Matt MacNabb - A Secret History of Brands - The Dark and Twisted Beginnings of the Brand Names We Know and Love

If the connection between Hitler and Ford ended with The Dearborn Independent and a mention in Mein Kampf it would be more than enough to tarnish a legacy, but alas the story is far from over. Henry Ford and his son Edsel played a role in the Second World War that is certainly questionable and is the source of fierce debate. Ostensibly, the control of the German Ford plants were placed under German control during the war, as they would be nearly impossible to run from America during that era, but whenever vital elements such as rubber were needed, they went through the American Ford division.

The German government didn’t regard Hitler and his Nazi party as an idle threat. In fact, over a decade before Hitler managed to seize complete power, the German government was already taking steps against him and his ‘beer hall’ political movement. There was also a feeling among some areas of the German population that something wasn’t right with the National Socialist Movement. An article in the New York Times , which ran in December of 1922, bore the title ‘Berlin Hears Ford Is Backing Hitler’. The article details the concern brought to the attention of the American Ambassador in Berlin by the renowned German newspaper, Berlin Tageblatt , that Ford was financing Hitler. The feeling was that Hitler’s lavish accommodation in Munich, highly paid lieutenants and the funds the Nazi party was enjoying were more far-reaching than could be provided solely by contributions from local German citizens. The article goes on to note that Hitler and his men were seen driving two brand new automobiles, that the wall next to Hitler’s desk in Munich had a large portrait of Henry Ford, and owned many translated copies of Ford’s books in his chambers.

A 1931 interview given by Hitler to Detroit News reporter Annetta Antona generated another infamous quote about Henry Ford. During the interview, Antona asked Hitler why he had a portrait of Henry Ford next to his desk, to which Hitler replied ‘I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration.’

Henry Ford would become the source of great controversy yet again in 1938 when he accepted the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest honour that the Nazi party could bestow upon a foreigner. The flashy medal consisted of an iron cross, flanked by four Nazi swastikas. There was a backlash to this in the United States, as the event was well publicised by newspapers such as the New York Times . Protestors could be found outside of Ford plants carrying signs with statements like: ‘Why Did Ford Get A Nazi Medal?’ The event also served to cause a few diplomatic issues between the United States and Germany at the time. The events were temporary, but the impact was definitely felt.

The Ford manufacturing activities in Germany would soon fall under the name Ford-Werke in 1939. The French and German Ford manufacturing facilities would go on to produce not only vehicles and weaponry for the Nazi German military forces throughout the Second World War, but would use forced labour to do so. In fact, the forced labour aspect was in effect long before the start of the war and even before Ford-Werke was separated from the American Ford Motor Company. Forced labour was far from unique in Nazi-controlled Germany. There are reports that upwards of 7.5 million people were forced to relocate from their various conquered homelands to Germany and to work without compensation in order to keep the Nazi war machine running smoothly.

A lawsuit was brought to court in New Jersey in 1998 by Elsa Iwanowa, one of the survivors that was ripped from her home and forced to work at Ford-Werke. The Ford Motor Company went to court and acknowledged Iwanowa’s claims and validated the forced labour, but denied any responsibility for the American wing of the company. The word at the time was that, even after the Second World War began, the American wing of Ford Motor Company still owned a majority stock in Ford-Werke. The lawsuit never got a chance to be fully realised, since it was dismissed in 1999. The statue of limitations to raise a suit of that nature had unfortunately expired.

When Henry Ford died on 7 April 1947, over one hundred thousand citizens made their way to his funeral and waited for several hours in a queue for a chance to view the body of the legendary Henry Ford. Today, Henry Ford is remembered as an influential industrialist and an American icon that changed the course of history. The people have turned Henry Ford into a heroic and immortal figure in history, often choosing to forget the very human and flawed man behind the brand name.

The image of the Ford Motor Company began to change when the grandson of Henry Ford, Henry Ford II, took over control of the company in 1945. One of his first acts as president was to fire Ford’s sketchy ‘muscle’ and head of the Ford Service Department, Harry Bennett. He then set out to surround himself with experienced executives who assisted him in taking the company from the emotional brainchild of one man to a well-respected and long-lasting corporate entity. In 1956, the Ford Motor Company became a publicly traded corporation under the leadership of Henry Ford II.

The Ford Motor Company is a very different company today than it was a century ago. In one glaring example of this, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the company (at the time of writing this book) is a Jewish businessman named Mark Fields. The dark shadows of Henry Ford’s legacy have been left far behind and instead the memory of his technological innovations remain. It would be hard to blame the modern day Ford Motor Company for wanting to brush the history of its founder under the rug in lieu of a legacy of hatred and bigotry.

The shoe has become its own fashion statement. Consumers often pay big bucks for limited edition or fun new shoes. Sneakerheads, a name given to shoe collectors, will even wait hours or even days in line for limited edition new release ‘kicks’. There are several popular names in shoes, but none carry the nefarious history of Adidas and Puma. The history behind these two companies is riddled with a bitter sibling rivalry between two brothers who founded their fortunes while loyally serving the Nazis.

The Dassler brothers were born two years apart in their quaint hometown of Herzogenaurach, Germany. Nestled quietly in the Middle Franconia region of Bavaria, Herzogenaurach is located right on the Aurach River. Historically, there was little reason to mention the sleepy town, not until it was made famous by the Dassler brothers as the home base of their respective footwear brand giants, Adidas and Puma. Rudolf, the founder of Puma, was the older of the two brothers, born on 26 March 1898. The younger of the two, Adolf, was born on 3 November 1900. Adolf was the founder and namesake for his company, Adidas – a clever mixture of his nickname of ‘Adi’ and his last name ‘Dassler’. The brothers were two of the four children of Christoph Von Wilhelm and Pauline Dassler. They also had another brother named Fritz and a sister named Marie.

The industrious Adi would be the first brother to make a big move towards the future. In the year 1920 he constructed a makeshift shoe production studio in a shed that his mother had previously used for laundry. Adi had only just returned from serving the German military in the First World War and was already looking towards building a future for himself at home. Christoph Dassler worked in a shoe factory to support his family, so the move towards developing footwear was a natural one. Herzogenaurach was, after all, a hotspot in Bavaria for shoemaking, boasting over one hundred individual shoemakers in 1922. Christoph supported his son’s endeavours as Adi teamed with the Zehlein brothers, who were producing spikes for track shoes in their own blacksmithing workshop.