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During
the Second World War Komenda's family suffered the horror of the Nazi
dictatorship. The young son
Erwin was called to serve at the front and Mrs. Komenda miscarried
twins during the terror of bombing raids on Stuttgart.
Although
Porsche company regulations of 1937 placed all employees under obligation to
become members of the National Socialist Party, Komenda preserved his neutrality
and never became a member as investigations by American military authorities and
registers of party members proved. His
resistance to the regime found expression in a meeting with Hitler.
Komenda never raised his hand to greet the Führer and constantly
addressed him as “Mr Hitler”, a risky undertaking that a development
engineer, who was responsible for the technical integrity of complex major
projects, could hardly allow himself. His
provocative behaviour repeatedly outraged high-ranking Nazi officials.
Ferdinand
Porsche
was in charge of the Volkswagen plant. Car
construction was pushed into the background as the construction office was kept
busy with developments for the war effort.
Due to the prevailing petrol shortages Komenda invented the most
frequently used alternative to power vehicles during the Second World War, the
“wood-gas”
generator (vehicles were modified and fitted with a gas generator into which
wood or charcoal was introduced. Heat
was applied which in the oxygen-deprived environment of the generator changed
into gas which in turn powered the vehicle).
Komenda made a patent application for this invention.
A further patent application was made for Komenda’s construction method
for the legendary ‘swimming
car’.
During
the war Renault worked with Porsche, who was in charge of several French car
companies during the period of Nazi occupation. Thanks to his co-operation Renault secured the safety of his
plant and the building of 4CVs, which looked similar to the Volkswagen.
After the
bombing of Peenemünde, Porsche founded the controversial company for
subterranean production of the V1 rocket.
Porsche entrusted the development of optimal rocket-flight to his best engineers. Komenda worked intensively on subjects orientated towards the future such as atomic physics and space research. From this time onwards he carefully maintained contact with
Wernher von Braun, who he visited after the war at Cape Canaveral, in order to be able to
follow and participate the NASA development projects of Dr. von Braun.
By
the end of 1944, when the loss of the war was already inevitable and the
Volkswagen plant lay largely in ruins, Porsche’s first-class development team
was evacuated to Gmünd in Carinthia while Porsche himself went to Zell am See.
Mrs.
Komenda escaped from the bombing of Stuttgart to Weyer in Upper Austria where she
gave birth to a healthy daughter in January 1945. During the last days of the war, to the joy of the family,
the son Erwin returned.
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