Point of no return

American Thinker ^ | 30 Jun, 2026 | Thomas Kolbe

[MtnClimber]

Volkswagen has thrown in the towel. Is this the beginning of the end for the German economy?

Volkswagen is planning to eliminate up to 100,000 jobs. It is the most devastating blow yet to the stomach of Germany's believers in the green transformation, climate crusaders, and eco-socialists. Whether this shock will be enough to force the country onto a new political course, however, remains an open question.

Volkswagen is far more than just another German automaker. The Wolfsburg-based company symbolizes both the extraordinary heights and the painful decline of modern Germany. It embodies the country's moral failures born of political opportunism during the Nazi era, while also representing its postwar reinvention, economic recovery, and capacity for hope. Volkswagen is Germany Inc. cast into the form of an automobile company, and its current crisis looks less like the beginning of a new chapter than the closing pages of a long story -- a national catastrophe.

What else, if not a biblical economic disaster, should one call management's plan to eliminate 100,000 of its remaining 657,000 jobs over the coming years?

The restructuring will almost certainly have severe consequences for production sites that were already considered vulnerable. Hannover, Zwickau, Emden, as well as Audi's Neckarsulm plant, are now widely expected to face closure. What is unfolding is far more than another corporate restructuring. It marks the beginning of a chain reaction that will spread through suppliers, logistics companies, and Germany's entire industrial ecosystem.

Nor will Chancellor Friedrich Merz's rearmament strategy alter this reality. Volkswagen simply cannot reinvent itself overnight. Whatever Merz and his advisers imagined when they proposed converting civilian automobile production into military manufacturing through debt-financed government programs ignores an obvious truth: military production and civilian industry are fundamentally different worlds.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: germany

[MtnClimber]

The left is getting their wish.

[Uncle Miltie]

Volkswagens suck.

My mechanic summarized it this way:

“With a Volkswagen, parts that should be metal are made of plastic.”

[rod5591]

What, the Germans stopped driving?

[T.B. Yoits]

From the article: ...management's plan to eliminate 100,000 of its remaining 657,000 jobs over the coming years...

These korporate managers, government bureaucrats, and propaganda media executives are not being honest about such changes.

Like the "Defund The Police" campaigns, this is masking that Volkswagen, like many other entire industries, cannot find the employees to fill these jobs anyway.

The swarthy replacements from third world countries were not the solution that the globalists intended. They don't have the skills or capacity to run complex systems.

[Leaning Right]

Volkswagen is in the same category as Jeep.

Both names once meant simplicity and reliability.

Now not so simple.
And definitely not so reliable.

[PGalt]

Interesting. Thanks for posting.

[datricker]

Don’t buy a place in eastern France these nazi euro trash will be running across the border and burning people again. Germans worse nation ever times 2. Thankfully they’ve emasculated themselves. Germans suck

[Red6]

The Germans built bad ass cars in the 70s and 80s.

But then they starting building these super complex, over engineered, plastic cars with proprietary components.

Worse yet, then they started getting all green on top of that.

I want a car that runs.

I don’t need a complex piece of shit that needs a mechanic living in my garage to keep running.

Bad ass car in its time! https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTJPieWwDGUjKwPPU3CsvVh4qMfUgUKqR_-MnzDg7RsKNCYFpPzBXFT7k8&s=10

Junk: https://www.bmwgroup.com/content/grpw/websites/bmwgroup_com/en/news/general/2026/bmwi3/_jcr_content/main/newsarticle/newscontentparsys/columncontrol_copy/columncontrolparsys/image_copy.coreimg.82.1280.jpeg/1773754065492/neue-klasse-zweites-model-v2-1280x720.jpeg (unreliable, sensitive, expensive, difficult to work on, won’t find parts when car gets older)

[Democrat = party of treason]

It’s like the old saying goes, “no matter WHAT you do with a Volkswagen, it is STILL a...Volkswagen.”

[No.6]

No, they admitted Chinese cars and are getting the product dumping on them so PRC can buy the German industrial capacity and engineers.

“Globalism” at work.

[kaktuskid]

The problem is that the Germans build their cars as technically complicated as the German language.

[Lockbox]

1st the Germans chased to Chinese market but China required a Chinese partner, Thus the Chinese learned the automobile manufacturing process from inside out. So, the Germans taught the Chinese the modern automobile manufacturing system.

Next the Chinese started their own modern automobile manufacturing. This has destroyed the non-Chinese car market in China.

2nd, the Germans opened their market to these Chinese built cars. They are making serious inroads in the German car market.

3rd, for a unionized German car company to layoff 100,000 workers, currently most outside Germany is just the beginning. VW is talking spin off of the brand. That’s business speak for load up all the dead wood, losers, costs, etc and push the remains of VW out into the river to sink. Hope everything left can now successfully swim. Good luck with that plan.

Bottom line, socialist do not know how to run a country, do not know how to protect a valuable asset, which employees a large number of citizens in high paying jobs. Socialists can’t seal the border to low cost competition, which will destroy Germans car business and high paying jobs.

BUT don’t worry…… They’re coming to America

[ealgeone]

They’ve always over engineered things.

[FLT-bird]

This is the what as in what is happening to Germany's industrial sector. This is not the why. The why is 90% attributable to Gaia Worship. Germany stupidly shut down their nuclear power plants, banned fracking and made themselves completely dependent on Russian natural gas even while wasting many billions on wind and solar. When they were cut off from the cheap natural gas due to the war in Ukraine, de-industrialization was unavoidable. They've already lost 125,000 jobs in the automotive sector in the last 5 years. Its going to be more than another 125,000 in the next 5. Their large chemicals industry is rapidly dying.

Germany is doomed and they did it to themselves.

[stevio]

Just rented a Jeep Wrangler Sahara for vacation at the Grand Canyon. I’m pleasantly surprised how well it performed. It had the 29 inch tires on it but did well off-road. Had the 6 cylinder engine and I got 27.2mpg w/5 people in a round trip to Flagstaff and 28.4 driving to Pheonix airport. My nephew is selling them, seriously thinking about getting one before the big brother 2027s come in.

[Responsibility2nd]

Volkswagen is far more than just another German automaker. The Wolfsburg-based company symbolizes both the extraordinary heights and the painful decline of modern Germany. It embodies the country's moral failures born of political opportunism during the Nazi era, while also representing its postwar reinvention, economic recovery, and capacity for hope. Volkswagen is Germany Inc. cast into the form of an automobile company, and its current crisis looks less like the beginning of a new chapter than the closing pages of a long story -- a national catastrophe.

VW symbolizes Germany as Ford, GM and Stelantis represents the US. Say what you will about Volkswagen; then say the same and worse about America's Big Three.

I'll take a VW any day.

[Bon of Babble]

I learned to drive on a (either) ‘63 or ‘64 classic Volkswagen Bug. My dad sold it later and it was snapped up within minutes with calls coming in a month later asking if it were still available. Wish I still had it...

Germany itself is in the throes of a massive demographic change, unfortunately, due to the likes of Merkel et al. allowing in millions of military-aged muslim men.

Destroying Germany far more efficiently than the allies did during WWII.

[catnipman]

grok says germany spent [wasted] HUNDREDS of billions on expensive, unreliable, and intermittent “green” energy this century ... [while shutting down nuke and coal plants; i think they even required the plants to be destroyed so no one would be “tempted” to start them back up]

[Tijeras_Slim]

Had a 1990 GTI, it routinely shed plastic mystery parts that always cost more than $50.