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structure, others protested that it was an ugly monument to all that was wrong with industrialization. And yet technical progress was a fever that could
     not be cooled; its seductiveness was evident in the way even the most anti-industry of voices could not help but be awed when standing outside the Paris Exhibition at night: It was the first of its kind to be electrically lit.
    At Lohner & Co., the past few years had been exciting but difficult. Ferdinand Porsche’s trial-and-error method had cost Jacob quite a lot of money: Each time one idea of Porsche’s failed, he was quick to adjust and come up with a new idea that he just
had
to test. Lohner somehow found a way to grit his teeth and stick with the young man, and by the time of the Paris Exhibition, his patience was indeed paying off. The Lohner-Porsche car was
     the automotive star of the show; European newspapers wrote that it was the most outstanding innovation there.
    It’s easy to see why people made such a fuss. The car really is beautiful—primitive-looking by contemporary standards, with its big wooden wheels, its uncovered seating, and its tall, thin steering wheel—but the design is elegant and neat, streamlined with a little wave of steel at its front. The car was perfectly balancedand poised, exactly the kind of thing to be taken to the theater by an emperor or a queen: It was quiet
     because it had no transmission or layshafts, working instead with little electrical engines that were connected directly to the wheels. And it could travel 50 miles at 9 mph before its batteries needed to be recharged. Even today, such a construction would seem a unique and splendid thing. It was awarded a grand prize for its design. Ferdinand had been only twenty-three years old at the time he’d created the car’s design. “He is very young,” 2 Jacob Lohner told the crowd in Paris, “but he’s a man with quite a career ahead of him. You’ll certainly hear of him again.” And indeed, that was just the beginning. Over the next two years, Porsche 3 would build the world’s
     first hybrid as well as a car called “Mixt,” which used a mix of electric and internal-combustion engines. Both these cars were extraordinary and unprecedented. In the following years, Porsche would also design the first front-wheel- and the first four-wheel-drive automobile. In 1902, Porsche won the most prestigious medal in Austrian engineering, the Pöttinger, for his work. He had truly left the Austrian countrysideand was now moving toward
     fame. In contrast, Hitler’s move to Vienna did not go nearly so well.
    An advertisement showing the award-winning electric Lohner-Porsche car that Ferdinand designed when he was twenty-three years old. This car was powered by the hub-mounted motors on the front wheels.
(photo credit 6.1)
    Ferdinand Porsche at the wheel of the world’s first functional hybrid automobile, the Semper Vivus. The front of this car represents one of the first attempts at an aerodynamic design.
(photo credit 6.2)
    In 1903, when Hitler was fourteen years old, his father died suddenly. Hitler showed little remorse over his father’s death, but his health temporarily declined and he used his persistent flu-like sickness, alongside his new position as the only male in the house, to convince his mother that he should drop out of high school. For the following two years, he stayed home, doted on by his mother, sister, and aunt, spending his days reading and drawing. In the
     evenings, he attended Wagner operas with his friend August Kubizek, fantasizing and pontificating about architecture and music and art. Eventually, Hitler set off to Vienna with the expectation that he would study at the prestigious art academy there, and convinced Kubizek to follow him. But Hitler did not have the help of any well-connected friends. Nor did he have the “sixth sense” or the talent for his subject that Porsche had. While Hitler’s drawings were
     better than average, they were not