It (volkswagen lower case) was part of the government prior and during the war.
It (Volkswagen, the company, upper case) only came into existence after the war. Not a single person involved in the first was involved in the latter.
It would be wrong to ignore the Nazi connection to the design of the Beetle. But it’s not quite right to say the Volkswagen that shipped the first Beetles was the same as that under the German Labour Front / KdF. The same cannot be said about Mercedes.
Not a single person involved in the first was involved in the latter.
What a load of bullshit. The Volkswagen company has been more or less controlled by the Porsche-Piech family all the way from the 20s to today. Yes, some of the more prominent Nazis have been kicked out and briefly sentenced by the Allies, but as usual, shit floats to the top, as is obvious by the fact that they still practically run the show to a large degree.
It (volkswagen lower case) was part of the government prior and during the war
It (Volkswagen, the company, upper case) only came into existence after the war
Volkswagen has been state-owned until 1960, way after the war by the way, and the state/province of Niedersachsen still holds a 20% minority in the stocks. Yes, they got privatised. No, it is still the same entity, operating out of (among others) the same factory.
Besides, how would you even, logistically, replace every single engineer, designer, worker, manager… of a company and keep it operational? The Allies had to sweep a lot of things under the rug in order to make post-war Germany functional. If you had sentenced every Nazi collaborator to prison, most of the country would have been empty. Whether that was a good or bad decision in hindsight, well, that’s a whole other debate. That does not mean that the current leadership and workers are Nazis because of that, of course.
There was never any “uppercase/lowercase” distinction.
For the sake of anyone else who hasn’t seen this, here is the number plate out of a 1943 Kubelwagen (Nazi military vehicle) with capital-V
“Volkswagenwerk G.m.b.H” across the top.
And here’s the number plate from a 1959 beetle with the exact same name across the top over 15 years later, long after the factory had been returned to German control after being restarted by the British. The company didn’t become Volkswagen AG until 1960.
Even when referring to the car itself as “the Volkswagen,” it’s still a proper noun and Germans capitalize all of their nouns anyway.
There’s nuance, for sure. My issue is with the assertion of “collaboration with the Nazis.” There is no doubt that there is Nazi-relation built into the DNA of the car, and I’ll concede, with the company. But It doesn’t feel right to levy the claim that anyone collaborated with the Nazis in way that, say, Mercedes and certainly Porsche did. Hell, there’s stronger claims (although I’d still consider them tenuous) to Ford “collaborating” than post war Volkswagen.
Every man, woman, and company in Germany post war had to bear the burden of Nazism to some degree. I don’t believe it’s as simple or accurate to paint post-war VW as “collaborators.”
The Ford company produced military hardware directly for the Nazi army, and Henry Ford profited from it. That’s pretty obvious to me. Sure, at some point, they probably didn’t have a choice. But in the 30s? They had every choice not to take the orders, or close down business, and chose not to, out of greed or even admiration.
Every man, woman, and company in Germany post war had to bear the burden of Nazism to some degree
There is a difference between doing what you have to do in order for you and your family to survive, and actively, enthusiastically, supporting the war machine. The average worker may or may not have had much of a choice (or rather, their choices were being sent to the front or camps, or keeping their mouth shut and their head down). But the leadership? Fuck no. Calling it a “burden” that the leadership “had” to meticulously plan using slave labour for sophisticated tanks and military trucks while living in (relative) luxury is spitting in the face of the PoWs and “lesser humans” that were worked to death.
The least post-war VW could/can do is acknowledge the mistakes of their predecessors. Instead, they went straight for another authoritarian regime in Brazil to collaborate with. They only “recognized” and paid damages to former slave workers from the Nazi era in the late 90s, after a court forced them to. They only admitted to the Brasil shit after a Brasilian court in 2019 found them guilty. That doesn’t really scream “burden of Nazism” to me.
It (volkswagen lower case) was part of the government prior and during the war.
It (Volkswagen, the company, upper case) only came into existence after the war. Not a single person involved in the first was involved in the latter.
It would be wrong to ignore the Nazi connection to the design of the Beetle. But it’s not quite right to say the Volkswagen that shipped the first Beetles was the same as that under the German Labour Front / KdF. The same cannot be said about Mercedes.
What a load of bullshit. The Volkswagen company has been more or less controlled by the Porsche-Piech family all the way from the 20s to today. Yes, some of the more prominent Nazis have been kicked out and briefly sentenced by the Allies, but as usual, shit floats to the top, as is obvious by the fact that they still practically run the show to a large degree.
Volkswagen has been state-owned until 1960, way after the war by the way, and the state/province of Niedersachsen still holds a 20% minority in the stocks. Yes, they got privatised. No, it is still the same entity, operating out of (among others) the same factory.
Besides, how would you even, logistically, replace every single engineer, designer, worker, manager… of a company and keep it operational? The Allies had to sweep a lot of things under the rug in order to make post-war Germany functional. If you had sentenced every Nazi collaborator to prison, most of the country would have been empty. Whether that was a good or bad decision in hindsight, well, that’s a whole other debate. That does not mean that the current leadership and workers are Nazis because of that, of course.
Please stop spreading this myth. You and I had this same discussion last year.
There was never any “uppercase/lowercase” distinction.
For the sake of anyone else who hasn’t seen this, here is the number plate out of a 1943 Kubelwagen (Nazi military vehicle) with capital-V “Volkswagenwerk G.m.b.H” across the top.
And here’s the number plate from a 1959 beetle with the exact same name across the top over 15 years later, long after the factory had been returned to German control after being restarted by the British. The company didn’t become Volkswagen AG until 1960.
Even when referring to the car itself as “the Volkswagen,” it’s still a proper noun and Germans capitalize all of their nouns anyway.
There’s nuance, for sure. My issue is with the assertion of “collaboration with the Nazis.” There is no doubt that there is Nazi-relation built into the DNA of the car, and I’ll concede, with the company. But It doesn’t feel right to levy the claim that anyone collaborated with the Nazis in way that, say, Mercedes and certainly Porsche did. Hell, there’s stronger claims (although I’d still consider them tenuous) to Ford “collaborating” than post war Volkswagen.
Every man, woman, and company in Germany post war had to bear the burden of Nazism to some degree. I don’t believe it’s as simple or accurate to paint post-war VW as “collaborators.”
The Ford company produced military hardware directly for the Nazi army, and Henry Ford profited from it. That’s pretty obvious to me. Sure, at some point, they probably didn’t have a choice. But in the 30s? They had every choice not to take the orders, or close down business, and chose not to, out of greed or even admiration.
There is a difference between doing what you have to do in order for you and your family to survive, and actively, enthusiastically, supporting the war machine. The average worker may or may not have had much of a choice (or rather, their choices were being sent to the front or camps, or keeping their mouth shut and their head down). But the leadership? Fuck no. Calling it a “burden” that the leadership “had” to meticulously plan using slave labour for sophisticated tanks and military trucks while living in (relative) luxury is spitting in the face of the PoWs and “lesser humans” that were worked to death.
The least post-war VW could/can do is acknowledge the mistakes of their predecessors. Instead, they went straight for another authoritarian regime in Brazil to collaborate with. They only “recognized” and paid damages to former slave workers from the Nazi era in the late 90s, after a court forced them to. They only admitted to the Brasil shit after a Brasilian court in 2019 found them guilty. That doesn’t really scream “burden of Nazism” to me.
“Not a single person involved” seems like a strong claim, do you have any sources for that?
Why did you just say “uppercase” instead of actually making it uppercase?Damn autocorrect!
I had meant to, and now have edited it. Autocorrect error.
Debunked in the other comments responding to this.