Jump to content
  • When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

BMW and the Nazis, Part I:


Slavs

Recommended Posts

BMW-Logo-with-eagle-300x241.jpg.544a7ff51090045f06aff6fce4e96f25.jpg

BMW and the Nazis, Part I:

 

After purchasing my first BMW in 1982, a solid running 1968 1600  Manilla, one of my neighbors, an old American GI who fought his way through France and Germany during 1944-45, made a sobering comment to me "If you only knew what BMW did to your people, you would never have purchased that car”. As an 18 year old I had a general awareness of the German Industry's complicity in the Nazi war effort. But, more poignantly I had a very good idea of what the Nazis had done to my people as many of my living family members at that time still bore both, the physical and emotional scars from their experiences under Nazi tyranny. With the 1600 being my first and very "Cool" car, though, I brushed it all aside.

 

My old neighbor was on the mark, though.

 

BMW utilized its far reaching industrial might in support of the Nazis' rise to power and subsequent war effort. It closely collaborated with the SS, benefiting from a slave labor force recruited from infamous concentration camps including Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and others. As the company transformed from peacetime to war production it increasingly relied on slave labor to amass a vast fortune. BMW's labor force expanded from 6,500 employees who generated over RM 35 million in 1933 to a predominantly slave labor force accounting for two thirds of its 56,200 employees in 1944 and generating RM 750 million. These Inmate laborers worked in 12 + hour shifts and faced starvation and severe punishment, including death, for minor infractions. Their average life expectancy was only six months.  

 

The marque is further clouded by the Quandt family, including its Patriarch and prominent German Industrialist Gunther Quandt, who controlled stakes in BMW, Daimler Benz, AFA-Varta batteries, IWKA, metal working and mining companies and various subsidiaries and factories manufacturing firearms, ammunition, textiles, electrical components, batteries, automobiles, motorcycles and aircraft engines. Gunther Quandt wasn’t a reluctant accomplice forced to contribute to the Nazi war effort, but rather a proactive supporter of Adolf Hitler from the inception of the Nazi movement in the 1920s. With Hitler’s ascension to power in 1933, Gunther joined the Nazi party, and in 1937 Hitler appointed him “Leader of the Defense Economy”. As the Nazis expropriated Jewish property during the late 30s, the Quandts were rewarded for their loyalty with the spoils including ownership of former Jewish businesses and assets. BMW's largest plants, which produced aircraft engines at Allach - Munich and Durrerhof- Eisenach, had their own concentration camps while an execution area with gallows was set-up at the AFA battery plant in  Hanover. Female slave laborers were also transferred from Auschwitz to AFA’s Berlin-based subsidiary, Pertrix GmbH.

 

With the onset of the Cold War during the late 40s the West quickly turned its attention away from retribution to appeasement as it sought to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Germans while cultivating relationships with key Nazis in support of the West’s geopolitical struggle against the Soviet Union. Other than Bruno Tesch and Karl Weibacher, who were executed for knowingly supplying a pesticide, Zyklon –B, for the gas chambers, most leading German industrialists such as BMW’s Gunther Quandt escaped the hangman’s noose as they were deemed indispensable to American and British militaries and post-war reconstruction efforts. Among them was Albert Speer, Hitler’s friend, architect and Minister of Armaments who ruthlessly and efficiently increased German arms production during the war, utilizing expendable slave labor. While the Russians protested, Western judges at the Nuremberg Trials spared his life.

 

Gunther died at age 73 while on vacation in Egypt in 1954. He was survived by two sons, Herbert and Harald Quandt. Herbert was from his first wife, Antoine Quandt, who died of the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 while Harald was from his second marriage to Magda Behrend Rietschel which ended in divorce. Magda later married Joseph Goebbles , Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, with whom she committed suicide after murdering their six children in Hitler’s Bunker in 1945. Herbert, who became a Director of Personnel for AFA in 1940, went on to manage the family’s shares in Daimler Benz and BMW, taking full control of the latter in 1959, just as a new generation of modern sports sedans started rolling off BMW's assembly lines. Harald controlled the family’s fortunes in Karlsruhe Augsburg AG (IWKA), involved in mechanical engineering and arms manufacture.

 

As leading German automakers such as VW and Mercedes turned to face their dark and horrid past while attempting to make token payments to the families they destroyed, the Quandts, one of Germany’s richest families with a $35 billion fortune, remained silent up until the airing of a documentary on their family history in 2006, after which they offered an official apology. Paradoxically, various publications and BMW enthusiasts often refer to the Quandts with reverence and veneration. But, the Quandts and BMW are forever tainted. If the Quandts had faced justice after the war, perhaps BMW would never have evolved to become one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers. But, just as the Hippies turned the VW into an iconic symbol of peace, I prefer to think of my old BMW sedan as something I have turned in a positive direction. However, BMW's role in support of the Nazis should never be simply dismissed.

 

 

Pictured: Adolf Hitler and Gunther Quandt, BMW's Patriarch, inspecting a BMW VI -V12, 47 liter, 700hp aircraft engine.

Pictured: Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Auto Show.

Pictured: Inmate laborers from the Dachau concentration camp working at BMW's Allach-Munich plant.

Prison Laborers at BMW's Allach plant near Munich.jpg

 

BMW & the Nazis.jpg

Prison Laborers at BMW's Allach plant near Munich.jpg

EJ3OxC0XYAclu3B.jpg

Prison Laborers at BMW's Allach plant near Munich.jpg

Prison Laborers at BMW's Allach plant near Munich.jpg

Edited by Slavs
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Slavs changed the title to BMW and the Nazis, Part I:

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • BMW Neue Klasse - a birth of a Sports Sedan

    BMW Neue Klasse - a birth of a Sports Sedan

    Unveiling of the Neue Klasse Unveiled in 1961, BMW 1500 sedan was a revolutionary concept at the outset of the '60s. No tail fins or chrome fountains. Instead, what you got was understated and elegant, in a modern sense, exciting to drive as nearly any sports car, and yet still comfortable for four.   The elegant little sedan was an instant sensation. In the 1500, BMW not only found the long-term solution to its dire business straits but, more importantly, created an entirely new
    History of the BMW 2002 and the 02 Series

    History of the BMW 2002 and the 02 Series

    In 1966, BMW was practically unknown in the US unless you were a touring motorcycle enthusiast or had seen an Isetta given away on a quiz show.  BMW’s sales in the US that year were just 1253 cars.  Then BMW 1600-2 came to America’s shores, tripling US sales to 4564 the following year, boosted by favorable articles in the Buff Books. Car and Driver called it “the best $2500 sedan anywhere.”  Road & Track’s road test was equally enthusiastic.  Then, BMW took a cue from American manufacturers,
    The BMW 2002 Production Run

    The BMW 2002 Production Run

    BMW 02 series are like the original Volkswagen Beetles in one way (besides both being German classic cars)—throughout their long production, they all essentially look alike—at least to the uninitiated:  small, boxy, rear-wheel drive, two-door sedan.  Aficionados know better.   Not only were there three other body styles—none, unfortunately, exported to the US—but there were some significant visual and mechanical changes over their eleven-year production run.   I’ve extracted t
  • Upcoming Events

  • Supporting Vendors

×
×
  • Create New...