Third Reich to Fortune 500: Five Popular Brands the Nazis Gave Us

In the picture second form the bottom, the brown car, that's a citroen, not a volkswagen; though commonly confused because the damn french copied the german's sexy designs.

And what about Fanta Orange aka the Nazi Juice?

So, the point of this article is... To have stylishly forward thinking innovation - we need the Nazies back!

The picture of a red car with the passenger door open isn't a Volkswagen. It is a Citroën 2CV.

OK,,AKwAaaard, I want funny, got shocking, then cute,then shock, then cute,then intesting, then shock then...

okay sticketymuffin let me break it down. I neither supprot genocide nor getting rich off of it. The whole Volkswagon Nazi relationship was set up when Hitler first came to power. When he was trying to rebuild Germany after the Great Depression. So when Hitler thought f**k the jews. Most people arent gonna argue when your options are comply or get gassed. I'm just saying some of these businesses may have been caught in a bad situation. Two sides to every coin arseholes

I'm surprised Thyssen Krupp didn't make the list. I'm pretty sure they were the company that designed the gas chambers, now they design elevators (that are all over the place).

Might be wrong, can't say I heard it from a reputable source.

zeitgeistmovie.com

I admit, I call my youngest Aryan nation sometimes (blonde hair, blue eyes, 1/4 german), but people who know me aren't offended. Due to our heritage (btw, remember, Hitler was Austrian) I make my boys (8, 10, & 12)learn about the holocaust. They know what the kindercamps were, know the majors players, and see how horrible the idea of the gas ovens is.

Originally the Volkswagen was more of a scam than a consumer product. As I've read there were several prototypes built, but only three finished were shown prior to the start of the war. These were put on tour with the idea that if every good German deposited a certain amount in a special bank account they would eventually get their own car. Hitler was shown several times driving the peoples car, as were many of Reich-Marshals. The exception was Hermann Goering as with his great girth, and spinal injuries from his last crash in the Great War, he simply could not get into the car. The money saved by the people went strait to Porshe to set up a factory line to build the Kubelwagen, the utilitarian German car for the German army, used much like the US Jeep. The Kubelwagen was, under the body metal, just a Volkswagen with some additional suspension travel and heavier springs and shock absorbers. As thousands of modified VWs have demonstrated in off road races, the torsion bar front and swing arm rear suspension make an excellent vehicle for off road driving. In the '70s Volkswagen resurrected the Kubelwagen, smoothed the lines a bit, gave it a more powerful engine and marketed it to the dune buggy crowd as the "Thing". To my knowledge no common German ever received the "peoples car" that they had saved to own.

Makes one want to become an anti-capitalist communist. Oh wait communist regimes have killed and brutalized more poeple than fascist ones. Well since in practice they are one in the same whats a guy to do.

I knew cats were Nazis, and not just because I read Maus.

That really didn't seem that bad. There are a lot more jobs during a war, and a lot more government contracts. These were just companies who felt like being rich. Probably because poor people suck.

I lose more faith in humanity each passing day!

capnwhoopass.no. im just gonna say it. When your country turns to genocide, you get in on it....It's just good business.

you do realise that these were in the sun once under the title 5 brands the nazis gave us

To be fair to Volkswagen. They may have been in it for the cheap cars for all. Also it was before the whole trying to purge the jews thing

I think it should now be mandated that all articles on Cracked involving squirm-in-your-seat subjects have a minimum of 2 'Kitten Breaks'. Even if they're not kittens, a cute baby panda or koala will do. For *really* uncomfortable articles, a baby with a kitten in a teacup decorated with pink daisies. Yeah, that'll work.

Also wtf with the kittens? Not funny.

Actually it was Hitler that modified Porsche's design of the car to make it cute. He felt the lines were too harsh.

Hitler's such a sweetie.