Das Auto: The Germans, Their Cars and Us Page #2

---

And in August 1945, a few weeks

after the fall of the Third Reich,

Major Hirst arrived here

in Wolfsburg

with orders to secure this factory

on behalf of the victorious Allies.

MODERN CLASSICAL MUSIC

Much of Germany's industrial base -

once the most impressive

infrastructure in Europe -

had been destroyed.

In the ruins, millions of starving

survivors scavenged for food.

And with the country divided

into four occupied zones,

Germany's revival - let alone

its rise to mastery in Europe -

seemed a very remote

prospect indeed.

When Ivan Hirst

arrived in Wolfsburg,

things were worse than

he had ever imagined.

In the factory itself,

the conditions were very grim.

In the press shops, for instance,

the roof was off.

And we had to sling tarpaulins

over each press...

on wooden poles,

to keep the snow off.

And yet it was at this moment -

at Germany's lowest ebb -

that Ivan Hirst laid the foundations

for the triumph of

the German automobile.

Many of Hirst's superiors

thought there was no point

saving the factory.

"You think you're opening

a car plant here?"

said the British car magnate

Sir William Rootes.

"Then you're a bloody fool. "

But Ivan Hirst could see

the potential here.

And he thought that the Germans

should be given a chance

to reshape their future as

a prosperous, peaceful nation.

His priority was to restart

production of a car

originally designed in the 1930s

by the Nazis.

This car, he thought,

would be the key

to getting Germany back on its feet.

And today, we call it the Beetle.

MUSIC:
"Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive"

by Bing Crosby with The Andrews Sisters

There was nothing very radical or

exciting about the little Beetle -

it was round and it was cute.

But by March 1946, the factory,

at the limits of its capacity,

was producing 1,000 Beetles a month

for the occupying forces

and for Germany's public services.

VW were on the road to recovery.

# Accentuate the positive... #

My chief, Colonel Charles Radclyffe,

said, "I think we've got

a world-beater here,

"it's another Model T".

And he spotted that

as early as 1948.

And yet the early Beetles

were far from perfect.

We always think of German cars

as ultra reliable.

But the interesting thing

about the original Beetle...

is that it wasn't.

As one of VW's

top executives put it,

it had "More faults than a dog

has fleas" but they fixed it,

and they went on fixing it.

And it was that obsessive

attention to detail,

that determination

to put the customer first,

that lifted Germany's car-makers

well ahead of their British rivals.

RAGTIME MUSIC:

People asked us, did we not think

we were damaging British interests

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes