Ferdinand Porsche reached the rank of "SS-Oberführer". During the war, Porsche was further decorated with the SS-Ehrenring and awarded the War Merit Cross. As the war progressed his proposed solutions to new developments became more complex and Ferdinand Porsche gained a reputation in certain circles as a "mad scientist" especially with Albert Speer (mainly due to his new found affinity for "pointy" designs). A new city, "Stadt des KdF-Wagens" was founded near Fallersleben for the Volkswagen factory, but wartime production concentrated almost exclusively on the military Kübelwagen and Schwimmwagen variants. Mass production of the car, which later became known as the Beetle,
SS Panzer Brigade Gross SS Panzer Brigade Gross SS Panzer Brigade "Gross" was a unit of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II, under the command of Obersturmbannführer Martin Gross. The brigade was formed from the SS Panzer Training and Replacement Regiment based in Dundaga, Latvia and the SS Panzer Troop Training Regiment "Seelager" based at the training grounds at Ventspils together with the SS Reconnaissance Training Battalion in August 1944. The brigade consisted of two infantry battalions, a panzer battalion of two companies with Panzer III and Panzer IV, a reconnaissance battalion, a StuG battalion, a pioneer company and a Flak