despite an apparent victory for the Catholics, the Bohemian Utraquists were still strong enough to negotiate freedom of religion in 1436. That happened in the so-called Compacts of Basel , declaring peace and freedom between Catholics and Utraquists. It lasted for only a short period of time, as Pope Pius II declared the compacts to be invalid in 1462. In 1458, George of Poděbrady

3914-528: The Boii" as Pliny and Strabo called it ) as Boiohaemum . The earliest mention was by Tacitus ' Germania 28 (written at the end of the first century AD), and later mentions of the same name are in Strabo and Velleius Paterculus . The name appears to consist of the tribal name Boio- plus the Proto-Germanic noun * haimaz "home" (whence Gothic haims , German Heim , Heimat , English home ), indicating

4017-528: The Exelberg Rally in 1901, with Porsche himself driving a front-wheel drive hybrid. It was later upgraded with more powerful engines from Daimler and Panhard , which proved to be enough to gain more speed records. In 1905 Porsche was awarded the Pötting prize as Austria's most outstanding automotive engineer. In 1902, he was drafted into military service. He served as a chauffeur to Archduke Franz Ferdinand ,

4120-583: The German minority and small part of the aristocracy proclaimed their loyalty to the centralist Constitution (so-called "Verfassungstreue"). After the defeat of Austria in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, Hungarian politicians achieved the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 , ostensibly creating equality between the Austrian and Hungarian halves of the empire. An attempt by the Czechs to create

4223-776: The Helvetii and Boii left southern Germany and Bohemia a lightly inhabited "desert" into which Suebic peoples arrived, speaking Germanic languages, and became dominant over remaining Celtic groups. To the south, over the Danube, the Romans extended their empire, and to the southeast, in present-day Hungary, were Dacian peoples. In the area of modern Bohemia, the Marcomanni and other Suebic groups were led by their king, Marobodus , after they had suffered defeat to Roman forces in Germany. He took advantage of

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4326-606: The Hussite armies, he used innovative tactics and weapons, such as howitzers, pistols, and fortified wagons, which were revolutionary for the time, and established Žižka as a great general who never lost a battle. After Žižka's death, Prokop the Great took over the command for the army, and under his lead the Hussites were victorious for another ten years, to the sheer terror of Europe. The Hussite cause gradually splintered into two main factions,

4429-757: The Ilag IV camp for interned civilians from western Allied countries in the region. There were also 17 subcamps of the Flossenbürg concentration camp , in which both men and women, mostly Polish , Soviet and Jewish, but also French, Yugoslav, Czech, Romani and of several other ethnicities, were imprisoned and subjected to forced labor , and 16 subcamps of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp , in which men and women, mostly Polish and Jewish, but also Czechs, Russians, and other people, were similarly imprisoned and subjected to forced labor. Any open opposition to German occupation

4532-721: The Kingdom of the Marcomanni, concerning a queen named Fritigil , is from the fourth century, and she was thought to have lived in or near Pannonia. The Suebian Langobardi , who moved over many generations from the Baltic Sea , via the Elbe and Pannonia to Italy, recorded in a tribal history a time spent in "Bainaib". After the Migration Period , Bohemia was partially repopulated around the sixth century, and eventually Slavic tribes arrived from

4635-414: The Moravian Empire resulted in the extensive Christianization of the population . A native monarchy arose to the throne, and Bohemia came under the rule of the Přemyslid dynasty , which would rule the Czech lands for the next several hundred years. The Přemyslids secured their frontiers after the collapse of the Moravian state by entering into a state of semivassalage to the Frankish rulers . The alliance

4738-585: The Pope. After the death of King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia in the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria became the new king of Bohemia, and the country became a constituent state of the Habsburg monarchy . From 1599 to 1711, Moravia (a Land of the Bohemian Crown ) was frequently subjected to raids by the Ottoman Empire and its vassals (especially the Tatars and Transylvania ). Overall, hundreds of thousands were enslaved whilst tens of thousands were killed. Bohemia enjoyed religious freedom between 1436 and 1620 and became one of

4841-451: The Porsche family's own account, the affair was a thinly-veiled attempt at extorting money and forcing them to collaborate with Renault. But the family was deceptive about the use of forced labor and the size of their wartime operation. It was later shown that approximately 300 forced laborers were employed, including Poles and Russians. During the war, it was common practice for German factories of this size (about 1000 workers) to use what

4944-489: The Slovak lands became the separate Slovak Republic , a puppet state of Nazi Germany. From 1939 to 1945, Bohemia (without the Sudetenland), together with Moravia, formed the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . During World War II , the Germans operated the Theresienstadt Ghetto for Jews, the Dulag Luft Ost, Stalag IV-C and Stalag 359 prisoner-of-war camps for French , British, Belgian, Serbian, Dutch, Slovak, Soviet, Romanian, Italian and other Allied POWs, and

5047-482: The Winter Queen or Queen of Hearts, was the daughter of King James I of England and VI of Scotland . After Frederick's defeat in the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, 27 Bohemian estates leaders together with Jan Jesenius , rector of the Charles University of Prague, were executed on the Prague's Old Town Square on 21 June 1621, and the rest were exiled from the country; their lands were then given to Catholic loyalists (mostly of Bavarian and Saxon origin). That ended

5150-431: The area during the sixth or seventh century AD. Bohemia, like neighboring Bavaria , is named after the Boii , a large Celtic nation known to the Romans for their migrations and settlement in northern Italy and other places. Another part of the nation moved west with the Helvetii into southern France, which was one of the events leading to the interventions of Julius Caesar's Gaulish campaign of 58 BC. The emigration of

5253-414: The banks would not give them credit, as the company's plant was still under American embargo and could not serve as collateral, they did still possess considerable resources. So Ferry Porsche took one of the limited series 356 models from Gmünd and visited Volkswagen dealers to raise some orders. He asked the dealers to pay for the ordered cars in advance. The series production version made in Stuttgart had

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5356-412: The beginning of substantial German immigration, as the court sought to replace losses from the brief Mongol invasion of Europe in 1241. Germans settled primarily along the northern, western, and southern borders of Bohemia, although many lived in towns throughout the kingdom. The House of Luxembourg accepted the invitation to the Bohemian throne with the marriage to the Přemyslid heiress, Elizabeth and

5459-636: The camp was first established, production of the vehicles was stopped and the camp was closed. A minimum of six prisoners perished at Arbeitsdorf. These six deaths are officially listed as suicide, heart attack or accident. The museum Stadtschloss Wolfsburg has a documentation about the Nazi victims with its own exhibition of the slave workers at the Volkswagen factory. (Stadtmuseum Schloss Wolfsburg, Schlossstraße 8, 38448 Wolfsburg) 52°26′N 10°46′E  /  52.433°N 10.767°E  / 52.433; 10.767 Ferdinand Porsche Ferdinand Porsche (3 September 1875 – 30 January 1951)

5562-600: The cease-fire agreement, did not support Bohemian German self-defense, while the Czechoslovak army, having status of an Entente army, could freely operate. The absorption of the German-speaking areas in Czechoslovakia was hence a fait accompli . As a result, the totality of Bohemia (as the largest and most populous land) became the core of the newly formed country of Czechoslovakia , which combined Bohemia, Moravia , Czech Silesia , Upper Hungary (present-day Slovakia ) and Carpathian Ruthenia into one state. Under its first president, Tomáš Masaryk , Czechoslovakia became

5665-415: The communists and their Soviet protectors in many of the state's institutions. Gottwald and the communists responded with a coup d'état and installed a pro-Soviet authoritarian state. In 1949, Bohemia ceased to be an administrative unit of Czechoslovakia, as the country was divided into administrative regions that did not follow the historical borders. In 1989, Agnes of Bohemia became the first saint from

5768-499: The concept for which had been developed by American inventor Wellington Adams, and Porsche also raced it, in 1897. After the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I , he chose Czechoslovak citizenship. In 1934, either Adolf Hitler or Joseph Goebbels made Porsche a naturalized German citizen. In 1897 or 1898, Porsche joined the Vienna-based factory Jakob Lohner & Company , which produced coaches for Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria as well as for

5871-411: The council to defend himself and the Czech positions in the religious court, but with the emperor's approval, he was executed on 6 July 1415. The execution of Hus, as well as five consecutive papal crusades against followers of Hus, forced the Bohemians to defend themselves in the Hussite Wars . The uprising against imperial forces was led by a former mercenary, Jan Žižka of Trocnov. As the leader of

5974-441: The crowning subsequent of John I of Bohemia (in the Czech Republic known as Jan Lucemburský ) in 1310. His son, Charles IV , became King of Bohemia in 1346. He founded Charles University in Prague , Central Europe's first university, two years later. His reign brought Bohemia to its peak both politically and in total area, resulting in his being the first king of Bohemia to also be elected as Holy Roman Emperor . Under his rule,

6077-424: The development of German automobiles and German auto racing, when Hitler came to power in Germany, Rosenberger, a Jew, was arrested for "Rassenschande" (racial crimes), and imprisoned at KZ Schloss Kislau near Karlsruhe and forced to forfeit his stake in the company. He was released, by the goodwill of a colleague, Hans Baron Veyder Mahlberg who bribed Gestapo agents, but he was forced to leave Germany immediately. At

6180-481: The early Middle Ages , two new Suebic groupings appeared to the west of Bohemia in southern Germany, the Alemanni (in the Helvetian desert), and the Bavarians ( Baiuvarii ). Many Suebic tribes from the Bohemian region took part in such movements westwards, even settling as far away as Spain and Portugal. With them were also tribes who had pushed from the east, such as the Vandals , and Alans . Other groups pushed southwards towards Pannonia . The last known mention of

6283-427: The early 9th century, but became dominant only much later, in the 10th or 11th century. The 9th century was crucial for the future of Bohemia. The manorial system sharply declined, as it did in Bavaria. The influence of the central Fraganeo-Czechs grew, as a result of the important cultic center in their territory. They were Slavic-speaking, thus contributed to the transformation of diverse neighboring populations into

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6386-401: The east, and their language began to replace the older Germanic, Celtic, and Sarmatian ones. These are precursors of today's Czechs, but the exact amount of Slavic immigration is a subject of debate. The Slavic influx was divided into two or three waves. The first wave came from the southeast and east, when the Germanic Lombards left Bohemia ( circa 568 AD). Soon after, from the 630s to 660s,

6489-407: The first three places, and the car is still better known by the nickname "Prince Henry" than by its model name "Modell 27/80". He also created a 30 horsepower model called the Maja, named after Mercedes Jellinek 's younger sister, Andrée Maja (or Maia) Jellinek. Porsche had advanced to managing director by 1916 and received an honorary doctorate from the Vienna University of Technology in 1916:

6592-416: The formerly German-settled areas allowed many poorer people to acquire property, thus "equalizing" Czechoslovak society. The Communist Party won the most votes in free elections, but not a simple majority . Klement Gottwald , the communist leader, became prime minister of a coalition government. In February 1948, the non-communist members of the government resigned in protest against arbitrary measures by

6695-441: The heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne whose assassination has been credited with contributing to the start of WWI. In 1906, Austro-Daimler recruited Ferdinand Porsche as their chief designer. Porsche's best known Austro-Daimler car was designed for the Prince Henry Trial in 1910, named after Wilhelm II 's younger brother Prince Heinrich of Prussia . Examples of this streamlined, 85 horsepower (63 kW) car won

6798-525: The lands, amounting to a third of Bohemia, where they formed the majority. After World War I , the German Bohemians demanded that the regions with German-speaking majority be included in a German state . Czech political leaders however claimed the entire Bohemian lands, including majority German-speaking areas, for Czechoslovakia. By the end of October, bilingual towns had been occupied by Czech forces. By end of November, many purely German-speaking towns had been occupied. German or Austrian troops, bound by

6901-416: The moderate Utraquists and the more fanatic Taborites . The Utraquists began to lay the groundwork for an agreement with the Catholic Church and found the more radical views of the Taborites distasteful. Additionally, with general war-weariness and yearning for order, the Utraquists were able to eventually defeat the Taborites in the Battle of Lipany in 1434. Sigismund said after the battle that "only

7004-468: The monarchs of the UK, Sweden, and Romania. Jakob Lohner had begun construction of automobiles in 1896 under Ludwig Lohner in the trans- Danubian suburb of Floridsdorf . Their first design — unveiled in Vienna, Austria, on 26 June 1898 — was the Egger–Lohner vehicle (also referred to as the C.2 Phaeton). The Egger–Lohner was a carriage-like car driven by two electric motors within the front wheel hubs, powered by batteries. This drivetrain construction

7107-438: The most liberal countries of the Christian world during that period. In 1609, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II , who made Prague again the capital of the empire at the time, himself a Roman Catholic, was moved by the Bohemian nobility to publish Maiestas Rudolphina , which confirmed the older Confessio Bohemica of 1575. After Emperor Matthias II and then King of Bohemia Ferdinand II (later Holy Roman Emperor) began oppressing

7210-409: The mountainous regions of the Sudetes . In the mining town of Sankt Joachimsthal (now Jáchymov ), famous coins called Joachimsthalers were coined, which gave their name to the thaler and the dollar . Meanwhile, Prague German intermediated between Upper German and East Central German , influencing the foundations of modern standard German. At the same time and place, the teachings of Jan Hus ,

7313-428: The name of Porsche. Moreover, Porsche AG removed cars that it had previously provided for the museum. Bohemia Bohemia ( / b oʊ ˈ h iː m i ə / boh- HEE -mee-ə ; Czech : Čechy [ˈtʃɛxɪ] ; German : Böhmen [ˈbøːmən] ; Upper Sorbian : Čěska [ˈtʃɪska] ; Silesian : Czechy ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of

7416-513: The natural defenses provided by its mountains and forests. They were able to maintain a strong alliance with neighboring tribes, including (at different times) the Lugii , Quadi , Hermunduri , Semnones , and Buri , which was sometimes partly controlled by the Roman Empire and sometimes in conflict with it; for example, in the second century, they fought Marcus Aurelius . In late classical times and

7519-685: The plant. In addition to its work with Cisitalia, the company also started on a new design, the Porsche 356 , the first car to carry the Porsche brand name. The company had relocated from Stuttgart to Gmünd in Carinthia to avoid Allied bombing. The company started manufacturing the Porsche 356 in an old saw mill in Gmünd. The Gmünd factory made only 49 cars, entirely by hand. The Porsche family returned to Stuttgart in 1949 not knowing how to restart their business. While

7622-484: The pro-reformation movement in Bohemia and also ended the role of Prague as ruling city of the Holy Roman Empire. In the so-called "renewed constitution" of 1627, German was established as a second official language in the Czech lands. Czech formally remained the first language in the kingdom, but both German and Latin were widely spoken among the ruling classes, although German became increasingly dominant, and Czech

7725-417: The rank of SS-Oberführer , and during the war, he was further decorated with the SS-Ehrenring and awarded the War Merit Cross . As the war progressed his proposed solutions to new developments became more complex and he gained a reputation in certain circles as a "mad scientist" especially with Albert Speer (mainly due to his newfound affinity for "pointy" designs). A new city, "Stadt des KdF-Wagens"

7828-653: The recently appointed head of Renault, the former resistance hero, Pierre Lefaucheux . Differences within the French government and objections from the French automotive industry put a halt to the Volkswagen project before it had even begun. On 15 December 1945, French authorities arrested Porsche, Anton Piëch , and Ferry Porsche as war criminals . While Ferry was freed after six months, Ferdinand and Anton were imprisoned first in Baden-Baden and then in Paris and Dijon. While his father

7931-492: The region. In May 1945, Allied American , Polish, Czechoslovak , Soviet and Romanian troops captured the region, which was then restored to Czechoslovakia. After the war ended in 1945, after initial plans to cede lands to Germany or to create German-speaking cantons had been abandoned, the vast majority of the Bohemian Germans were expelled by the order of the re-established Czechoslovak central government, based on

8034-409: The revolutionaries were defeated. At the same time, German-speaking towns elected representatives for the first German Parliament at Frankfurt . Towns between Karlsbad and Reichenberg chose leftist representatives, while Eger , Rumburg , and Troppau elected conservative representatives. The old Bohemian Diet, one of the last remnants of the independence, was dissolved, although Czech experienced

8137-636: The rights of Protestants in Bohemia, the resulting Bohemian Revolt led to outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1618. Elector Frederick V of the Electorate of the Palatinate , a Calvinist Protestant, was elected by the Bohemian nobility to replace Ferdinand on the Bohemian throne and was known as the Winter King. Frederick's wife, the popular Elizabeth Stuart and subsequently, Elizabeth of Bohemia, known as

8240-545: The territory was taken by Samo 's tribal confederation. His death marked the end of the old "Slavonic" confederation, the second attempt to establish such a Slavonic union after Carantania in Carinthia . Other sources ( Descriptio civitatum et regionum ad septentrionalem plagam Danubii , Bavaria, 800–850) divide the population of Bohemia into the Merehani, Marharaii, Beheimare (Bohemani), and Fraganeo. (The suffix -ani or -ni means "people of-"). Christianity first appeared in

8343-482: The title "Dr. Ing. h.c." is an abbreviation of " Doktor Ingenieur Honoris Causa ". Porsche successfully continued to construct racing cars, winning 43 out of 53 races with his 1922 design. In 1923, Porsche left Austro-Daimler after differences ensued about the future direction of car development. A few months later Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft hired Porsche to serve as Technical Director in Stuttgart , Germany , which

8446-792: The west by Bavaria (in Germany ), and in the north by Saxony and Lusatia (in Germany and Poland , respectively), in the northeast by Silesia (in Poland), and in the east by Moravia (also part of the Czech Republic). Bohemia's borders were mostly marked by mountain ranges such as the Bohemian Forest , the Ore Mountains , and the Giant Mountains ; the Bohemian-Moravian border roughly follows

8549-410: The workers and the managers treated each other as equals; even he, as a visiting dignitary, had to carry his own tray in the cafeteria and eat with the workers. The need to increase productivity became a primary interest of Porsche's. Conventional methods for increasing productivity included longer working hours, a faster rate of work, and new labour-saving techniques. Originally, the Volkswagen project

8652-483: Was a development of the small car concept from his days at Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart. He financed the project with a loan on his life insurance. Later Zündapp decided to help sponsor the project, but lost interest after their success with motorcycles. NSU then took over the sponsorship, but also lost interest due to the high tooling costs. With car commissions scarce due to the depressed economic climate, Porsche founded

8755-418: Was a severe shortcoming. Though it "showed wonderful speed when it was allowed to sprint", the weight of the batteries rendered it slow to climb hills. It also suffered from limited range due to limited battery life. Still employed by Lohner, Porsche introduced the " Lohner–Porsche Mixte Hybrid" in 1901: instead of a massive battery-pack, an internal combustion engine built by the German firm Daimler drove

8858-500: Was already a major center for the German automotive industry. In 1924, he received another honorary doctorate from the Stuttgart Technical University for his work at Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft in Stuttgart and was later given the honorary title of Professor. While at Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft he came up with several very successful race car designs. The series of models equipped with superchargers that culminated in

8961-643: Was an Austrian-Bohemian-German automotive engineer and founder of the Porsche AG . He is best known for creating the first gasoline – electric hybrid vehicle ( Lohner–Porsche ), the Volkswagen Beetle , the Auto Union racing cars , the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK , and several other important developments and Porsche automobiles. An important contributor to the German war effort during World War II , Porsche

9064-637: Was brutally suppressed by the Nazi authorities, and many Czech patriots were executed as a result. In 1942, the Czechoslovak resistance carried out the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich , and in reprisal German forces murdered the population of a whole village, Lidice . In the spring of 1945, death marches of prisoners of several subcamps of the Flossenbürg, Gross-Rosen and Buchenwald concentration camps in Saxony and Silesia, and Allied POWs from camps in Austria reached

9167-414: Was changed to the Czech Republic , which became a separate state in 1993 with the breakup of Czechoslovakia . Until 1948, Bohemia was an administrative unit of Czechoslovakia as one of its "lands" ( země ). Since then, administrative reforms have replaced self-governing lands with a modified system of "regions" ( kraje ), which do not follow the borders of the historical Czech lands (or the regions from

9270-507: Was easily expanded to four-wheel drive , by mounting two more electric motors to the rear wheels, and a four-motor example was ordered by Englishman E. W. Hart in 1900. In December that year, the car was displayed at the Paris World Exhibition under the name Toujours-Contente. Even though this one-off vehicle had been commissioned for the purposes of racing and record-breaking, its 1,800 kg (4,000 lb) of lead–acid batteries

9373-521: Was elected to ascend to the Bohemian throne. He is remembered for his attempt to set up a pan-European "Christian League", which would form all the states of Europe into a community based on religion. In the process of negotiating, he appointed Zdeněk Lev of Rožmitál to tour the European courts and to conduct the talks. However, the negotiations were not completed because George's position was substantially damaged over time by his deteriorating relationship with

9476-483: Was essentially slave labor, often with Slavic prisoners of war, who were frequently worked to death. The post-war French government required a payment of one million francs, variously described as ransom or bail, for the release of Piëch and Porsche. Initially unable to obtain this amount of money, the family eventually raised it through their contract with Cisitalia. During a trial, witnesses were brought forward to testify that no French prisoners had been imported to work at

9579-531: Was facilitated by Bohemia's conversion to Christianity, in the 9th century. Continuing close relations were developed with the East Frankish Kingdom , which devolved from the Carolingian Empire , into East Francia , eventually becoming the Holy Roman Empire . After a decisive victory of the Holy Roman Empire and Bohemia over invading Magyars in the 955 Battle of Lechfeld , Boleslaus I of Bohemia

9682-579: Was founded near Fallersleben for the Volkswagen factory, but wartime production concentrated almost exclusively on the military Kübelwagen and Schwimmwagen variants. Mass production of the car, which later became known as the Beetle, began after the end of the war. The city is named Wolfsburg today and is still the headquarters of the Volkswagen Group . German racing driver Hans Stuck had met Hitler before he became Chancellor, and not being able to gain

9785-477: Was granted the Moravia by German emperor Otto the Great . Bohemia would remain a largely autonomous state under the Holy Roman Empire for several decades. The jurisdiction of the Holy Roman Empire was definitively reasserted when Jaromír of Bohemia was granted fief of the Kingdom of Bohemia by Emperor King Henry II of the Holy Roman Empire, with the promise that he hold it as a vassal once he reoccupied Prague with

9888-546: Was his parents' third child. His father was a master panel-beater . Ferdinand showed a great aptitude for technology and was especially intrigued by electricity from a young age. He was already attending classes at the Imperial Polytechnical College in Reichenberg ( Czech : Liberec - some 5 km (3 mi) from his home) at night, while still helping his father in his mechanical shop by day. Thanks to

9991-521: Was in captivity, Ferry worked diligently to keep the company in business, developing a division for the repair of automobiles, water pumps, and winches . A contract with Piero Dusio was completed for a Grand Prix motor racing car, the Type 360 Cisitalia . The innovative 4WD design never raced. The legal basis of Piëch and Porsche's imprisonment was principally Ferdinand Porsche's contribution to his country's war effort and personal friendship with Hitler. In

10094-777: Was involved in the production of advanced tanks such as the VK 45.01 (P) , the Elefant (initially called "Ferdinand") self-propelled gun, and the Panzer VIII Maus super-heavy tank, as well as other weapon systems, including the V-1 flying bomb . Porsche was a member of the Nazi Party and an officer of the Schutzstaffel (SS). He was a recipient of the German National Prize for Art and Science ,

10197-425: Was promoting Nazism by displaying signs commemorating its native son, in 2013 the town authorities removed the signs and changed the content of a local exhibition so that it would cover not only his automotive achievements, but also his Nazi party and SS membership, and the importance of his work for the Nazi war cause. The move was criticized by the local association of Porsche car owners as silly and intent on smearing

10300-763: Was spoken in much of the countryside. The formal independence of Bohemia was further jeopardized when the Bohemian Diet approved administrative reform in 1749. It included the indivisibility of the Habsburg Empire and the centralization of rule, which essentially meant the merging of the Royal Bohemian Chancellery with the Austrian Chancellery. At the end of the 18th century, the Czech National Revival movement, in cooperation with part of

10403-553: Was that the weight of the car without driver, fuel, oil, water and tires was not allowed to exceed 750 kg (1,650 lb). In 1932, Auto Union Gmbh was formed, consisting of struggling auto manufacturers Audi , DKW , Horch and Wanderer . The chairman of the Board of Directors, Baron Klaus von Oertzen wanted a showpiece project, so at fellow director Adolf Rosenberger's insistence, von Oertzen met with Porsche, who had done work for him before. Despite Rosenberger's contribution to

10506-616: Was to be a collaboration of the existing German auto manufacturers, but they bowed out of the project, and a complete workforce was needed. The Volkswagen plant was completed in 1938 after Italian labour was brought in. Volkswagen, under Ferdinand Porsche, profited from forced labour . This included a large number of Soviets. By early 1945, German nationals only made up 10% of Volkswagen's workforce. Following protests from local World War II survivors that Porsche's birthplace Maffersdorf in Austrian Bohemia, now Czech Vratislavice nad Nisou ,

10609-530: Was urged to apply for German citizenship in 1934. A few days later, he indeed filed a declaration giving up the Czechoslovak citizenship at a Czechoslovak consulate in Stuttgart . In 1937, he joined the Nazi Party (becoming member no. 5,643,287 ) as well as the SS . By 1938, he was using the SS as security personnel and drivers at his factory, and later set up a special unit called SS Sturmwerk Volkswagen . In 1942, he reached

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