Quandt family to reveal Nazi-era activities

[PanterroR]

The Quandt family, whose members own large amounts of BMW stock, is seeking to clear the air around the family name. Upset by some of the accusations raised against the family, in part by a recent German TV documentary alleging wartime abuses of former prisoners at a Quandt-owned battery plant, the family announced it will launch an investigation into its own past.

Herbert Quandt is considered by many to be the saviour of BMW. In 1959, he quietly purchased nearly 50% of the then-troubled company’s stock to prevent a take-over by Daimler-Benz. Shortly thereafter, under Herbert’s guidance, BMW launched the 1500, the first modern BMW. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Quandt family is notoriously private, and has remained silent on the issue of Nazi ties for decades, BBC reports. However, the Quandts recently announced a research project to determine exactly what involvement the family’s factories had with Nazi-sourced prison labor.

The factory that was the subject of the German TV documentary was owned by Guenther Quandt, Herbert’s father. According to that documentary, the Afa batter factory was staffed in part by slave labor provided by a Nazi concentration camp. No other details of Quandt involvement with Nazi activities have yet surfaced.



Source: Motor Authority: "Quandt family to reveal Nazi-era activities"

 

[LaArtist]

Re: BMW’s Quandt family to reveal Nazi-era activities

The Quandt family is notoriously private, and has remained silent on the issue of Nazi ties for decades, BBC reports. However, the Quandts recently announced a research project to determine exactly what involvement the family’s factories had with Nazi-sourced prison labor.

Lol what if they find out that they had connections?
will they give away free M3´s??

 

[bmer]

Re: BMW’s Quandt family to reveal Nazi-era activities

Lol what if they find out that they had connections?
will they give away free M3´s??

Nope.

From the BBC report:

Many big German firms have offered compensation to former slave labourers.

In 2001 a US court ruling cleared the way for compensation to be disbursed from a $4.8bn (3.4bn euros; £2.4bn) fund set up by the German government and thousands of German firms. Volkswagen and Daimler-Chrysler were among them.

 

[LaArtist]

Re: BMW’s Quandt family to reveal Nazi-era activities

^ohh well thats a few M3´s
good that they are investigating..and dealing with it..

took a long time though.. but still better late than never..

 

[Tarek]

Re: BMW’s Quandt family to reveal Nazi-era activities

will they give away free M3´s??

I hope

 

[EnI]

Re: BMW’s Quandt family to reveal Nazi-era activities

Associating BMW with this story is a highly manipulative act by certain media with certain agenda.

The subject in question is the Quandt family & AFA (the battery factory), not BMW AG.

BMW AG has been associated with the Quandts since 1959 only. So BMW is not linked with Quandt's role in WWII!!!!


BMW AG already dealt with thier WWII role 2 years ago. They issued a book about BMW role in WWII & ties with Nazi system. With all nasty details.
It's not a secret BMW produced aero engines & motorcycles for German army. Also with a "help" of war prisoners & labor slaves.

Sad story indeed.

 

[LaArtist]

Re: BMW’s Quandt family to reveal Nazi-era activities

It's not a secret BMW produced aero engines & motorcycles for German army. Also with a "help" of war prisoners & labor slaves.

.

Okay the last part with prisoners and slaves is not BMW´s job.. and its something they can be ashamed of

but building engines and bikes for the nations army is nothing to be ashamed of..
no matter what army..

 

[EnI]

Re: BMW’s Quandt family to reveal Nazi-era activities

Okay the last part with prisoners and slaves is not BMW´s job.. and its something they can be ashamed of

but building engines and bikes for the nations army is nothing to be ashamed of..
no matter what army..

All big & famous German companies collaborated with Nazis at that time, and used slaves & POW as labor:

Siemens, Krupp, Daimler-Benz, AFA (Varta), BMW, Volkswagen, Porsche, Opel, Bayer, Hugo Boss, Basf (IG Farben), AEG, Braun, Bosch etc.

Not a great time for all of those companies back then. But that's the history now. Let's move on.

 

[SDNR]

Re: BMW’s Quandt family to reveal Nazi-era activities

^^I agree, this is just a witch hunt. We all agree (I assume) that under the Nazis, Germany did commit some terrible crimes against humanity ....but they were not the only ones who profited from World War II. The Swiss banks did very nicely out of WW2 and so did some American companies. I don't think it is fair to constantly throw WW2 back in the faces of the Germans -- we seldom do it to the Japanese ...and, unlike the Germans, many Japanese are very ignorant about the terrible things Japan did throughout Asia and the Pacific in WW2.

 

[siko]

Re: BMW’s Quandt family to reveal Nazi-era activities

All big & famous German companies collaborated with Nazis at that time, and used slaves & POW as labor:

Siemens, Krupp, Daimler-Benz, AFA (Varta), BMW, Volkswagen, Porsche, Opel, Bayer, Hugo Boss, Basf (IG Farben), AEG, Braun, Bosch etc.

Not a great time for all of those companies back then. But that's the history now. Let's move on.

Dont' forget American firms like IBM, GM, Ford, etc. WHere there was money, there was business. As sad as that may sound.

 

[Merc1]

Re: BMW’s Quandt family to reveal Nazi-era activities

A loaded, but interesting issue. Does anyone have a link to the Quandt family tree?

M

 

[SCOTT27]

Re: BMW’s Quandt family to reveal Nazi-era activities

This is another totally irrelevance to BMW , brought up by journalists who do not seem to get the real crux of the matter before putting pen to paper.
Exactly like that "axis of white power" comment! Some US journalists and forum commentators actually made a big deal about that when anybody with common sense could see Chris was describing the Alpine White BMW M cars on show.