this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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I hate that VW became the Nazi car when it was really a way to scam people, and BMW and Mercedes get a pass despite making war machines the whole damn time.
Don't ask about Porsche, Opel, Bayer, Adidas... basically any German company that existed in that period.
I used to work for a German chemical manufacturer. One of the things they highlighted in their history is that in the lead up to WW2 they moved their headquarters and German factories to the UK and started making aircraft paint for the RAF. Overall they were a good company to work for.
What's the name? I want to read about that kind of organization.
With one honourable exception: Leitz, who made Leica cameras. A privately held company, they hired German Jews and immediately posted them abroad as “sales representatives”, delivering them to safety. This was explicitly on the orders of the Leitz family, who also insisted on keeping the programme secret even after the war rather than claiming credit.
Hugo Boss designed all those cute uniforms.
Now we have Florsheim and WTF these are...
To be fair, the BMW museum in Munich has an entire section on their participation, and atrocities and an apology for it.
Have you seen the plastic parts in BMW or Mercedes now? Even Maybachs are fragile shit. VW really hasn't kept up scamming with it's brothers.
Dieselgate was a pretty big scam. Though they bought back my old car for the original purchase price so I’m not mad.
all Diesel makers in Europe faked emissions data.
They were caught like amateurs. Mercedes on the other hand will sell you a car for $200,000 that costs $5,000 and a few days to fix every 20,000 miles. And they still get their heated seat subscription while it's in the shop.
VW were also building V-1 bombs.
The machinery paid for with money scammed from people who thought they were buying VWs built V-1s.
A British officer was actually the one to get the factory to start making cars.