Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 10:04 am Post subject: 750 Martin Bormann 4th Reich Transnationals thriving today
Martin Bormann's 4th Reich Transnationals thriving today
or... Hitler's corporations making big profits now - US/Germany
New film - Hitler's American Business Partners
The US firms who helped the Nazis
Hitler's American Business Partners is a documentary showcasing on Sky channel 547
This documentary uncovers the unholy alliance between Nazi Germany and some of the biggest corporations in the United States - companies, which were indispensable for Hitler to wage war. JD Rockefeller's Standard Oil, Ford, IBM and General Motors.
Supported by new archive material as well as interviews with contemporary witnesses, this is a disturbing tale of high-level co-operation in the years leading up to the Second Wolrd War, which had a far-reaching influence over Hitler's initial plans for European and world domination.
Henry Ford, the automobile manufacturer, James D. Mooney, the General Motors manager and Tom Watson, the IBM boss, were all awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the Nazis' highest distinction for foreigners, for their services to the Third Reich.
At this time, in 1927 and 1938, Hitler's armaments industry was running at full speed. The German subsidiaries of these American companies - Opel, the Ford Werke AG and Dehomag had willingly and shamelessly allowed themselves to be integrated into the "Führer's" war preparations.
Without the trucks and tracklaying vehicles produced by Opel and Ford, Hitler would never have been able to occupy Czechoslovakia or invade Poland and France. Opel was also involved in the production of the Junkers Ju-88, Hitler's most important multi-role aircraft. Standard Oil of New Jersey supplied crude oil, special motor oil for tanks and lead additives for aircraft fuel, right up to the first year of the war.
Worth watching. American firms not only used slave labour and supplied equipment which caused millions of deaths but the factories were deliberately spared in allied bombing raids. http://novakeo.com/?p=1371
"So the West has to think again --to think, in fact, that there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims." (see PDF below):
Check these two out as well
"Baker reminds us, for instance, not to forget that it was thanks in great part to Churchill and England that Mussolini ascended to power so quickly"
Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1847372740
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 1:17 am Post subject: Nazi companies growing ever more powerful
Siemens retreats over Nazi name
German engineering giant Siemens has hastily abandoned plans to register the trademark "Zyklon", the same name as the Zyklon B poison gas used in Nazi extermination camps, BBC News Online has learnt.
A year ago, Bosch Siemens Hausgeraete (BSH), the firm's consumer products joint venture, filed two applications with the US Patent & Trademark Office for the Zyklon name across a range of home products, including gas ovens.
Twenty-three years later, another controversy erupted over the publication of a book critical of German industry. In 1972, a German satirist, F. C. Delius, published (in Germany) a mock history of Siemens to coincide with the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the company's founding.3 The book, Unsere Siemenswelt (Our Siemens World), was a fake official company publication that proudly listed some of the famous electrical company's numerous "accomplishments": the mistreatment of slave laborers in its factories during World War II, the installation of the crematoria at Auschwitz, etc. It was not immediately obvious that this book was an unauthorized satire, and less than a month after its publication, Siemens took legal action against Delius in an attempt to suppress his mocking commentary on corporate guilt. Ironically, a series of depositions, trials, and appeals drew attention to the conduct of Siemens during the Nazi years (and initiated a debate within the literary community about the role of satire in a democratic society). After three years of legal wrangling, a district court and a provincial appeals court in Stuttgart determined that several of the book's claims, including the Auschwitz assertion, were false, and ruled that Delius's ideas, despite being presented as satire, were damaging to Siemens. (The district court also thought it was suspicious that Delius's evidence had been derived from "communist" publications.) Eventually both parties reached a settlement, part of which stipulated that future editions of the book could only be published with the controversial lines -- including the crematoria claim -- literally blacked out. The most recent edition (1995) of this book still bears the legacy of this settlement: many pages contain black bars concealing lines of text.
http://www.adl.org/Braun/dim_13_2_forgetting_print.asp
BERLIN – Over the years, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), the German automobile manufacturer, has become a symbol of quality, prestige, and social status. As it turns out, the company has been hiding a dark secret for decades.
The Quandt family – Germany’s richest– is a major shareholder of the leading German automobile manufacturer.
It made its fortune during the Second World War through the Nazi war machine, profiting from the forced labor of thousands at concentration camps.
According to an investigative report that premiered at the Hamburg Film Festival on Sunday, the family managed to escape punishment after the war, and continued building its empire – an empire that has left its members billionaires many times over.
The investigative report, which took five years in the making, reveals for the first time the close ties between members of the Quandt family and the Nazi regime’s leadership.
Günther Quandt, the empire’s founder, was the first husband of Magda Ritschel, who later married Joseph Goebbels, a German politician and one of Adolf Hitler’s closest associates.
According to the report, Quandt’s first son with Magda was raised by the Goebbels, and became one of the managers of his father’s business after the war.
The report also revealed a series of incriminating documents found collecting dust in various archives throughout Germany, which prove the extent of cooperation between the Quandts and the Nazis.
Makers of the investigative report also located survivors of the camps used by the family during World War II, who testified to the horrible conditions they were forced to work under.
The family refused to cooperate with reporters who participated in the investigation.
The Quandt’s have previously denied allegations that they cooperated with the Nazis, and in fact, for years portrayed themselves as victims of the Third Reich.
When the German Forced Labour Compensation Program was established, the family made no contribution, claiming it had nothing to do with the issue.
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/ 1,2506,L-3455663,00.html
BMW ‘built fortune on slave labour under the Nazis’
3rd October 2007
The owners of the BMW car empire built their £17 billion fortune on the back of slave labour under the Nazis, it has been claimed.
A TV documentary reveals that the Quandt family, controllers of BMW, profited from workers shipped in from concentration camps.
Unlike many German firms whose links to the Nazis have been made public, BMW has resisted investigating its wartime practices.
But the documentary – The Silence of the Quandts – claims that BMW industrialist Gunther Quandt operated a plant which used labourers from the Neugamme concentration camp.
“It was dangerous work, watched over by the SS and many workers died,” said the documentary.
Labourer Takis Mylopoulos, who worked at the Afa plant, making batteries for BMW, said: “It was worse than slave labour. We were treated terribly, had to drink water from the toilets. We were also whipped.”
Quandt, who had a 30 per cent stake in BMW, was held briefly post-war, but declared to be a party member who “went along” with things rather than an ardent Nazi, and so was not charged.
Benjamin Ferenz, a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, said: “If these facts had been laid before the courts, Quandt would have been accused exactly the same as Krupp and I.G. Farben.”
Today, the Quandt family have a fortune estimated at £17 billion.
Many German corporations – car maker VW and media giant Bertelsmann – have investigated their working practices under the Nazis.
VW, for instance, found out that there was a “dying room” at its main plant where women slave labourers were forced to leave their newborns to expire.
While it is well known that major industrial concerns like BMW had to ingratiate themselves with the regime, BMW has never researched into its Nazi past and these facts have not been made public before.
“The Silence of the Quandts” drew a massive audience when it was screened on Sunday night without pre-publicity.
“We were surprised by the film,” said a Quandt family spokesman, adding nothing more. _________________ www.lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.org www.rethink911.org www.patriotsquestion911.com www.actorsandartistsfor911truth.org www.mediafor911truth.org www.pilotsfor911truth.org www.mp911truth.org www.ae911truth.org www.rl911truth.org www.stj911.org www.v911t.org www.thisweek.org.uk www.abolishwar.org.uk www.elementary.org.uk www.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2149 http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf
"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
https://37.220.108.147/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/
Last edited by TonyGosling on Sat Jul 10, 2010 11:27 am; edited 1 time in total
Well that is the definition of Corporate Fascism! Anything smell familiar back home? _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 11:14 am Post subject:
Good sites on this frontier research topic are few and far between
This chap's book is called Psychic Dictatorship
and you can probably guess which country he's on about
http://alexconstantine.blogspot.com/
Yes!! All our problems stem from events that occurred 70 years ago and its the Germans and the Nazis to blame for everything that is happening to us. It is NOT Israel!!! Grrr - those damned Nazis - when will they ever go away!!! Its the Nazis that attacked the Gaza relief convoy. The Germans did 9/11. The Germans control all the media and the banking. The Germans have political organizations in the USA and increasingly in the UK that influence policy. Those German Nazis are everywhere!!!
Yes!! All our problems stem from events that occurred 70 years ago and its the Germans and the Nazis to blame for everything that is happening to us. It is NOT Israel!!! Grrr - those damned Nazis - when will they ever go away!!! Its the Nazis that attacked the Gaza relief convoy. The Germans did 9/11. The Germans control all the media and the banking. The Germans have political organizations in the USA and increasingly in the UK that influence policy. Those German Nazis are everywhere!!!
You forgot to mention they are always at the pool first and putting their towels on the beach chairs too.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 8:11 pm Post subject:
1. Kodak. During World War Two, Kodak's German branch used slave laborers from concentration camps. Several of their other European branches did heavy business with the Nazi government.
And Wilhelm Keppler, one of Hitler's top economic advisers, had deep ties in Kodak. When Nazism began, Keppler advised Kodak and several other U.S. companies that they'd benefit by firing all of their Jewish employees. (Source: The Nation)
2. Hugo Boss. In the 1930s, Hugo Boss started making Nazi uniforms. The reason: Hugo Boss himself had joined the Nazi party, and got a contract to make the Hitler Youth, storm trooper and SS uniforms.
That was a huge boon for Hugo Boss... he got the contract just eight years after founding his company... and that infusion of business helped take the company to another level.
The Nazi uniform manufacturing went so well that Hugo Boss ended up needing to bring in slave laborers in Poland and France to help out at the factory.
In 1997, Hugo's son, Siegfried Boss, told an Austrian news magazine, "Of course my father belonged to the Nazi party. But who didn't belong back then?" (Source: New York Times)
3. Volkswagen. Ferdinand Porsche, the man behind Volkswagen and Porsche, met with Hitler in 1934, to discuss the creation of a "people's car." (That's the English translation of Volkswagen.)
Hitler told Porsche to make the car with a streamlined shape, "like a beetle." And that's the genesis of the Volkswagen Beetle... it wasn't just designed for the Nazis, Hitler NAMED it.
During World War Two, it's believed that as many as four out of every five workers at Volkswagen's plants were slave laborers. Ferdinand Porsche even had a direct connection to Heinrich Himmler, one of the leaders of the SS, to directly request slaves from Auschwitz. (Source: The Straight Dope)
4. Bayer. During the Holocaust, a German company called IG Farben manufactured the Zyklon B gas used in the Nazi gas chambers. They also funded and helped with Josef Mengele's "experiments" on concentration camp prisoners.
5. IG Farben is the company that turned the single largest profit from work with the Nazis. After the War, the company was broken up. Bayer was one of its divisions, and went on to become its own company.
Oh... and aspirin was founded by a Bayer employee, Arthur Eichengrun. But Eichengrun was Jewish, and Bayer didn't want to admit that a Jewish guy created the one product that keeps their company in business. So, to this day, Bayer officially gives credit to Felix Hoffman, a nice Aryan man, for inventing aspirin. (Source: Alliance for Human Research Protection, Pharmaceutical Achievers)
6. Siemens. Siemens took slave laborers during the Holocaust and had them help construct the gas chambers that would kill them and their families. Good people over there.
Siemens also has the single biggest post-Holocaust moment of insensitivity of any of the companies on this list. In 2001, they tried to trademark the word "Zyklon" (which means "cyclone" in German) to become the name a new line of products... including a line of gas ovens.
Zyklon, of course, being the name of the poison gas used in their gas chambers during the Holocaust.
A week later, after several watchdog groups appropriately freaked out, Siemens withdrew the application. They said they never drew the connection between the Zyklon B gas used during the Holocaust and their proposed Zyklon line of products. (Source: BBC)
7. Coca-Cola, specifically Fanta. Coke played both sides during World War Two... they supported the American troops but also kept making soda for the Nazis. Then, in 1941, the German branch of Coke ran out of syrup, and couldn't get any from America because of wartime restrictions.
So they invented a new drink, specifically for the Nazis: A fruit-flavored soda called Fanta.
That's right: Long before Fanta was associated with a bunch of exotic women singing a god-awful jingle, it was the unofficial drink of Nazi Germany. (Source: New Statesman)
8. Ford. Henry Ford is a pretty legendary anti-Semite, so this makes sense. He was Hitler's most famous foreign backer. On his 75th birthday, in 1938, Ford received a Nazi medal, designed for "distinguished foreigners."
He profiteered off both sides of the War -- he was producing vehicles for the Nazis AND for the Allies.
I'm wondering if, in a completely misguided piece of logic, Allianz points to the Detroit Lions giving Ford the naming rights to their stadium as a reason why they should get the rights to the Meadowlands. (Source: Reformed Theology)
9. Standard Oil. The Luftwaffe needed tetraethyl lead gas in order to get their planes off the ground. Standard Oil was one of only three companies that could manufacture that type of fuel. So they did.
Without them, the German air force never could've even gotten their planes off the ground.
When Standard Oil was dissolved as a monopoly, it led to ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP, all of which are still around today. (But fortunately, their parent company's past decision to make incredible profits off of war have not carried on.) (Source: MIT's Thistle)
10. Chase bank. A lot of banks sided with the Nazis during World War Two. Chase is the most prominent.
They froze European Jewish customers' accounts and were extremely cooperative in providing banking service to Germany. (Source: New York Times)
11. IBM. IBM custom-build machines for the Nazis that they could use to track everything... from oil supplies to train schedules into death camps to Jewish bank accounts to individual Holocaust victims themselves.
In September of 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, the "New York Times" reported that three million Jews were going to be "immediately removed" from Poland and were likely going to be "exterminat[ed]."
IBM's reaction? An internal memo saying that, due to that "situation", they really needed to step up production on high-speed alphabetizing equipment. (Source: CNet)
12. Random House publishing. Random House's parent company, Bertelsmann A.G., worked for the Nazis... they published Hitler propaganda, and a book called "Sterilization and Euthanasia: A Contribution to Applied Christian Ethics".
Bertelsmann still owns and operates several companies. I picked Random House because they drew controversy in 1997 when they decided to expand the definition of Nazi in Webster's Dictionary.
Eleven years ago, they added the colloquial, softened definition of "a person who is fanatically dedicated to or seeks to control a specified activity, practice, etc." (Think "Soup Nazi".)
The Anti-Defamation League called that expanded definition offensive... especially when added by a company with Nazi ties... they said it, quote, "trivializes and denies the murderous intent and actions of the Nazi regime... it also cheapens the language by allowing people to reach for a quick word fix... [and] lends a helping hand to those whose aim is to prove that the Nazis were really not such terrible people." (Source: New York Observer, ADL)
No morals in the ever increasing need to turn a profit _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Guenther Quandt was a member of the Nazi party and benefited from its 'Aryanisation' programme by taking over Jewish firms
His wife, Magda Behrend Rietschel, later divorced him and married Joseph Goebbels, with whom she died in Hitler's bunker in 1945
Quandt factories employed 50,000 slave labourers to churn out weapons and ammunition for the Nazis during World War Two, making the family very rich
Family still retains majority of shares in luxury car maker
By Allan Hall - Daily Mail - 28th September 2011
The dynasty behind the BMW luxury car marker has admitted, after decades of silence, using slave labour, taking over Jewish firms and doing business with the highest echelons of the Nazi party during World War Two.
Gabriele Quandt, whose grandfather Guenther employed an estimated 50,000 forced labourers in his arms factories, producing ammunition, rifles, artillery and U-boat batteries, said it was 'wrong' for the family to ignore this chapter of its history.
He spoke out after an in-depth study by Bonn-based historian Joachim Scholtyseck, commissioned by the family, that concluded Guenther Quandt and his son Herbert were responsible for numerous Nazi injustices.
It found Guenther acquired companies through the Nazi programme of 'Aryanisation' of Jewish-owned firms.
Herbert Quandt was 'part of the system', son Stefan Quandt said after the conclusion of the three-year study - forced on the family by public outrage over a German TV documentary - compiled using company files from the 12-year period of the Third Reich.
The Quandt family bought into BMW 15 years after the War.
The study shows Guenther became a Nazi Party member on May 1, 1933, a month after Adolf Hitler achieved supreme power in Germany.
But he had long used a network of party officials and Wehrmacht officers to build up contacts for lucrative state contracts.
Married to Magda Behrend Rietschel, Guenther was divorced by her in 1929 although they remained on friendly terms.
She went on to marry the 'poison dwarf' of the Nazi party, the propaganda maestro Joseph Goebbels, and would die with him - after murdering their six children - in Hitler's bunker in 1945.
The company grew rich in the Nazi era. In 1937, Hitler bestowed on Guenther the title Wehrwirtschaftsführer - leader of the armament economy - and his business supplied weapons using slave labourers from concentration camps in at least three factories.
Hundreds of these labourers died.
An execution area to murder those who displeased their masters was found in one of his plants in Hannover and the study mentions the fate of a Polish man who was hanged at another plant in front of 50 other inmates.
The study showed that the Quandt firms also used Russian POWs as slave labourers and that Guenther and Herbert knew about them, detailing their dispersion among their empire from the company HQ in Berlin.
Herbert even employed Ukrainian slaves on his weekend retreat outside the Reich capital.
Guenther was described as an 'opportunist' who enthusiastically helped the regime to rid Berlin industries of Jewish workers before the start of the war.
This was despite his numerous contacts with Jewish bankers in the years before the Nazis began their climb to power.
He was also 'unscrupulous' in his take-overs of Jewish firms which were forcibly sold for a pittance to loyal German industrialists such as himself.
'The family patriarch was part of the Nazi regime', judged the historian in the 1,200 page study.
'The Quandts connected themselves inseparably with the crimes of the National Socialists.'
The Quandts were pressured into commissioning the study after a 2007 TV documentary in Germany entitled The Silence Of The Quandt Family.
Five days later, as the press headlines about a fortune built on blood piled up, the reclusive family announced its full backing for the research project.
At the time it said: 'The accusations that have been raised against our family have moved us.
'We recognize that in our history as a German business family, the years 1933 to 1945 have not been sufficiently cleared up.'
BMW, of which the Quandts became major shareholders 15 years after the war, was not implicated in the documentary.
'We were treated terribly and had to drink water from the toilets. We were also whipped,' said Takis Mylopoulos, a forced labourer who worked in Quandt's Hannover plant.
In 1946 Guenther Quandt was arrested and interned. To the surprise of many, he was judged to be a 'Mitlaufer', or fellow traveller - namely someone who accepted the Nazi ideology but did not take an active part in crimes.
He was released in January 1948.
Business interests: The BMW factory in Cowley, Oxfordshire. The Quandt family still owns the majority of shares in luxury car manufacturer BMW
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:24 pm Post subject:
www.BMWpedia.org - Lock Up Your BMW – The Arsonists are Coming http://www.bmwpedia.org/lock-up-your-bmw-the-arsonists-are-coming
They strike in the night, on an almost daily basis – anti-gentrification protesters in Berlin, who aren’t exactly cool with the idea of peaceful protesting. How to they fight? Car fires. Car-arsonists are torching luxury automobiles in gentrified neighborhoods throughout Berlin, roasting Mercedes, Porsche’s and BMW vehicles. When the police and firefighters show up – no arsonist is seen, and the car is a wreck.
http://www.endthelie.com/2012/01/24/burning-question-german-police-sea rch-in-vain-for-car-arsonists/
Burning question: German police search in vain for car arsonists
Police in Berlin have collected data on more than 4.2 million cell phones in a fruitless attempt to track down those behind hundreds of arson attacks on cars in the German capital.
The police started collecting cell phone data in 2008, Tageszeitung newspaper reports. They did not record conversations, but traced calls and texts. They also used this information to identify the names and addresses of about a thousand people living near the arson sites.
The paper says police planned to continue the monitoring process with a further 1.7 million checks planned.
The tracking operation was acknowledged by police on Monday and sparked an outcry from opposition parties. “This is beyond my imagination,” exclaimed Udo Wolf, a politician from the Left Party.
The car-burning incidents have been taking place in the relatively calm German capital for years and underwent a surge in August with 47 cars being torched in three nights.
At times the attacks seemed politically-motivated and targeted luxury cars in wealthy neighborhoods, before then spreading across other areas of Berlin.
The German media has speculated the arsonists might be from the far right or far left or possibly just youths copying the riots in the UK.
Dieter Wiefelspuetz, a member of parliament and crime expert for the center-left Social Democrats, called the attacks “a precursor to terrorism,” reminiscent of the far-left Red Army Faction terror group that carried out bombings and assassinations in 1970 and 1980s.
Several arrests have been made in the hunt for the arsonists but only one person has been convicted so far, according to Reuters. A 43-year-old unemployed Berlin man got a 22-month suspended jail sentence and 300 hours of community service in August for setting fire to a BMW.
Source - http://rt.com/news/berlin-police-track-phones-623/ _________________ www.lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.org www.rethink911.org www.patriotsquestion911.com www.actorsandartistsfor911truth.org www.mediafor911truth.org www.pilotsfor911truth.org www.mp911truth.org www.ae911truth.org www.rl911truth.org www.stj911.org www.v911t.org www.thisweek.org.uk www.abolishwar.org.uk www.elementary.org.uk www.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2149 http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf
"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
https://37.220.108.147/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 11:33 am Post subject:
Massive POSITIVE SPIN coverage today for this Nazi firm BMW 'investing' in Britain
But not a word in any of the papers about the refusal of the present private owners of BMW, the Quandt family, to either acknowledge the family wealth is built on slave labour & concentration camp victims.
Neither to pay a penny of reparations into the funds to which Mercedes, VW and Porsche have contributed many millions.
The German documentary is The Silence Of The Quandts - lets hope someone subtitles it in English and/or do a English voice over.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shkgyrual2g
The Quandt family is the silent might behind one of the world's largest and most profitable automakers, BMW. Yet the family has a dark past. Its businesses profited from forced labour during the Third Reich, and the patriarchs, who were intimately involved with the Nazi regime, managed to escape prosecution and keep those profits when the war ended. This documentary shows the victims, and asks the question, "Why are the Quandts silent?"
It is my hope that, by making this excellent German documentary available to English-speaking people, the resulting public pressure will help to move the Quandts to acknowledge the family's role, apologise, and take active steps to make reparations to the victims.
Editor's note: Geoff Adams-Spink was born in 1962 with multiple impairments caused by the drug, thalidomide. He was a BBC journalist for 22 years, and latterly the Age and Disability Correspondent. He now runs his own disability equality consultancy, Adams-Spink Ltd. He is Chairman of EDRIC (European Dysmelia Reference Information Centre) which runs DysNet -- a global network for everyone affected by limb difference. He is also a trustee of a major British charity, Disability Rights UK.
London (CNN) -- So, after a mere half-century, German pharmaceutical firm Gruenenthal has decided to apologize for the devastating effects its drug, thalidomide, had on thousands of babies and their families around the world, myself included. Is this a reason to celebrate? Is it even a reason for cautious optimism, or is it simply a piece of news management designed to salvage what is left of its corporate reputation?
Gruenenthal's chief executive, Harald Stock, made the apology Friday as he inaugurated a memorial to those affected in Stolberg, Germany, where the company is based.
I was aware of Herr Stock long before his name was flashed around newsrooms all over the world when he made his momentous announcement.
Together with others, I've been campaigning for justice for the global thalidomide community for the past decade.
Geoff Adams-Spink
At one point Herr Stock, who replaced Sebastian Wirtz as head of Gruenenthal, agreed to a meeting.
We held preliminary discussions, however the process broke down acrimoniously before we ever got to meet Herr Stock after it became clear to all of us that the company had no intention of negotiating a lasting settlement -- one that would have kept them out of the headlines forever and which would have left the Wirtz family with its considerable fortune intact.
Personal account: A life shaped by bad medicine
So why the apology now? I think it is not unconnected with successful litigation in Australia that has resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement for a hitherto unrecognized thalidomide survivor, Lynette Rowe. Although the settlement was achieved at the expense of the British and Australian successor company to the distributor of thalidomide, Diageo, Gruenenthal was also named in proceedings. The writing was spray-painted on the wall for Mr Stock and the board of Gruenenthal.
We believe the drug had its origins in the Nazi death camps in Poland -- as uncovered by two solicitors working on behalf of survivors of thalidomide. It is also a matter of record that Gruenenthal's board in the 1950s included a prominent and convicted Nazi war criminal, Otto Ambros.
Apology issued for birth defects drug
Respected historian and director of The Thalidomide Trust, Dr Martin Johnson, who has himself uncovered much damning evidence against Gruenenthal has said: "This is a company that has evil written into its DNA."
If successful, the two companies will have combined sales of £60bn, employ 220,000 people worldwide, be the main supplier of Europe’s military efforts, build Britain’s nuclear submarines and own Airbus, the world’s biggest plane manufacturer.
The two companies already have major links through the MBDA missiles business and projects including the Eurofighter Typhoon jet. Combined, they would be the largest industrial employer in Britain, with almost 60,000 workers, and the second-biggest aerospace company in the world after Boeing.
News of the merger stunned the market and pushed up shares in BAE 10.6pc, forcing the British company to make an announcement. The US defence department, however, said it had not been properly informed about the deal, which will need approval from the British government and BAE shares fell 7pc at the start of trading in London on Thursday. EADS shares fell a further 10pc.
PUBLISHED: 19:10, 2 February 2013 | UPDATED: 23:19, 2 February 2013
The step-grandchildren of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels share a fortune worth at least £3.8billion from their family's wartime industrial success, it has been revealed.
Four sisters and the two children of a deceased sibling are worth around £760million each, according to an investigation by Bloomberg.
The family's wealthy history can be traced to two men who owed their success to the rise of the Nazi party - Joseph Goebbels and a businessman named Guenther Quandt.
Joseph Goebbels with his wife Magda and their children, Helga, Hildegard, Helmut, Hedwig, Holdine and Heidrun, 1942. Harald Quandt, his step-son, is in uniform at the back of the photo
Both were married at different times to Magda Ritschel.
Harald Quant - the only surviving son from Magda's first marriage - joined the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War and was being held as a prisoner by Allied forces in the Libya when he received a farewell letter from his mother and step-father Joseph Goebbels.
The pair committed suicide alongside their six children on May 1, 1945 in Hitler's bunker. [perhaps - ed.]
He and his half-brother Herbert inherited their father's empire which produced Mauser firearms and anti-aircraft missiles for the Third Reich's war machine.
THE 'POISON DWARF' - PROPAGANDA MINISTER JOSEPH GOEBBELS
Joseph Goebbels was one of the most important and influential people in Nazi Germany.
Hitler put him in charge of the party's propaganda machine in 1929 and he played a key role in implementing the dictator's agenda.
His limp and sharp tongue earned him the nickname among some as the 'Poison Dwarf'.
He organized attacks against Jews, banned them from the world of the arts and media, censored the news and supported Nazi propaganda films.
As the Second World War turned in favour of the Allies, he increased his propaganda in order to convince the German people of the idea of 'total war' and mobilization.
Goebbels killed himself and his wife, and their six children biological children with cyanide capsules the day after Hitler in 1945.
The half-brothers passed away decades ago, but their financial success has endured.
Herbert’s widow, Johanna Quandt, 86, and their children Susanne Klatten and Stefan Quandt, have remained in the public eye as BMW shareholders.
The billionaire daughters of Harald Quandt - Katarina Geller-Herr, 61, Gabriele Quandt, 60, Anette-Angelika May-Thies, 58, and 50-year-old Colleen-Bettina Rosenblat-Mo -- have kept a lower profile.
Billionaires: Herbert Quandt's widow Johanna pictured with her son Stefan, left, and her daughter Susanne Klatten, right, have remained in the public eye as BMW shareholders
The four sisters inherited about 1.5 billion deutsche marks (£483 million) after the death of their mother, Inge, in 1978, according to the family’s official biography, 'Die Quandts'.
They manage their wealth through the Harald Quandt Holding GmbH, a family investment company and trust named after their father.
Fritz Becker, the chief executive officer of the family entities, told Bloomberg: 'The family wants to stay private and that is an acceptable situation for me.
'We invest our money globally and if it’s $1 billion, $500 million or $3 billion, who cares?'
The Quandt family fortune can be traced to Germany's involvement in both world wars.
Guenther Quandt inherited one of the country's biggest state clothing manufacturers from his father
Adolf Hitler with his propaganda minister Jospeh Goebbels, his wife Magda, and three of their children in 1938
Emil which made military uniforms in the First World War.
After his first wife died from Spanish flu he married Magda Ritschel in 1921 and the couple had their only son Harald.
They divorced in 1929 and two years later she married Jospeh Goebbels, a member of the German parliament and rising star in the Nazi party.
After the Nazis took power in 1933, their leader, Adolf Hitler, appointed Goebbels as the Third Reich’s propaganda minister. Hitler was the best man at the couple’s wedding.
Guenther Quandt joined the party that same year. His factories became key suppliers to the German war effort, even though his relationship with Goebbels had become increasingly strained.
'There was constant rivalry,' said Bonn-based history professor Joachim Scholtyseck, author of a family-commissioned study about their involvement with the Third Reich, in a telephone interview with Bloomberg.
'It didn’t matter that Goebbels didn’t like him. It didn’t have any influence on Quandt’s ability to make money.'
From 1940 to 1945, the Quandt family factories were staffed with more than 50,000 forced civilian laborers, prisoners of war and concentration camp workers, according to Scholtyseck’s 1,183-page study.
The report was commissioned by the family in 2007 after German television aired the documentary 'The Silence of the Quandts,' a critical look at their wartime activities.
According to 'Die Quandts' the siblings try to get together a few times a year to discuss their investments.
After Scholtyseck’s study was published in 2011, cousins Gabriele and Stefan Quandt acknowledged their family’s ties and involvement with the Third Reich in an interview with Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper.
'Magda killed her six children in the Fuehrerbunker. Our father loved his half-siblings very much. And when, like me, you have something like this in your family history, you think: It can’t be any worse,' Gabriele Quandt said in the interview.
'It’s a sad truth that forced laborers died in Quandt companies,' said Stefan.
May 17, 2013 -- It’s nearly 70 years since the end of World War II and much has changed in Germany, but one of the most notable changes there has been resurrection of its Jewish community.
Today, more than 200,000 Jews live in the country that was supposed to be the center of the Thousand-Year Reich. The growth is largely due to an influx of Jewish emigrants from the former Soviet Union, though many Israelis have also moved there. (How religious or affiliated they are is a subject for another column).
Rabbis and cantors are being trained there once again at the Abraham Geiger College in Pottsdam, where Pittsburgh’s Rabbi Walter Jacob is the president.
And thanks to a 2003 act signed by then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, Judaism now enjoys the same legal status in Germany as the Roman Catholic and Evangelical Church in Germany.
It is even a crime in Germany to deny the Holocaust. To do so is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Sadly, though, it is still quite legal to play down one’s role or acquiescence in the Holocaust.
Case in point, Bayer — a German-based chemical and pharmaceutical company with U.S. offices in Robinson Township along the Parkway West. The company is perhaps best known for its aspirin, though it is well known for many other products, achievements and scientific breakthroughs.
In fact, you can read about all these wonderful things at www.bayer.com/en/150-years.aspx. Bayer is celebrating its sesquicentennial all year long with a touring interactive exhibition, an art exhibit in Berlin with works from its own collection (including some by Andy Warhol), volunteer programs, employee celebrations, even a world tour with the Bayer Airship — a la the Goodyear Blimp.
“What started as a small but innovative dyestuffs factory in the Barmen district of Wuppertal is now a global enterprise with more than 110,000 employees,†CEO Dr. Marijn Dekkers writes on this website. “In the past 150 years, Bayer inventions have time and again helped improve people’s quality of life. This great tradition is also our commitment to the future — entirely in line with our mission of Bayer: Science For A Better Life.â€
Sadly, you’ll read very little about the company’s role in the Holocaust.
“The unpleasant periods of the company’s history have totally been omitted from the celebrations,†according to a statement from Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, a watchdog organization with a decidedly critical view of the global conglomerate. “Topics such as environmental contamination, pesticide poisoning, worker protests and collaboration with the Third Reich are simply ignored.â€
Bayer was part of the IG Farben group, a German company complicit in many Nazi war crimes. According to Corporate Watch, an independent, journalism, research and publishing group that monitors the impact of large corporations, Farben used slave laborers in its operations, some of which were based close to concentration camps. Another Farben subsidiary, Degesch, manufactured Zyklon B, the gas used in the concentration camp gas chambers. Farben also conducted experiments on humans, according to Corporate Watch.
Fritz ter Meer, a former chairman of the board at Bayer, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1947 by a Nurenberg tribunal for his role for enslavement and looting. Among his crimes, was his role in establishing the Monowitz Concentration Camp, a satellite camp of Auschwitz as well as the IG Farben Buna Werke factory at Auschwitz, which conducted human experiments on slave laborers.
During his trial, ter Meer defended himself by saying, “without this they would have been killed anyway.†Bayer named a student support foundation for him after his death in 1967.
This is only a piece of the Bayer’s darker history.
What does Bayer have to say about its silence of these atrocities as its celebrates its landmark anniversary? In fairness, a company spokeswoman has referred us to online sites on Bayer’s history, which do indeed include the Holocaust.
The issue isn’t whether Bayer has acknowledged its past. It has. The issue is, why isn’t Bayer, in such a milestone year of its history, shedding the same light on its human failures as it is its human achievements?
Here’s what Bayer includes about the war years on the history page from its 150th anniversary website:
“In 1936 the National Socialist government began systematically preparing for war.
When the Second World War finally broke out in 1939, the locations of the Lower Rhine consortium were among the sites of German industry that were considered ‘vital to the war.’ Production requirements grew steadily, yet more and more employees were drafted into military service. For this reason, foreign and forced laborers from the occupied countries of Europe were brought to work in Leverkusen, Dormagen, Elberfeld and Uerdingen — and throughout the German industry as a whole — to maintain output levels. At times during the war, these laborers accounted for up to one third of the workforce. Concentration camp prisoners were not employed in the Lower Rhine sites.â€
But it doesn’t mention Monowitz, Buna Werke or ter Meer.
In fact, a video on the website highlighting the company’s achievements includes a timeline from the past 150 years that skips the war years entirely.
The Holocaust is a seminal moment in the history of mankind. Bayer, and every other German company that succumbed to Nazism, owes it to the next generation to address their darker roles in history as vigorously as their brighter moments.
But there are no Holocaust-related programs scheduled on Bayer’s sesquicentennial calendar, no forums or lectures where historians and scholars can parse this period in the company’s history, so we can all understand it better.
Were Bayer to do this, it would be to the company’s credit. It’s quite a thing when a conglomerate publicly and voluntarily looks at its own role in history for better and worse.
It’s still not too late for Bayer to make its role in the Shoa an equal and significant part of its sesquicentennial activities. No one is begrudging Bayer the right to celebrate its history, but it should mark the entire history. (Lee Chottiner, executive editor)
BERLIN – Over the years, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), the German automobile manufacturer, has become a symbol of quality, prestige, and social status. As it turns out, the company has been hiding a dark secret for decades.
The Quandt family – Germany’s richest– is a major shareholder of the leading German automobile manufacturer.
It made its fortune during the Second World War through the Nazi war machine, profiting from the forced labor of thousands at concentration camps.
According to an investigative report that premiered at the Hamburg Film Festival on Sunday, the family managed to escape punishment after the war, and continued building its empire – an empire that has left its members billionaires many times over.
The investigative report, which took five years in the making, reveals for the first time the close ties between members of the Quandt family and the Nazi regime’s leadership.
Günther Quandt, the empire’s founder, was the first husband of Magda Ritschel, who later married Joseph Goebbels, a German politician and one of Adolf Hitler’s closest associates.
According to the report, Quandt’s first son with Magda was raised by the Goebbels, and became one of the managers of his father’s business after the war.
The report also revealed a series of incriminating documents found collecting dust in various archives throughout Germany, which prove the extent of cooperation between the Quandts and the Nazis.
Makers of the investigative report also located survivors of the camps used by the family during World War II, who testified to the horrible conditions they were forced to work under.
The family refused to cooperate with reporters who participated in the investigation.
The Quandt’s have previously denied allegations that they cooperated with the Nazis, and in fact, for years portrayed themselves as victims of the Third Reich.
When the German Forced Labour Compensation Program was established, the family made no contribution, claiming it had nothing to do with the issue.
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/ 1,2506,L-3455663,00.html
BMW ‘built fortune on slave labour under the Nazis’
3rd October 2007
The owners of the BMW car empire built their £17 billion fortune on the back of slave labour under the Nazis, it has been claimed.
A TV documentary reveals that the Quandt family, controllers of BMW, profited from workers shipped in from concentration camps.
Unlike many German firms whose links to the Nazis have been made public, BMW has resisted investigating its wartime practices.
But the documentary – The Silence of the Quandts – claims that BMW industrialist Gunther Quandt operated a plant which used labourers from the Neugamme concentration camp.
“It was dangerous work, watched over by the SS and many workers died,” said the documentary.
Labourer Takis Mylopoulos, who worked at the Afa plant, making batteries for BMW, said: “It was worse than slave labour. We were treated terribly, had to drink water from the toilets. We were also whipped.”
Quandt, who had a 30 per cent stake in BMW, was held briefly post-war, but declared to be a party member who “went along” with things rather than an ardent Nazi, and so was not charged.
Benjamin Ferenz, a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, said: “If these facts had been laid before the courts, Quandt would have been accused exactly the same as Krupp and I.G. Farben.”
Today, the Quandt family have a fortune estimated at £17 billion.
Many German corporations – car maker VW and media giant Bertelsmann – have investigated their working practices under the Nazis.
VW, for instance, found out that there was a “dying room” at its main plant where women slave labourers were forced to leave their newborns to expire.
While it is well known that major industrial concerns like BMW had to ingratiate themselves with the regime, BMW has never researched into its Nazi past and these facts have not been made public before.
“The Silence of the Quandts” drew a massive audience when it was screened on Sunday night without pre-publicity.
“We were surprised by the film,” said a Quandt family spokesman, adding nothing more.
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Joseph Goebbels' wife’s descendants are Germany’s richest family: Relatives of Nazi propagandist’s stepson are worth £24.5 billion
Magda Goebbels' descendants own a 46.7 per cent stake in BMW
Her son from a previous marriage, Harald Quandt, inherited a huge fortune
German family are now the richest in Germany, overtaking Aldi's owners
Harald was the only of Magda Goebbels' children to survive World War II
She and Goebbels murdered her other six children before killing themselves
Published: 09:21, 9 October 2014 | Updated: 15:48, 9 October 2014
Descendants of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels' wife have become the richest family in Germany.
Magda Goebbels, who was one of the most influential women in the Nazi regime, married Hitler's close ally in 1931.
The children of Harald Quandt, her son from a previous marriage, have just seen their family reach a combined net worth of about £24.5billion.
Family photo: Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels with his wife Magda and their children, as well as Magda's son from a previous marriage, Harald Quandt (in uniform), whose family has become the richest in Germany
The Quandts, who hold a 46.7 per cent stake in German car manufacturers BMW, have now overtaken the founders of supermarket giants Lidl and Aldi, who had topped the nation's rich list for the last decade, according to Manager magazine.
Magda Goebbels married Günther Quandt in 1921, three years after is wife died, leaving him a widower with two sons, Hellmut and Herbert.
The newlyweds had a son soon afterwards, naming him Harald.
Magda left Günther Quandt in 1929, marrying Goebbels two years later. Hitler was his best man.
Harald lived with his mother and the Nazi minister until he joined the German army in 1939.
He was in a British Prisoner of War camp in Libya when his mother's farewell letter from Hitler's Berlin bunker arrived.
WHO WAS NAZI PROPAGANDA MINISTER JOSEPH GOEBBELS?
Joseph Goebbels was one of the most important and influential people in Nazi Germany.
Hitler put him in charge of the party's propaganda machine in 1929 and he played a key role in implementing the dictator's agenda.
His limp and sharp tongue earned him the nickname among some as the 'Poison Dwarf'.
He organised attacks against Jews, banned them from the world of the arts and media, censored the news and supported Nazi propaganda films.
As WWII turned in favour of the Allies, he increased his propaganda in order to convince the German people of the idea of 'total war' and mobilisation.
Goebbels killed himself and his wife, and their six biological children with cyanide capsules the day after Hitler committed suicide in 1945.
Many of Quandt family stay out of the public eye, but (from left to right) Johanna Quandt, Stefan Quandt and Susanne Klatten, major shareholders in BMW, are often seen at social gatherings
She wrote to Harald: 'It's likely that you'll be the only one to remain who can continue the tradition of our family.'
Shortly after writing the letter, Magda and Goebbels murdered their six children and killed themselves as Soviet forces closed in on the bunker.
THE GERMAN RICH LIST
Quandt family. BMW shareholders. £24.5billion.
Karl Albrecht and Heister families. Owners of Aldi Sued. £14.4billion.
Schaeffler family. Ball bearing manufacturers. £13.9billion.
Theo Albrecht Jr. Owner of Aldi Nord. £13billion.
Dieter Schwarz. Owner of Lidl. £11.4billion.
Harald and his half-brother Herbert later inherited the Quandt fortune, built up by producing rifles and missiles for the Nazis, the Times reported.
Herbert saved BMW from collapsing in the 1960s after backing new car models, and the huge success of the company since has seen the Quandts gradually climb the German rich list.
Harald died in a plane crash in Italy in 1967 and Herbert died in 1982.
The daughters of Harald Quandt, Coleen-Bettina Rosenblat-Mo, 51, Anette-Angelika May Thies, 59, Gabriele Quandt, 61, and Katarina Geller-Herr, 62, shy away from publicity despite their wealth.
Herbert's widow, Johanna Quandt, 86, and their children, Stefan Quandt and Susanne Klatten, are often seen mingling with fellow shareholders of the car makers.
Winston Churchill: "We will force this war upon Hitler, if he wants it or not." - Winston Churchill (1936 broadcast)
"Germany becomes to powerful. We have to crush it." - Winston Churchill (November 1936 to US-General Robert E. Wood)
"Germanys unforgivable crime before WW2 was its attempt to loosen its economy out of the world trade system and to build up an own exchange system from which the world-finance couldnt profit anymore. ...We butchered the wrong pig." - Winston Churchill, The second World War (Bern, 1960)
"The war wasnt only about abolishing fascism, but to conquer sales markets. We could have, if we had intended so, prevented this war from breaking out without doing one shot, but we didn't want to." - Winston Churchill to Truman (Fultun, USA March 1946)
"Should Germany merchandise again in the next 50 years we have led this war (WW1) in vain." - Winston Churchill in Times (1919)
"This war is an English war and its goal is the destruction of Germany." - Winston Churchill (Autumn 1939 broadcast)
"Not the political doctrine of Hitler has hurled us into this war. The reason was the success of his increase in building a new economy. The roots of war were envy, greed and fear." - Major General J.F.C. Fuller, historian, England
"We made a monster, a devil out of Hitler. Therefore we couldn't disavow it after the war. After all, we mobilized the masses against the devil himself. So we were forced to play our part in this diabolic scenario after the war. In no way we could have pointed out to our people that the war only was an economic preventive measure." -- US foreign minister James Baker (1992)
"Not the political doctrine of Hitler has hurled us into this war. The reason was the success of his increase in building a new economy. The roots of war were envy, greed and fear." -- Major General J.F.C. Fuller, historian, England
"We didn't go to war in 1939 to save Germany from Hitler...or the continent from fascism. Like in 1914, we went to war for the not lesser noble cause that we couldn't accept a German hegemony over Europe." -- Sunday Correspondent, London (17.9.1989)
"The enemy is the German Reich and not Nazism, and those who still haven't understood this, haven't understood anything." -- Churchill's chief counselor Robert Lord Vansittart (September 1940 to foreign minister Lord Halifax) _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
Regulators in the UK are asking the public to report “suspected adverse effects” of hormonal pregnancy tests (HPTs), which have been off the market in the UK since the late 1970s after being associated with serious birth defects and miscarriages.
The information will be used as part of an independent review to determine whether there is a causal relationship between HPT use and reported side effects. MHRA is asking for submissions by 30 June 2015, and says the report is expected to be completed in early 2016.
Background
HPTs such as Primodos and Duogynon were marketed in the UK and Germany beginning in the 1950s. The pregnancy-testing products work by giving women a strong dose of hormones which induce menstruation if the woman is not pregnant.
In the 1960s, scientists began raising concerns that HPTs may be associated with miscarriages and serious birth defects. In 1967, Dr. Isobel Gal conducted a study that associated spinal bifida in children with HPT use in pregnant mothers. At the time, the Committee on the Safety of Medicines (CSM) took these reports into consideration, but did not recommend taking action against these products until 1975.
Advocates have drawn parallels between HPTs and Thalidomide, calling Primodos the “ forgotten Thalidomide.” Thalidomide, a morning sickness drug marketed in the 1950s and 1960s in Europe and Canada, caused thousands of deaths and serious birth defects before its use was banned. Now, more than 50 years after the Thalidomide disaster, victims are still fighting for compensation in some countries, and have complained that the compensation they have received is inadequate.
Recent Actions
In 2013, Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi called on the government to conduct an independent review of Primodos, which prompted the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to conduct an assessment of the effects of Primodos.
The assessment looked at 36 studies and other sources to determine whether HPTs could have caused the reported defects and miscarriages. After reviewing the available literature, MHRA concluded that the evidence was not “sufficient to conclude that an association exists” between congenital anomalies and HPT use.
MHRA notes that there were difficulties using the historical studies to draw conclusions, citing issues with data quality and technological limitations. Thus, the agency says it cannot “rule out such an association.”
Controversy
There is considerable controversy surrounding the events before Primodos was taken off the market in 1978.
In a statement to Sky News, Bayer, which merged with Schering in 2006, said that Primodos was not labeled for use as a pregnancy test after 1970.
Advocates also claim that the government and Schering may have tried to cover up reports of adverse reactions. In a parliamentary debate in 2014, Qureshi cites minutes from a meeting of the General Medical Services Committee in the 1960s that allegedly state that “doctors should stop recording adverse reactions, and, even more significantly, that those who have recorded any such evidence should have it destroyed.”
Bayer denies that Primodos caused the birth defects and miscarriages being claimed. However, in 2011, Karl Murphy, who attributes his numerous birth defects to Primodos, reportedly uncovered documents which allegedly show that Schering employees were aware of a link between Primodos and the severe side effects being reported. Murphy says the documents were left by journalists after they interviewed his mother in the 1980s. By Michael Mezher
Advisory Board
Prof. Juergen Junginger, designer
Prof. Dr. Juergen Rochlitz, chemist, former member of the German parliament
Wolfram Esche, attorney
Dr. Sigrid Müller, pharmacologist
Dr. Angela Spelsberg, head of cancer clinic Aaachen
Prof. Rainer Roth, social scientist
Eva Bulling-Schroeter, member of the German parliament
Prof. Dr. Anton Schneider, biologist
Dr. Janis Schmelzer, historian,
Dr. Erika Abczynski, pediatrician
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Tens of thousands of cars are vulnerable to thieves using electronic hacking, according to researchers whose findings were suppressed by a major manufacturer for two years.
The full details of the security loophole, which can now be revealed, show a widely used electronic security device designed to prevent thieves from breaking in and driving off with vehicles could easily be disabled by criminals.
Most modern cars cannot be “hot-wired” as they are powered by electronics. But organised criminals are finding hi-tech new ways to take control of vehicles. The problem is acute in London, where four out of 10 car thefts feature electronic hacking.
Three university researchers from Britain and Holland discovered that immobilisers fitted to more than 100 car makes had weak security that could be defeated – in some cases within a few minutes. But when they tried to publish their findings, Volkswagen took High Court legal action to stop them.
Critics claim the move could have a “chilling effect” on security research in the UK but VW defended it, stressing the firm went to “great lengths” to prevent “unauthorised individuals [gaining] access to our cars.”
The researchers, Birmingham University’s Flavio Garcia and Roel Verdult and Baris Ege, from Radbound University in Nijmegen, fought the ban, saying they identify security flaws so they can be fixed. They said their research started after police claimed cars were being stolen “and nobody can explain how”. Beetle cars by German car maker Volkswagen (VW) Beetle cars by German car maker Volkswagen (VW)
Despite this a High Court judge agreed to the ban – saying he believed publication would “facilitate car crime”.
The researchers denied their paper teaches people to steal vehicles, and argued that the ban on publication denied the car-buying public crucial information about the security of their vehicles.
Following more than a year of negotiations between the academics and VW, the full details have now been published. The researchers say only one sentence has been removed from the original research. It reveals how they identified “several weaknesses” in a Swiss-made security device called a Megamos Crypto system.
READ MORE: CAR-HACKING: THE MODELS AFFECTED
CAR THIEF TRIES TO EVADE POLICE HELICOPTER BY HIDING ON A ROOF
CHRYSLER IN MASS CAR RECALL OVER ELECTRONIC HIJACKING FEARS
The device is used by a total of 26 car manufacturers including Audi, Fiat, Honda, Volvo as well as Volkswagen. Many top-range brands including Bentley, Ferrari, Porsche and Maserati are among those known to use them.
The manufacturer of the system claims to have sold over 100 million radio frequency identification chips which are designed to verify the identity of the ignition key being used to start the car engine. If thieves get into the vehicle without the right key, the engine should refuse to start.
The researchers showed how it was possible electronically to listen to signals sent between the security system and the key fob. By doing this, they were able to discover the vehicle’s secret code within 30 minutes.
The academics warn the security devices were vulnerable to “close-range wireless communication” attacks and said situations such as valet parking and car rental where attackers could have access to both the immobiliser and the keys were a particular danger. They recommend the car industry use more sophisticated systems which are harder to defeat. A VW Passat, left, and a Golf Cabrio car wait in the storage building of the Volkswagen company in Wolfsburg, Germany A VW Passat, left, and a Golf Cabrio car wait in the storage building of the Volkswagen company in Wolfsburg, Germany
The researchers say they believe that some modifications have now been implemented on new models.
According to industry experts, the security flaw could cost manufacturers millions to fix. The radio frequency identity chips in the key fobs – as well as the equipment that responds in the engine starting system – will both require re-engineering or replacing.
A spokesman for Volkswagen said: “Volkswagen has an interest in protecting the security of its products and its customers. We would not make available information that might enable unauthorised individuals to gain access to our cars. In all aspects of vehicle security, we go to great lengths to ensure the security and integrity of our products against external malicious attack.”
The RAC says electronic security has led to a dramatic improvement in levels of car theft, which has fallen 70 per cent in the last 40 years.
Last year near 70,000 cars were taken in the UK. Experts warn that the overall decrease hides a spike in electronic keyless thefts.
How the scam works
The Megamos Crypto immobiliser is designed to stop a thief breaking in and “hot-wiring” a car. A device called a transponder in the key fob sends an identification code to the immobiliser informing it the correct driver is present.
Scammers overcome this by electronically eavesdropping on the key fob signal and then using a commercially available computer programme to analyse it and emulate it. The immobiliser then decodes the signal and, if it is correct, starts the engine.
Researchers found the chips use relatively simple encryption. By listening to them talk to each other twice, anyone could quickly discover the pattern and copy the key.
Volkswagen AG CEO Matthias Mueller covers his face with his hand as he attends an employee meeting at the plant of the German car manufacturer in Wolfsburg, Germany, Tuesday March 8, 2016. (AP)
The Associated Press, DetroitMonday, 14 March 2016
A former Volkswagen employee says in a lawsuit that the company deleted documents and obstructed justice after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accused VW of cheating on emissions tests.
Daniel Donovan says in a whistleblower case that he was wrongfully fired last year after refusing to participate in the deletions and reporting them to a supervisor. The lawsuit says that the document deletion continued for three days after the Sept. 18 allegations from the EPA and despite a hold order from the Justice Department.
VW has admitted that it programmed about 600,000 diesel-powered cars in the U.S. to cheat on pollution tests. The Justice Department is investigating potential criminal charges.
Volkswagen says Donovan’s departure from the company was not related to the emissions issue and his claim is without merit. _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
Perhaps this takeover will wait until Britain makes the RIGHT decision in the referendum?
Thyssen funded the Nazi party rise to power in the 1930s
Krupp built the Panzer VI Tiger tank
Thyssenkrupp, Tata in Talks on European Steel Tie-Up
Companies have been holding high-level talks for over a year, people familiar with matter say
Molten steel in a converter on the production line at ThyssenKrupp's steel plant in Duisburg, Germany. The company has said in the past that consolidation in the steel sector would make sense. ENLARGE
Molten steel in a converter on the production line at ThyssenKrupp's steel plant in Duisburg, Germany. The company has said in the past that consolidation in the steel sector would make sense. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG NEWS
By EYK HENNING and ALEX MACDONALD
Updated April 2, 2016 8:56 a.m. ET
0 COMMENTS
http://www.wsj.com/articles/thyssenkrupp-shares-jump-on-tata-steel-tie -up-talk-1459502224
FRANKFURT—German engineering conglomerate Thyssenkrupp AG and India’s Tata Steel Ltd. have held talks on combining their continental European steel operations, as global overcapacity weighs on prices and profits, according to people familiar with the matter.
The companies have been holding high-level talks for over a year, the people said, adding that Thyssenkrupp’s preferred structure might be a tie-up of the two companies’ steel assets in a joint venture.
It wasn’t immediately clear where the talks now stand, though one of the people said an agreement is unlikely in the short term. If completed, the transaction would help both companies achieve scale and cost savings.
Thyssen Krupp shares rose as much as 7.7% in morning trading Friday after German daily Rheinische Post reported the companies were in advanced talks about a combination. The stock ended the day up 4.9%.
A reduction of its steel exposure would help Thyssenkrupp sharpen its profile as an engineering company with a highly profitable elevator business. Such a move would likely please activist investor Cevian Capital Partners, the company’s second-largest shareholder, with a stake of more than 15%. A spokesman for Cevian declined to comment on Friday.
Tata Steel earlier this week said it would explore the sale of its entire U.K. business, a move analysts say could pave the way for a combination of its Dutch assets with Thyssenkrupp’s European steel operations.
Should Tata Steel sell its U.K. operations, its European exposure would focus on a Netherlands-based flat-products business, Jefferies analysts noted this week. “Given Thyssen’s interest in pursuing consolidation solely with another premium flat-steel producer, we believe this cleaning up of Tata’s portfolio may help free up the core Dutch assets for Thyssenkrupp,” they said.
Credit Suisse analysts came to the same conclusion, saying a Tata Steel exit from the U.K. would be a prerequisite for any deal with Thyssenkrupp. “This scenario, in turn, could lead to the creation of a 20 million tons high-quality steel producer in Europe and the eventual exit of steel for Thyssenkrupp, with arguably a strong synergy story,” they said.
Tata Steel is Europe’s second-largest steelmaker by production capacity, after Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal SA. The company has in recent months announced several rounds of layoffs at its U.K. operations, which include steel mills across Wales and England. It said in January that it aimed to reduce its workforce to 14,000 after consulting with unions about the proposed cuts.
The company employed 17,000 workers just before it began eliminating jobs in 2015.
China has been swamping global markets with low-priced steel, intensifying pressure on Western rivals already reeling from overcapacity. Steel imports from China, the world’s largest steel producer, to the European Union have more than doubled over the past two years.
On Friday, Fitch Ratings cut Tata Steel’s credit rating, citing rising debt and lower profitability across all regions, especially the U.K. The ratings firm said it would consider a further cut should the steelmaker accrue more debt to close any operations in the U.K. By the same token, Fitch said it might consider upgrading the steelmaker if proceeds from U.K. asset sales were to go toward reducing debt.
Tata Steel finance chief Koushik Chatterjee told the Financial Times this week that the company had taken a charge of about £2 billion ($2.87 billion) in writing down the value of its U.K. operations to almost zero. The comments was confirmed by a Tata spokesman.
Thyssenkrupp’s chief executive, Heinrich Hiesinger, has said in the past that consolidation in the sector would make sense, while stressing that combining assets was more likely than one company acquiring another.
Combining Tata Steel’s Dutch plant with Thyssenkrupp’s operations could yield €1 billion in annual synergies, Credit Suisse said, noting that the plant would be a good fit with the German company’s massive facility in Duisburg, Germany.
Under Mr. Hiesinger’s reign, Thyssenkrupp in 2014 sold a steel plant in the U.S. after protracted negotiations, but failed to sell its Brazilian operations.
Activist investor Cevian is supportive of Mr. Hiesinger’s turnaround strategy. The investment firm started building a stake in Thyssenkrupp in 2013, sparking rumors that the German company might split up.
Corrections & Amplifications
Cevian started building a stake in Thyssenkrupp in 2013. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said it started building a stake in the company in 2011. (April 2) _________________ --
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