[WikiEN-l] [iris.steineck at aon.at: donation to ferdinand porsche? ...]

Tue Oct 28 14:17:40 UTC 2003

     > From: Jimmy Wales <jwales at bomis.com>

     > It looks from the history as though there's an ongoing edit war, and so
     > probably more eyeballs would be helpful.

Your wish is our command!

     >> From: "Dr. Iris Steineck" <iris.steineck at aon.at>

     >> My grandfather Erwin Komenda designed the VW-beetle and Porsche sport
     >> car type 356.
     >> ...
     >> Both, the Volkswagen and the first Porsche sport car, the Porsche type
     >> 356, were designed by Porsche's longstanding chief designer [[Erwin
     >> Komenda]].
     >> [[Erwin Komenda]], the longstanding Porsche chief designer, developed
     >> the car body for the famous VW-beetle and Porsche 356.

I have checked in the "definitive" Porsche reference book:

     Karl Ludvigsen, "Porsche: Excellence Was Expected"

and Erwin Franz Komenda was indeed Porsche's chief body stylist up until the
1960's. He joined up with Porsche in 1931, so it's quite credible that he
designed the bodies for the Beetle and 356.

I suspect that part of the problem is in the wording = Komenda wasn't really
the "chief designer" (as that term would normally be construed in English),
but rather the "chief body stylist"; also, he didn't "design ... both the
[Beetle] and [356}" (which implies he had overall responsibility for the whole
thing) - the latter wording "developed the car body" is probably fairly
accurate.

Someone (with more time than me :-) should research this in more detail...

         Noel