240px, Parts of an unfinished armored vehicle taken at the Krupp steel works in Essen in May 1945 after the war. The VK 36.01's turret is lined up, along with the hull and turret of the Panzer VIII Maus

super-heavy tank A super-heavy tank or super heavy tank is any tank that is notably beyond the standard of the class heavy tank in either size or weight relative to contemporary vehicles. Programs have been initiated on several occasions with the aim of creati ...

and the Jagdtiger gun mantlet. The VK 36.01 (H) was an experimental German

heavy tank Heavy tank is a term used to define a class of tanks produced from World War I through the end of the Cold War. These tanks generally sacrificed mobility and maneuverability for better armour protection and equal or greater firepower than tanks ...

, developed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The VK 36.01 H was further development of the VK 30.01 (H) experimental

medium tank A medium tank is a classification of tanks, particularly prevalent during World War II which represented a compromise between the mobility oriented light tanks and the armour and armament oriented heavy tanks. A medium tank's classification is ...

, and subsequently lead to the development of the

VK 45.01 (H) VK 45.01 (H) was a German tank which was the final prototype of the Panzer VI Tiger I, evolved from the VK 36.01 (H), designed by Henschel. It was selected by Adolf Hitler over the competing VK 45.01 (P) from Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche ...

. There were only 8 chassis and one complete prototype built, all by

Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicle ...

. At the time Henschel was assigned with developing a breakthrough weapon that would help defeat the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Other experimental heavy tanks and

s were built, designed, and tested by Henschel. The development of the VK 36.01 (H) lead to the development of the

, the prototype immediately preceding, and approved for production into, the

Tiger I The Tiger I () was a German heavy tank of World War II that operated beginning in 1942 in Africa and in the Soviet Union, usually in independent heavy tank battalions. It gave the German Army its first armoured fighting vehicle that mounted ...

References

{{WWIIGermanAFVs Heavy tanks of Germany