**A rough sketch of the first VW camper van: Ben Pon’s notebook from 1947.** Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

The VW camper van: an iconic vehicle with a Swiss connection

Nowadays, the VW camper van has cult status. It was invented by a Dutchman named Bernadus Pon who spent a lot of time in Switzerland after building a villa there. In 1965, Pon, who by then had become very wealthy, gifted every schoolchild in a small Swiss village with a savings account.

Michael van Orsouw

Michael van Orsouw has a PhD in history and is a performance poet and author. He regularly publishes historical books.

Website: geschichte-texte.ch

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Bernardus Pon, a 43-year-old Dutch car salesman who imported Volkswagen cars to the Netherlands, was growing desperate. The German wartime occupation was still fresh in people’s minds, so selling German cars was proving very difficult. Ben – as Bernardus Pon was known – therefore decided to innovate: he envisioned a simple transporter with a boxy structure that was to be as robust as a VW Beetle, and would likewise feature a rear engine. After visiting the VW factory in Wolfsburg in 1947, Ben Pon set about producing a rough sketch – and so the multi-million-selling VW camper van was born. The sketch, scribbled in a perforated notebook and now in the famous Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, marked the beginning of a remarkable success story. Ben Pon also had links to Switzerland, but more on that later.

**Dutchman Bernardus Pon – known as Ben Pon – a resourceful and inventive fellow with Swiss connections.** benpon.nl

The VW T1 – the original VW camper van model based on Pon’s design – started being mass produced in 1950. And the transporter very quickly proved a runaway success. Amid the post-war reconstruction of the German economy, demand for small utility vans was high among tradespeople and small business owners, and 100,000 camper vans were produced in just four years. The ‘Bulli’ as it was known in the German-speaking world from then on, is still hugely popular among professionals, families, travellers and hippies. It now has cult status and a huge fan base throughout the world.

**Advertising brochure from 1951: “Undemanding and low maintenance”** Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

And so, back to Ben Pon. The vivacious car salesman, who was born in 1904, also introduced the famous VW Beetle to America. But sometimes he too needed to slow down and take a break, which is why in 1957 he started holidaying in Switzerland, staying in Walchwil in the canton of Zug, with its fig and palm trees. Ben Pon liked it there so much that he decided to buy or build a house. While chatting to regulars at the local Sternen restaurant, Pon talked of his plans. The landlord then referred him to Thomas Hürlimann-Luthiger, who ran a local heating and plumbing business and was also a fountain master and local councillor. Things moved quickly from there. In 1961, Pon bought a plot of land in Engelmatt on which Hürlimann arranged for a villa to be built. After that, Ben Pon would often visit the Lake Zug area. When the Walchwil local authority opened the new school building in 1963, Ben Pon came up with a unique idea. As the school was to be located near his property, he decided to open a savings account with ten Swiss francs in it for every child at the primary school in Walchwil.

**A gift from Ben Pon: Gregor Senn and the other pupils at the primary school in Walchwil were each given 10 Swiss francs.** zentralplus.ch / Raphael Zemp

And all new primary school pupils in subsequent years also received a savings account from the generous Dutchman. The online magazine Zentralplus tracked down some of the recipients of this gift from Ben Pon, such as Monika Senn, who explained how remarkable it was that “someone came along and gave the whole school a gift in one go as if it were Christmas.” Today, Walchwil is a popular and fiscally advantageous place to live for wealthy foreigners, but that wasn’t the case back in the mid-1960s. So the Dutchman’s generosity is likely to have caused quite a stir in the former farming village.

**A companion you can take anywhere: VW camper van at an anti-nuclear protest, Lucens, 1978.** Swiss National Museum/ASL

**A multipurpose vehicle: a hippy version from California.** Wikimedia / Marshall Astor

However, that’s not the end of the wealthy donor’s story. Ben Pon was so impressed with Thomas Hürlimann’s work in arranging the sale of the land and the construction that he wanted to continue to do business with him. In 1964, Pon and Hürlimann jointly set up the investment and real estate company, Bentom AG – an amalgamation of its founders’ first names. They went on to build many houses and apartments in the cantons of Zug and Lucerne. When Ben Pon died in 1968, his son Ben Pon Jr. took over as chairman in Walchwil until 1971. Bentom is still a premium real estate company operating in some of Switzerland’s top locations. But you’re unlikely to find many Volkswagens in the underground garages of Bentom’s swish properties – although Porsche now belongs to the VW Group, so actually ...

More of: 20th / 21st century Economy Technology Transportation

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