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I have been doing do research and reading on Opel, the German car manufacturing division of GM.

In October 1931 during the height of the Great Depression GM bought 100 percent controlling interest in Opel for $ 66,724.000 million dollars. In that year the only two car companies to show a profit was Nash and GM.

The figure that I gave for the purchase of Opel should really make a person wonder just how much money GM had in its reserves at that time. Paying 66 million for a company and to be able to keep a money loser like Caddy afloat during the Great Depression.

John F. Shireman

John, Does it say what GM did with Opel after Hitler came to power in 1933 or if they made a profit before or during World War 2 building vehicles for the Nazis like the Opel Blitz trucks?

The $66 million was in cash? Or stock? Or both?

Clipper 47: I am sorry in being late in answering your question.

After 1933 couldn't get any profits that Opel made out of the country, because of German laws at the time. So GM plowed the profits back into Opel. Opel and GM stopped production of cars in October 1940, and GM walked away from the factory not wanting to contribute to Hitler's war in any form.

After WWII production of cars at the Opel began in 1947 but the factory wasn't under the control of GM at that time. In 1948 GM took control of the factory again, but for some reason it at first was reluctant to do so. Taking control and operation of Opel again turned out to be a money maker for GM. In the early 70's Opel was the second biggest selling car division that GM had. In 1973 Opel outsold VW in Germany.

Owen: I have no answer for your question.

John F. Shireman

Another interesting fact about Opel, In the late 40's the Moskvich 400 was introduced, it looked exactly like a pre-war Opel Kadett. In this case the Russian's didn't copy the Opel design.

In 1945 after WWII ended they dismantled Opel's Russelsheim factory and shipped everything back to Moscow lock stock and barrel. Thus in 1947 Moskovskii Zavod Malitrajnikh Automobili was opened for automobile manufacturing.

John F. Shireman

This all has nothing to do with Packards, but interesting history none-the-less. Another great read is what happened to the VW plant and design after the war. VW ended up in the British sector and was somewhat complicated by the fact that much of the assets were paid for in the form of deposits (for undelivered cars) by the German public. Eventually the Brits hired Humber to evaluate the factory and engineering, and Humber (who apparently wasn't all that sharp) decided it was all pretty much worthless; thus the Brits decided not to take it and turned it over to the Germans to manage and try to restore their shattered economy. Doesn't say much about Humber does it! There is a really good book on this, I just don't remember the title and author.

Owen, I found this on the net. It appears that nobody wanted the factory but for some good reasons.

Post-war period

After the end of the Second World War the competence for the Volkswagenwerk in the middle of June 1945 turns into on the British military government. In the first years after the Second World War the future of the work as well as the "beetle" was uncertain. Only starting from this time the enterprise kept and its products official the designation "Volkswagen". Both a disassembly of the work and a continuation of beetle production in other countries were possible options. Among other things the British company Humber as well as Fords were first interested in the Volkswagen work. Due to partial the bad condition of the work, the proximity for the Soviet zone of occupation as well as a destroying technical evaluation VOLKSWAGEN of the beetle by a British investigation report lost all prospective customers however any interest in the Volkswagen work. In mentioned investigation report the beetle was judged as a not imitation-worthy construction, which did not meet allegedly the demands, which one had to make to time at that time at small cars. From today's view this judgement is not comprehensible, since by the VOLKSWAGEN beetles were manufactured more than 21 million copies, which corresponded all in their basic concept to the pre-war-concept.



The KdF Wagen factory was a prime target for allied forces during the war, and before long, it was partially destroyed. After the war was over, the British Army took over the factory. The British were interested in the factory, because they needed light transportation: what else could they do? The factory was brought back up (it was still damaged, however) with leadership provided by Major Ivan Hirst of the British Army, and by the end of 1945, had produced more than 2000 cars. Most of them were produced from spare parts that were left in the factory. Within a year, the factory had produced over 10,000 cars, all thanks to assistance from the British government. Sometime after 1945, the company was named Volkswagen by the British, who also renamed the town at the factory "Wolfsburg", which was the name of a local castle. The British sought to give control of the company to able hands: the Ford company turned the offer down because it thought it would be a waste of money, the French government refused; nobody seemed to want the company. In 1949, the British government was finally able to relinquish control of the company to the German government. Heinrich Nordhoff was appointed as the senior executive of Volkswagen, a move which proved to be a very good one.

Clipper47 & Owen: Nordhoff was an employee of Opel before being named head of VW. Before WWII the VW was known as the KDF Wagon.

I recorded an hour long show on DVD done by the History Channel on the history of VW bug. If either of you might be interested in viewing this DVD I have send me a pm.

John F. Shireman

Just to add to what John said....

KDF - German: Kraft durch Freude -- "strength through joy").

Also the Volks (in Volkswagon) stands mean People. So in a sense in was the People's Wagon.

A have a good friend that is a VW nut!

Kev, I have owned 3 VW's two "Beetles" and one Diesel Golf. All were great cars. My wife and I still laugh when we talk about making the then 6 hour road trips to Toronto in -30 weather and the passenger was kept busy scraping ice from the inside of the windshield for the entire trip as the heater was almost useless.