A small number of cars designed by Josef Ganz still exist today. Those listed below can be seen in museums in different countries. Before your visit, we advice you to check with the museum in question if the cars you want to see are currently on display.
GERMANY
Central Garage Automuseum in Bad Homburg owns the original 1931 Maikäfer (May Bug) prototype, designed and built by Josef Ganz at car manufacturer Adler in Frankfurt, but it is not always on display. Click here to visit the museum’s website for more information and opening times.
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg owns a 1933 Standard Superior Type 1 chassis as part of the art installation The Inner Beauty by artist Rémy Markowitsch, which was part of his room installation Nudnik. Forgetting Josef Ganz in 2016. The Inner Beauty is not on permanent display. Click here to visit the museum’s website for more information and opening times.
Room installation ‘Nudnik. Forgetting Josef Ganz’ by artist Rémy Markowitsch (© Courtesy Galerie Eigen+Art
Foto: Marek Kruszewski)
NETHERLANDS
Louwman Museum owns a restored 1933 Standard Superior Type 2, based on the patents of Josef Ganz, and an unrestored 1946 Rapid Swiss Volkswagen, designed by Josef Ganz, on permanent display. The Standard Superior was discovered and restored by a private German collector in the 1990s and bought by Louwman in 2018. The Rapid was found with a broken engine at a farm near Amsterdam in the 1950s and kept by the same Dutch owner for over 60 years. Louwman bought the Rapid in 2014. The Standard and the Rapid are now part of a permanent exhibition highlighting the history of the Volkswagen, sitting alongside a 1926 Hanomag Kommissbrot, a 1936 Mercedes-Benz 170H, a 1943 Volkswagen Type 166 Schimmwagen and a 1951 Volkswagen Beetle. Click here to visit the museum’s website for more information and opening times.
Standard Superior Type 2 in restored condition on display next to a Rapid “Swiss VW” at the Louwman Museum
SWITZERLAND
Verkehrshaus Luzern owns a restored 1947 Rapid Swiss Volkswagen, designed by Josef Ganz, on permanent display in their Museum-on-Demand installation. Since June 2020 Verkehrshaus also shows the 1933 Standard Superior Type 2 owned by Lorenz Schmid. Click here to visit the museum’s website for more information and opening times.
Swiss Volkswagen (1947) built by Swiss company Rapid
Standard Superior Type 2 (1933) in Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne
