The Germans will, however, be far more vigorous in prosecuting the executives involved than prosecutors here were in pursuing GM for its faulty ignitions.
Volkswagen is probably one of the greatest of “crony capitalism” stories in history.
Originally a brainchild of Adolf Hitler, using the talents of Ferdinand Porsche, the “People’s Car” was a marketing scheme to “put the German people” behind the wheel. In 1937, the year of its conception, less than 1 German in 50 possessed an automobile. Hitler graciously accepted a down payment for the purchase of one of the “KdF-Wagen” from thousands of German working families, but somehow, all this investment ended up in military development, with very few actually getting into the hands of German consumers.
The later history of Volkswagen was rather checkered, as its workforce during the Second World War was at times as much as 80% slave labor (from nearby concentration camps), and in 1946, there were only a few parts of the original factory still standing. The facilities were offered to a British manufacturer, who despised the vehicle as “Noisy, leaks, ugly and uncomfortable to ride in or drive”, and later to Henry Ford II, whose comptroller said, that even for free, it would be no bargain. Finally using Marshall Plan dollars, the company relaunched as a subsidiary of the German state of Lower Saxony, and gradually overcame its early shortcomings, gaining wide acceptance, and becoming one of the best selling of ANY model in history, even surpassing the Model T Ford, and penetrating virtually every market worldwide. Along the way, the company acquired Auto Union (the Audi) and NSU, vastly expanding their product line and eventually these models supplanted the older rear-mounted air-cooled engined vehicles and their various design modifications.