Herbert Quandt and Harald Quandt made a significant investment in BMW, which allowed the business to continue operating independently. German entrepreneur Gunther Quandt, the father of the Quandt family, was well-known. Quandt became a member of the Nazi party in 1933 and amassed wealth by producing weapons and batteries for the German Wehrmacht.
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The Holocaust and BMW
On its 100th anniversary in March 2016, the German automaker BMW issued an apology for its involvement in World War II and expressed its “deep regret” for providing Nazis with vehicles and employing slave labor.
On March 16, 1916, the Bavarian Motor Works, also known as Bayerische Motoren Werke, was established in Munich. BMW created the engines for Nazi fighter aircraft like the Focke Wulf FW190 during World War II. The high-performance BMW engines, which replaced the original Mercedes engine, gave German aircraft an aerial advantage over the British and French.
The business claimed that during the National Socialist era of the 1930s and 1940s, BMW AG only served as a supplier to the German arms industry. Forced workers, criminals, and prisoners from concentration camps were hired to help with the production of BMW aero engines as demand escalated.
According to the business, BMW “with the release of a book titled “BMW – A German History,” became the first industrial company to start a public discussion on this period of its history. BMW joined the “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” foundation, which was established in 1999 to provide compensation to former forced laborers.
The Quandt family, who acquired a controlling stake in BMW after the war, further taints the company’s past. Following the publication of a study it had commissioned from historian Joachim Scholtyseck, the Quandt family admitted involvement in Nazi crimes in 2011. The study showed that Gunther Quandt and his son Herbert were responsible for using slave labor, acquiring Jewish businesses, and doing business with the highest levels of the Nazi party.
Gunther Quandt acquired the bulk of the stock in AFA, a business that made batteries for the German military, in 1923. In 1933, he joined the Nazi Party, and four years later, Hitler gave him the role of Wehrwirtschaftsfuhrer, or head of the armed economy.
By using the Nazi effort to “Aryanize” Jewish-owned businesses, Gunther was able to purchase businesses. He then employed an estimated 50,000 slave laborers in his factories that made weapons such ammunition, rifles, artillery, and U-boat batteries. Herbert served as the director of an AFA subsidiary in Berlin that employed Polish women who had been relocated from Auschwitz as well as other female slave laborers.
the author Ray Massey “German automaker BMW apologizes for its involvement in the Second World War and expresses “deep regret” for giving the Nazis automobiles and exploiting slave labor, according to the Daily Mail (March 7, 2016).
The Wartime Dark History of BMW
Even though World War II ended 70 years ago, many people still find the recollections upsetting. Some people still regret their historical position. The BMW automaker is one among those making amends.
Bayersische Motoren Werke AG is commemorating its 100th anniversary since its founding in 1916 in Munich. The organization continues to acknowledge the less than ideal times in its history notwithstanding the occasion. The firm apologized for the “immense pain” that its employment of Nazi slave labor during World War II had resulted in.
Gunther Quandt was the owner at the time. Quandt and his son Herbert were close to Adolf Hitler and were not averse to using their political ties to profit from the Holocaust and companies that the government had taken over in order to produce weapons, artillery, ammunition, and U-boat batteries. During the war, the firm kept almost 50,000 captives from concentration camps and forced laborers. These prisoners of war or forcefully removed subjects from areas under German occupation were used as forced laborers.
The workers for the armies, who came from almost every nation in Europe, were frequently no better than slaves. They were underpaid and frequently worked in hazardous situations. In addition to being verbally and physically harassed, these convicts had significant mortality rates. At the time, the corporation was helping the Nazis exploit these people as slave labour and inflict unimaginable suffering.
BMW stated, “BMW AG worked exclusively as a supplier to the German arms sector during the National Socialist administration of the 1930s and ’40s.” Additionally, they used the occasion to point out that they were “the first industrial corporation to launch a public debate about this chapter of its history with the release of a book entitled BMW – Eine Deutsche Geschichte (BMW – A German History).” The BMW Group has actively promoted tolerance, respect, and understanding amongst cultures ever since the 1990s, they go on to say.
The famous German automaker provided the German army with a variety of vehicles. The Nazis produced the automobiles they required to wage war from the Urals to Morocco using the superior engineering of the BMW firm. German businesses like BMW assisted the Nazi Party in building an extremely effective war machine and starting a World War.
With its engine ideas, the business might have possibly altered the course of the conflict. Some of the early jet engine prototypes were created by the business. Eventually, a BMW engine was installed in the Heinkel HE 162, one of the first jets ever built. Fortunately, it arrived too late in the conflict to influence it. BMW, a reputable firm, undoubtedly has a troubled background. With its technology and use of slave labor, BMW may have assisted the terrible Nazi regime in winning the war.
Owners of BMW were close allies of Hitler.
Bavarian Motor Works, or BMW, has a long history of producing luxury vehicles of the highest caliber, as well as aircraft engines up until 1945. The international corporation, which currently manufactures luxury automobiles and motorbikes, has facilities in Germany, the US, the UK, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa. Less well known is the fact that the Quandt family, one of its largest shareholders, was close to Hitler and the Nazis.
The Quandt family empire began an investigation that led to troubling conclusions concerning BMW’s Nazi heritage after a 2007 TV documentary broadcast uncomfortable facts about the company’s operations during the Nazi era. In a nutshell, Gunther Quandt, the family patriarch, and his son Herbert engaged in extensive cooperation with the Nazi regime.
To their credit, the current generation of Quandts eventually came clean and refrained from skirting the subject or painting a pretty picture, in contrast to the majority of other businesses with Nazi connections. They hired a reputable German historian and gave him free reign over the Quandt family’s and BMW’s records to conduct historical study on the corporation. A 1200 page report was the outcome, and it stated that “the Quandts were associated inseparably with the crimes of the Nazis… The family patriarch was part of the government.”
The Quandts benefited from the “Aryanization Program” of the Nazis, which expropriated Jewish property and gave it to Germans recognized by the new government, among other things. BMW’s owners acquired dozens of enterprises that were confiscated from Jews and given to the Quandts, taking advantage of their affinity with Hitler and their superb Nazi connections.
Gunther Quandt was given the title of “Leader of the Defense Economy” by Hitler due to the importance of BMW and the Quandts to the Third Reich’s military. At least 50,000 slave laborers from concentration camps worked in the BMW and Quandt family businesses during WWII to produce weapons and complete armaments contracts. Because of the terrible working conditions, many slaves died. Some died from preventable accidents, some from negligence, some were starved to death, and others were put to death for crimes committed at work.
What automaker did the Nazis start?
After laying the cornerstone for the new Volkswagen works in 1938, Adolf Hitler examines the new Volkswagen “people’s automobile.” Ferdinand “Ferry” Porsche, the creator of the vehicle, is positioned to Hitler’s left.
Germany’s postwar success has been largely attributed to its commitment to “never forget” the tragedies of the Holocaust. According to scholar David de Jong, however, the Nazi legacies of Germany’s wealthiest families show the nation’s struggle to live up to that promise.
In his most recent book, Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History Of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties, he tells this tale. The “brazen whitewashing” that continues to occur today by businesses like BMW and Porsche, he claimed, astonished him the most.
In the words of their patriarchs, such as Ferry Porsche, who created the first Porsche sports vehicle, or Herbert Quandt, who saved BMW from bankruptcy, “the families that run them… are sustaining worldwide foundations,” de Jong added.
On the webpages of these foundations, “their financial triumphs are glorified, but the war atrocities they committed or the Nazi affiliations they had, like being voluntary SS officers, are removed.”
The Quandt family, the wealthiest family in Germany, are the heirs to the BMW fortune. Stefan Quandt and Susanne Klatten, two siblings who together are worth around $38 billion, own more than 40% of BMW.
Gunther Quandt, their great-grandfather, was close to Hitler and employed prisoners of war in his enterprises. Their father, Herbert Quandt, is alleged to have committed war crimes while a member of the Nazi Party.
De Jong contends that the Quandt family still has trouble accepting their past, nevertheless.
“These successors find it difficult, in my opinion, to separate themselves from their father and grandpa. They are surrounded by these folks, “said he.
“Their entire identity is derived from the fortunes that their father and grandfather, Gunther and Herbert, built; they did not make their fortunes. Disavowing the family patriarchs is essentially disavowing one’s own identity.”
There is ample evidence linking the Nazis to well-known auto manufacturers. Adolf Hitler’s party established a government-owned business in May 1937 that was subsequently known as Volkswagen, or “The People’s Car Company.” Hitler himself commissioned Ferdinand Porsche, the company’s founder, to create it.
Never forgetting, according to De Jong, entails facing the past head-on with complete candor.
De Jong added, “History is taught by displaying both the good and the bad. You learn nothing about [Herbert Quandt’s] history by not demonstrating that he was in charge of battery factories in Berlin where thousands of forced slave laborers, including female slave laborers from death camps, were employed.
De Jong believes that historical openness is the “basic least” that can be demanded of the multinational foundations and businesses that these families run.
Justine Kenin edited the audio for this piece, which was created by Vincent Acovino. For the web, Ayen Deng Bior modified it.
Who is BMW’s actual founder?
the founding of BMW. Karl Rapp and Gustav Otto are the founders of BMW. The government had ordered the Flugmaschinenfabrik Gustav Otto firm to combine with Bayerische Flugzeug-Werke AG (BFW) in 1916.
Who owned BMW in World War Two?
The production halls were situated on the border of the forest and were camouflaged with paint.
The company’s financial data also reveals this significant expansion of the business. By 1939, the company was producing RM 275.5 million in sales with a workforce of 26,918 as opposed to RM 35.56 million in sales in 1933 produced by 6,514. By 1944, these numbers would further rise to RM 750 million in sales, generated by 56,213 workers.
The aero-engines BMW 132, Bramo 323 “Fafnir,” and the twin-row radial engine BMW 801 were the focus of production. The BMW 003 jet engine, a different type of engine, started to be developed in 1944. Along with aero-engines, BMW also produced motorbikes for the German Army (Wehrmacht), such as the BMW R 75. From 1938 to 1940, the BMW 325 standard passenger automobile was added to this production. BMW became purely an arms firm in 1941, when the government banned the manufacture of cars.
What part did BMW play in World War Two?
By the start of World War II, the Focke Wulf FW190, one of the best German Nazi fighters, is powered by a BMW 801 radial engine, according to Kinney. “Once more, BMW is a key actor in the development and performance of aircraft fighters during the Second World War.”