The Story of Volkswagen's Survival After World War II

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Volkswagen was a political organization, it wasn't a company before the war. Wolfsburg ends up in the hands of the British at the end of the war. The initial plan that the British come up with, they were going to dismantle the factory and ship it over to Britain. They essentially have Britain appropriate the Volkswagen technology and operations.

Nobody’s perfect — including Porsche. Despite that phrase appearing in their famous 1983 magazine advertisement, they managed to get damn-close to the perfect luxury business (even Bernard Arnault would be jealous!). Porsche is both quality AND quantity, owning the most prestigious brand in its market, while at the same time churning out almost half a million mass-market soccer mom/dad SUVs per year. And like any good luxury brand, it’s packed with enough juicy family drama and creeping takeovers to fill a Netflix series.

Yet, behind it all lies perhaps the darkest origin story we’ve ever told on Acquired. Not only was Porsche was started by Nazis, Adolf Hitler himself was deeply involved in its early fortunes. And, following WWII, the Allies simply looked past these facts and essentially bestowed a license to generate wealth on Porsche and its owners — setting the stage for them to become one of the top ~15 wealthiest families in the world today.

Joining us to explore it all is perhaps the very most-qualified person in the person in the world: the one & only Doug DeMuro. Not only is Doug the largest independent car reviewer on YouTube with millions of subscribers (we’re HUGE fans), he previously worked at Porsche corporate and owns a legendary Porsche Carrera GT — which served as the recording backdrop for this episode. Make sure you tune in to watch the video version! :)

ACQ2 Show + LP Program:

Subscribe to the shiny new ACQ2!

Links:

Doug’s YouTube channel (which we HIGHLY recommend)
Cars & Bids
Episode sources

Carve Outs:

Sponsors:
ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
Modern Treasury: https://bit.ly/acqtransfer

‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.