Okay, so in fact German car-manufacturer Volkswagen runs Hugo Boss extremely close to being the most heavily-linked business to Hitler and the Nazis. Not only did the Nazis design the Beetle - Hitler himself also named the most mass-produced car of all time. The Fuhrer wanted to create an affordable, study and streamlined automobile shaped "like a beetle" that could become the "people's car" - which is Volkswagen's literal translation into English. He therefore asked Ferdinand Porsche - the mastermind behind the luxury car company of the very same name - to create one for him. During the Second World War, approximately 80 per cent of Volkswagen's workers were slave labourers - a large proportion of who were based in Stuttgart - and Porsche even requested for Heinrich Himmler to relocate forced workers from Auschwitz to his plants. One of the world's most popular cars, so often linked with the peace movement and also the make of everyone's favourite automobile film-star Herbie, was in fact the brainchild of Adolf Hitler. Let that just sink in for a moment...
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
