The Hate Bug …

Herbie: Fully Loaded was last year’s summer smash hit movie for Herbie the loveable Volkswagen Beetle. Until now, ask any Disney executive to name all the movies he appeared in, and they will list “The Love Bug”, “Herbie Rides Again”, “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo”, “Herbie Goes Bananas” and “Herbie: Fully Loaded”.

"Herbie is wholesome American fun for all the family." That’s the official line. But like NASA space pioneer Wernher von Braun there is a dark history behind the beloved icon ...

The Volkswagen Beetle was based on a design by Adolf Hitler of a car "for the people". It was to be affordable to the common German, capable of speeds up to 60 m.p.h. and able to carry a typical German family.

To sell the idea of the car to the German public, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels orchestrated a newsreel of Hitler receiving one of the early prototypes of the VW Beetle at his retreat in Bavaria. Eva Braun fell in love with if immediately, saying it's headlights reminded her of the sad droopy eyes of her uncle Herbie. Goebbels loved the name, as it gave the car a human touch which would sell to the German people, and used it in the title “Herbie geht zu Nuremberg” (trans. “Herbie goes to Nuremburg").

No complete reels of the film have survived the war, however below are some stills the Crow has been able to locate. The general theme was how Germany was leading the world in it’s technology, and how thanks to the Third Reich every German citizen was now being offered ownership of a car at affordable prices, the rest of the film shows the Hitlers receiving one of the first models, and driving it to that years Nuremberg Rally. This of course was a lie, because although behind the conception of the car, and very enthusiastic about it in public, privately Hitler preferred using his Mercedes Benz for such journeys.



It seems though in 1969, when Disney were creating their first movie, the Love Bug, that the nickname of “Herbie” for the car had remained. There are rumours this was because one of the engineers who worked on the film was a German immigrant who had worked on the Goebbels film thirty years previously, and suggested the name to the director, not telling them it’s true history ….

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