This USMBOOKS web page is Copyright © 2022 by USM, Inc., The text and images on it are fully protected by international copyright law. It is therefore, illegal for anyone to take any of the material found here and use it for their own purposes without our written permission, irrespective of any excuse they may feel they have for doing so.

As most people with an interest in Third Reich history know, Hitler's concept of a Kraft durch Freude (KdF or Strength Through Joy organization) Volkswagen car called for a small, cheap, economical if underpowered car that could be purchased by the masses, "just like the brilliant example of car ownership we see in America" as the Nazi Führer put it in 1936. The little beetle shaped car was designed to hold four people and to be able to attain 100 kilometers per hour (66 mph) on reasonably level paved ground, the operational speed of Hitler's Reichsautobahn (often incorrectly reported by "experts" as 100 MILES per hour).

In preparation for the delivery of KdF cars or Volkswagens the Press and Propaganda Department at Volkswagenwerk GmbH in Berlin produced a handbook called Der KdF Wagen von A bis Z or "The Strength Through Joy Car from A to Z". This is a very nice example of the book complete with its original dust jacket.

Der KdF Wagen von A bis Z is a 5-7/8 x 8-1/4 inch, 128 page multi-color soft cover book stuffed with all sorts of illustrations and information of the kind found in the very best "glove box manuals." How to care for, how to service, how to troubleshoot, and how to fix the new VW sedan or ragtop.

The book is one of the prettiest, most concise and easy to use automotive books of its type every devised. Opening the book to the center two-page spread reveals an excellent, oversized phantom view from above the right hand side of a KdF car. Callouts on the phantom view lead to finger notches along the edges of the pages, similar to the notches found on the edges of the pages of better dictionaries.

If one follows the callout line from the VW gas tank to its notch in the upper right corner of the center two-page spread the book automatically opens to page 72-73 which contains all sorts of pictures and information about the VW fuel tank and fueling the KdF Wagen. Every one of the notches leads the reader very quickly to the desired information.

We have not in many, many years been able to come up with a question about the original Volkswagen that is not answered in this wonderful book. Clean, rare and in very good used condition.