"We've been talking about Volkswagen a lot lately, for pretty obvious reasons. And pretty often in all this talking, we've encountered a lot of references to VW's past, specifically the idea that the company was "founded by Nazis. :(" How true is this statement, really?
There's no denying the role of Nazi Germany and a certain failed artist with a funny mustache had in the creation of Volkswagen. Well, maybe VW denies it a little bit, since their Volkswagen Classics department (VW corporate's heritage collection) doesn't include any cars prior to 1950 and they really, really don't like talking about that era.
The truth is, of course, far more complicated than "the Nazis founded Volkswagen," because, really, that's not exactly true. The whole history of the Beetle and the company that was created to build the car and then, after the war, sell the car all over the globe is actually quite interesting, and, really, has less to do with Hitler than you think…"
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Armand