What is Volkswagen? (They have Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche ..)
Without Ferdinand Porsche, neither automotive giant Volkswagen nor luxury brand Porsche exist today The man who would have a huge influence on the German car manufacturing was born in Bohemia in 1875 and completed his apprenticeship in mechanical workshop his father.
While working for the wheelwright Viennese company Lohner, which produced coaches for the court of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, Porsche has developed an engine that many engineers work again today the electric motor a vehicle equipped with the engine was an attraction at the universal Exposition in Paris in 1900.
Even at a young age, Porsche has experienced such a strong reputation that two dictators vied favor and service Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, but that seemed to Porsche disorder He was an inventor and a developer who was interested only in his creations In ultimately, he worked for him was as unimportant to the question of whether the projects were of civil or military Solve the problem at hand was what mattered to him, not who was paying him.
In World War II, he designed aircraft engines for the army of the emperor of Austria and tractors for heavy artillery Later, Porsche has developed sports cars for Daimler in Stuttgart, before founding an engineering firm with his son Ferry in Stuttgart, which has developed two cars for German car and motorcycle makers, Zündapp and NSU.
In 1932, a Moscow delegation visited Porsche in his Stuttgart office Shortly afterwards, Stalin invited him to the Soviet Union for an information visit At first we thought that the invitation was so improbable that we had hard to take seriously, Ferry Porsche later wrote in his autobiography, but soon it was very clear to us that everything was perfectly serious.
Stalin wanted to advance industrial development in the Soviet Union with the help of experts of the capitalist countries he had Porsche taken on tours of factories aircraft and automobiles, and in the end made him an offer to become general manager of the development of Soviet industry self.
Stalin promised Porsche numerous privileges and powers But the German engineer refused Stalin's offer after careful consideration, Ferry Porsche wrote.
It was not the Communist dictatorship that had deterred the elder Porsche as far as the language barrier How could he manage such a gargantuan task, he said, if he could even t communicate in their native language.
Stalin's offer would have had a decisive influence on my later life, Ferry Porsche wrote his life would not have been the only one affected.
If Porsche had accepted the VW Beetle could have become the car of the people of the Soviet Union and instead become a symbol of the economic miracle of post-war West Germany, perhaps it would become Russian icon delay - as the Lada did, years later.
When Hitler asked the German automobile industry to develop a small car adapted in 1934, Porsche presented the best design - and was awarded the contract in 1935 German Motor Show, Hitler was full of praise for Porsche He said that he was happy that, thanks to capacity engineering shiny Porsche design, it was possible to complete the preliminary plans for the car of the German Volkswagen people.
A new factory was to be built to produce the car and a new city around the plant to house the workers Hitler proposed to build the plant in central Germany, Ferry Porsche said.
The site search conducted from the air, it was to be located near a railway line, canals and autobahn The site was finally chosen was near a medieval castle, the Wolfsburg, after which the city was appointed later.
Hitler wanted to call the factory Porsche factory but Ferdinand Porsche was opposed to the idea Instead, it has become the Volkswagen factory.
Much of the money to build the plant came from trade union assets to date, the metalworkers' union IG Metall is entitled to an increased role in the management of VW Group based on the early use of money Consequently union, VW management can not move production to another plant without the consent of the employee representatives on the supervisory board.
Berthold Huber, the current head of IG Metall, accused Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking to be ignorant of history when Wiedeking planned to acquire Volkswagen and transform the group into what he called a normal company.
After 1933, the Nazis occupied and later confiscated union offices and printing machines, turning to the DAF German Labor Front, the Nazi labor organization DAF was eventually required to provide the initial capital of 50 million Reichsmarks to establish the company known as the Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH company to develop the car of the German people.
But a real car for the masses was not produced in Wolfsburg during the war only 630 beetles were made there during World War II - and distributed to the privileged.
Instead, plants have been used in the production of weapons for the manufacture of tank chains, mining and all-terrain vehicle that came to be known as the car name Kübelwagen bucket seats Thousands of forced laborers then used, including Jews from the concentration camps and prisoners of war, mostly from the Soviet Union and Poland.
Son-in-law of Porsche, Anton Piëch, began managing the plant in 1941, in his study The Volkswagen factory and workers in the Third Reich, the German historian Hans Mommsen wrote in the summer of 1943, Anton Piëch said bluntly that he had to use cheap labor is to meet the Führer wish that the Volkswagen is produced for 990 Reichsmark.
In the early 1990s, this part of the history of the VW Group made with Ferdinand Piëch, the son of former factory director Anton Piëch Ferdinand Piëch, Audi's head, trying to get to the top of the group Volkswagen.
Piëch, who had set aside a number of frames along its course, has had his share of enemies Some of them spread the rumor that Piech was unable to be the head of VW, referring to titles it would produce in the important US market if the son of the former plant manager of Wolfsburg, who used forced laborers, became leader of the modern VW group.
Ferdinand Porsche himself served Hitler during the war at the head of his commission from the reservoir He supported Hitler's power and advantage of the scheme, however, Mommsen believes that the question of the extent to which Porsche understood the criminality of the regime he served must remain open.
For Mommsen, Ferdinand Porsche is the prototype of the expert interested only in technology A commission of inquiry Allied declined later to file charges against Porsche, though, his son Ferry and his son-Anton have jailed in France for several months.
When Ferdinand Porsche died January 30, 1951, he left an estate divided between two companies in the engineering design firm in suburban Stuttgart Zuffenhausen, which will develop later in the sports car company Porsche and the Porsche dealer Salzburg, Austria, which would become the largest car dealer in Europe.
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