“Initially arrested by the Americans, he was quickly released. Then, in December 1945, France invited the renowned engineer to meet with technicians from Renault’s French factories to contribute his expertise to the development of the future 4CV. Once there, a connection was quickly established, and Ferdinand Porsche began working in Baden-Baden (then the capital of the French zone of occupation in Germany). He was arrested a few days later and imprisoned in Baden-Baden.
The reasons for his arrest remain somewhat unclear even today. Initially, accusations of war crimes and “opportunism of the Third Reich” were put forward, but Franco-French political and commercial rivalries also appear to have played a role.-
Just months after the end of World War II, the French government accused Ferdinand Porsche of war crimes and arrested him along with his son Ferry and son-in-law Anton Piëch. But the charges, officially tied to the mistreatment of workers at the Peugeot factory and theft of equipment, raised eyebrows.
The backstory dates to 1940, when Nazi Germany took over France and its key industries. Peugeot’s factory came under German control, and Volkswagen, led by Porsche, was assigned to oversee it. After years of forced production for the German war machine, Peugeot’s facilities were stripped during the German withdrawal. Equipment, tools, and documents ended up back in Germany.
Following liberation, the French sought justice. But critics argue it turned into revenge. Porsche was seventy years old when sentenced to twenty months in prison, though he was later released under mysterious circumstances. Many believe the real motive was political, fueled by a rivalry with Peugeot that began long before the war and lingered long after.”
Squeaky_Ben on
Well, deserved.
FidjiC7 on
Okay, I know I’m probably going too far, but I won’t let people slander my boy Peugeot.
At the time, Peugeot wasn’t most known for it’s cars, but for it’s GIGANTIC FUCKING STEEL MILL, one of the biggest and most technologically advanced in Europe. THAT’S what the germans wanted, because they had a lot of very ambitious, very resource intensive projects on their hands, namely the V-series rockets, and they needed a place to produce them. And Peugeot’s steel mill in Sochaux was the only place with the correct infrastructure they could reasonably get their hands on. So it was decided that then CEO of Volkswagen (and VERY good friend of mustache man) Ferdinand Porsche would oversee the site along with the V rockets project.
Thus, Peugeot came out of the war with a clean conscience, but short a factory. And a clean conscience doesn’t pay the bills. So they had a few rough years to come back to their pre-war status, and ruminate what they felt was that Porsche guy’s doing. That’s why they didn’t easily forget and tried everything in their power to bring him to justice (and jail).
And when all else failed, there was still pettiness. You see, Porsche guy had a habit as an german engineer : he numbered EVERY SINGLE ONE of his prototypes, in order of creation. So a bit after the end of the war, when he had founded his own company to sell modified VW beetles (which he also partly design btw), he came up with a prototype, number 901, and started selling his cars under the same name : Porsche 901. However, a few years before, Peugeot had patented the “central zero” name for all their cars (the *number*-0-*number* format still used to this day, 205 or 406 for example). And they decided to make use of this patent by *suing the shit out of Porsche in any and every way they could*. Seeing that wall of angry French paperwork coming at them, a 1950’s German company held by an ex-Nazi, they decided it was *probably* better not to fight it, and agreed to change their name.
Thus was born the Porsche 911, the 901st prototype of Ferdinand Porsche, forever numbered incorectly because a French familly was stubborn and spiteful.
Sorry for the wall of text
TL:DR : Ex-Nazi bad, French company do a little trolling.
3 Comments
“Initially arrested by the Americans, he was quickly released. Then, in December 1945, France invited the renowned engineer to meet with technicians from Renault’s French factories to contribute his expertise to the development of the future 4CV. Once there, a connection was quickly established, and Ferdinand Porsche began working in Baden-Baden (then the capital of the French zone of occupation in Germany). He was arrested a few days later and imprisoned in Baden-Baden.
The reasons for his arrest remain somewhat unclear even today. Initially, accusations of war crimes and “opportunism of the Third Reich” were put forward, but Franco-French political and commercial rivalries also appear to have played a role.-
Just months after the end of World War II, the French government accused Ferdinand Porsche of war crimes and arrested him along with his son Ferry and son-in-law Anton Piëch. But the charges, officially tied to the mistreatment of workers at the Peugeot factory and theft of equipment, raised eyebrows.
The backstory dates to 1940, when Nazi Germany took over France and its key industries. Peugeot’s factory came under German control, and Volkswagen, led by Porsche, was assigned to oversee it. After years of forced production for the German war machine, Peugeot’s facilities were stripped during the German withdrawal. Equipment, tools, and documents ended up back in Germany.
Following liberation, the French sought justice. But critics argue it turned into revenge. Porsche was seventy years old when sentenced to twenty months in prison, though he was later released under mysterious circumstances. Many believe the real motive was political, fueled by a rivalry with Peugeot that began long before the war and lingered long after.”
Well, deserved.
Okay, I know I’m probably going too far, but I won’t let people slander my boy Peugeot.
At the time, Peugeot wasn’t most known for it’s cars, but for it’s GIGANTIC FUCKING STEEL MILL, one of the biggest and most technologically advanced in Europe. THAT’S what the germans wanted, because they had a lot of very ambitious, very resource intensive projects on their hands, namely the V-series rockets, and they needed a place to produce them. And Peugeot’s steel mill in Sochaux was the only place with the correct infrastructure they could reasonably get their hands on. So it was decided that then CEO of Volkswagen (and VERY good friend of mustache man) Ferdinand Porsche would oversee the site along with the V rockets project.
Now let me remind you that Peugeot as a company was founded by the Peugeot familly (duh), a familly that made it’s riches during the 1800’s in France. Thus they were *quite* patriotic when it came to fighting the “boches”, the Franco-Prussian War and WW1 were still fresh memories. So they did everything in their power to slow down production, so as to not help in any way the occupiers. Some members of the familly went as far as to sabotage their own factory, join the Résistance and, through their contacts, gave the British and Americans exact coordinates of their factory to maximize damage during bombing runs. A few of those people, Peugeot familly and other Résistants in the area, ended up deported to death camps and never came back.
Thus, Peugeot came out of the war with a clean conscience, but short a factory. And a clean conscience doesn’t pay the bills. So they had a few rough years to come back to their pre-war status, and ruminate what they felt was that Porsche guy’s doing. That’s why they didn’t easily forget and tried everything in their power to bring him to justice (and jail).
And when all else failed, there was still pettiness. You see, Porsche guy had a habit as an german engineer : he numbered EVERY SINGLE ONE of his prototypes, in order of creation. So a bit after the end of the war, when he had founded his own company to sell modified VW beetles (which he also partly design btw), he came up with a prototype, number 901, and started selling his cars under the same name : Porsche 901. However, a few years before, Peugeot had patented the “central zero” name for all their cars (the *number*-0-*number* format still used to this day, 205 or 406 for example). And they decided to make use of this patent by *suing the shit out of Porsche in any and every way they could*. Seeing that wall of angry French paperwork coming at them, a 1950’s German company held by an ex-Nazi, they decided it was *probably* better not to fight it, and agreed to change their name.
Thus was born the Porsche 911, the 901st prototype of Ferdinand Porsche, forever numbered incorectly because a French familly was stubborn and spiteful.
Sorry for the wall of text
TL:DR : Ex-Nazi bad, French company do a little trolling.