1935 Maier Leichtbau: The “Lost Volkswagen” That Time Erased

Описание: 1935 Maier Leichtbau 🚗 was the 20HP German prototype that secretly beat Volkswagen to the “people’s car” idea—years before Ferdinand Porsche’s Beetle. Buried in obscurity, this lightweight 684 kg monocoque sedan had a turning headlight, adjustable suspension, and innovations that wouldn’t resurface until decades later.

Discovered in 2008 under a layer of dust in Krefeld, this one-off invention tells the forgotten story of Friedrich Eugen Maier, an engineer who dreamed bigger than politics would allow. His patents, worth millions, were ignored, confiscated, or quietly absorbed by others—leaving his prototype to rot in a barn.

Today, the restored Maier Leichtbau draws crowds at classic car events, sparking the question: could history have chosen the wrong “people’s car”? 🧐

👉 If you love lost legends and forgotten prototypes, smash that 👍, tap the 🔔, and join us on Cool Ideas for more cars history tried to erase.

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Image Sources
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This video contains historical and archival photographs from:
– Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain, CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA)
– Flickr (licensed for commercial use / no known copyright restrictions)
– Unsplash / museums / archives (CC0 or equivalent licenses)

All images are used under their respective free licenses.

👉 Full credits with authors & links are available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q...

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