1930s
Adolf Hitler created the city later known as Wolfsburg to house Volkswagen, which remains the company's headquarters.
“Hitler creates a new city in Germany known as the, then called, the City of the Strength Through Joy car.”
Topic
Volkswagen
7 facts from 1 episode, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
late 1940s
After the war Volkswagen gave the reinstated German Porsche company a royalty on every Beetle sold worldwide.
“In return, they give that German Porsche company literally the sweetheart deal of a lifetime. A royalty on every beetle sold worldwide.”
1945
British Major Ivan Hurst won an initial order of 20,000 Beetles for the British military, which restarted Volkswagen after the war.
“place an initial order, a seed order to restart the company for 20,000 Beetles that the British military is going to adopt and use as their main military transport.”
1993
Ferdinand Piëch turned around Audi and became CEO of Volkswagen in 1993.
“he's so successful that in 1993, he gets promoted and becomes CEO of Volkswagen.”
2005
The Volkswagen law capped any shareholder's voting rights at 20% of Volkswagen AG, to protect it from takeovers.
“no shareholder in Volkswagen AG could exercise more than 20% of the firm's voting rights regardless of their level of stock holding.”
2011
Volkswagen completed its purchase of Porsche's car business in 2011 for about 8.5 billion euros in total.
“Three years later, in 2011, they complete the purchase. It ends up being about eight and a half billion euros total.”
2022
Porsche AG's September 2022 re-IPO was the largest European IPO ever, at an initial market value of about $75 billion.
“The Porsche re-IPO is the largest European IPO of all time. The initial market cap of Porsche at trading was about $75 billion.”
Episodes