Hans Ledwinka
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Hans Ledwinka born in Klosterneuburg (Lower Austria),14th February 1878, died in Munich (Germany}, 2nd March 1967; was an Austrian born Czechoslovak automobile designer, known for his innovation regarding both - technology and aesthetics.
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[edit] Youth
Born in in the vicinity of Vienna in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ledwinka started his career as simple mechanic. Only later he studied in Vienna. As a young man he was working for Nesselsdorfer-Wagenbau in Nesselsdorf, the company later known as Tatra in Moravia, where at first he was employed at the construction of the railroad cars, to be later involved in the production of the first cars produced by this firm. He designed for them the 5.3-litre six-cylinder Type U motor car. In 1917, in the midst of World War I, he left the company to join Steyr.
[edit] Chief designer at Tatra
Between 1921 and 1937, Hans Ledwinka was the chief design engineer again at the Tatra company (originally Nesselsdorfer-Wagenbau) in Kopřivnice (Nesselsdorf), then in Czechoslovakia, now in Czech Republic. Here, Ledwinka invented the frameless central tubular chassis (so-called "backbone chassis") with swing axles, fully independent suspension and rear-mounted air-cooled flat engine. Other major contribution of Ledwinka to automobile design is the development of car body streamlining and its introduction into mass production. Together with his son Erich, who took over the chief designer position at Tatra, Ledwinka designed the Tatra streamlined models Tatra 77, 87, 97, all with rear air-cooled engines.
[edit] Volkswagen controversy
Ledwinka's concepts were copied by Ferdinand Porsche, who knew Ledwinka personally and exchanged with him ideas. Tatra sued Volkswagen about the breaches of the similarities in the Volkswagen design which has been virtually copying Tatra T97. The lawsuit vanished as the Nazi Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938, and Hitler ordered the production of Tatra T97 to be halted. Only 500 cars were produced.
Porsche's successors later had to acknowledge the influence of Ledwinka's Tatra models on the Porsche-designed Kdf-Wagen of 1938 (later known as the VW Beetle), and a new post-war lawsuit resulted in a DM3,000,000 settlement paid by Volkswagen to Ringhoffer-Tatra.
[edit] Final years
After the Second World War, Ledwinka was unjustly accused of collaboration with the German occupation forces and jailed for five years in Czechoslovakia by the Soviet installed Stalinist government. After his release in 1951 he refused to work for Tatra company and retired to live in Munich, Germany where he died in 1967. In 1992, after the fall of Communism, Hans Ledwinka was posthumously fully rehabilitated by the Czech authorities.
[edit] The legacy
In 2007 Hans Ledwinka was inducted in the European Automotive Hall of Fame.
Ledwinka's son Erich, is also a car designer. He created for the Steyr-Daimler-Puch the unique Haflinger, continued by the larger Pinzgauer High Mobility All-Terrain Vehicle, both on tubular chassis and swing portal axle.
[edit] References
- Margolius, Ivan and Henry, John G. (1990). Tatra - The Legacy of Hans Ledwinka. Harrow: SAF. ISBN 0946719063.
