No-One Knows Who Owns Volkswagen

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28010, 3 July 1956, Page 13

No-One Knows Who Owns Volkswagen

(Rec. 10.10 p.m.) BONN. July 1. No-one knows yet who owns Volkswagen, the West German car firm which is one of Britain's toughest competitors in world markets. The firm. founded in 1938 by Hitler's Labour Front, is under the joint trusteeship of the Federal Government and the State of Lower Saxony. In spite of the West German Government’s announced intention to sell the firm the transaction might never take place for the question of who owns it now must be settled first, some officials said. An association of people who joined a Nazi savings scheme which promised them each one of the "people’s cars” took the matter to the Courts. The association’s plea that it was the legal owner was rejected. But it started another case which might take months, or even years, to conclude. Government officials are attempting to draft a bill to clarify the firm's ownership. The West German Finance Minister, Dr. Fritz Schaeffer, said re-

cently that he would not allow thp firm to pass into the hands of a, foreign consortium or into the hands of any of Volkswagen's competitors at home. He said there should be a minimum sale price of about £B3 million for the firm, a fisure close to the total turnover in 1954 —the last year for which accounts have been published This year, the firm plans to produce 400.000 cars, buses and commercial vans, about half of which will be for export.