Coming with receipts! I’m appreciative of that. I genuinely had no idea the number of Kubelwagens produced. I’ll certainly concede that production of vehicles during the war was significant. I’m trying to paint grey what this post paints in black and white, and perhaps it isn’t quite as grey as I make it out to be.
I’m certainly wrong in my assessment here, and thank you for the correction.
I do think it’s still worth pointing out that the very nature of its birth under the third reich, the fall of the third reich, and its rebirth under British military control, Volkswagen exists somehow different than the established automakers in Germany. I think it’s worth pointing out that while Volkswagen wears the nazi label more publicly than Merc or BMW, it’s likely the heads of those automakers were more actively complicit in the war than anyone at VW in the late 40s.
Sure, it also irks me when people start with the “nazi car” and “designed by Hitler” nonsense. The origins of the company aren’t something to be celebrated, but they’re not something to be denied either. And like you say, no German car company is totally clean, including use of slave labor by VW, Mercedes, and BMW.
Still, I see the post-war, civilian production of VWs as an example of the success of the reconstruction of West Germany rather than a continuation of any nazi ideology.
Coming with receipts! I’m appreciative of that. I genuinely had no idea the number of Kubelwagens produced. I’ll certainly concede that production of vehicles during the war was significant. I’m trying to paint grey what this post paints in black and white, and perhaps it isn’t quite as grey as I make it out to be.
I’m certainly wrong in my assessment here, and thank you for the correction.
I do think it’s still worth pointing out that the very nature of its birth under the third reich, the fall of the third reich, and its rebirth under British military control, Volkswagen exists somehow different than the established automakers in Germany. I think it’s worth pointing out that while Volkswagen wears the nazi label more publicly than Merc or BMW, it’s likely the heads of those automakers were more actively complicit in the war than anyone at VW in the late 40s.
Sure, it also irks me when people start with the “nazi car” and “designed by Hitler” nonsense. The origins of the company aren’t something to be celebrated, but they’re not something to be denied either. And like you say, no German car company is totally clean, including use of slave labor by VW, Mercedes, and BMW.
Still, I see the post-war, civilian production of VWs as an example of the success of the reconstruction of West Germany rather than a continuation of any nazi ideology.