The jury, which consisted primarily of farmers, did find for Henry Ford in the end. They awarded him the amount of six whole cents after a ten-hour deliberation.
Henry Ford and The Dearborn Independent are Sued
In 1927, Jewish lawyer and farm cooperative organiser Aaron Sapiro brought a lawsuit against Henry Ford accusing him of defamation for his many years of clearly anti-Semitic articles in The Dearborn Independent. This was the third lawsuit of this kind that had been raised against the newspaper, but the only one that would end up going to trial. Ford would not testify at the trial, but instead faked a car accident and hid out in the hospital to avoid it. Ford would then issue a less than sincere apology and shut down The Dearborn Independent for good. The final issue was published on 31 December 1927.
Ford wrote a statement of apology to be released on 30 June 1927, regarding ‘Charges Against Jews Made in His Publications, The Dearborn Independent and a Series of Pamphlets Entitled The ‘International Jew’. In this apology letter he defers responsibility of the newspaper’s anti-Jew articles to his underlings and basically denies the reality that he was the mastermind behind the racist newspaper:
For some time past I have given consideration to the series of articles concerning Jews which since 1920 have appeared in The Dearborn Independent. Some of them have been reprinted in pamphlet form under the title ‘The International Jew’. Although both publications are my property, it goes without saying that in the multitude of my activities it has been impossible for me to devote personal attention to their management or to keep informed as to their contents. It has therefore inevitably followed that the conduct and policies of these publications had to be delegated to men whom I placed in charge of them and upon whom I relied implicitly.
In an even more nervy move, Ford goes on to paint himself in a sympathetic manner towards Jews, while subsequently claiming that he had no idea that his newspaper was publishing his own editorials and collecting them in book format for distribution at his own dealerships and worldwide readership:
To my great regret I have learned that Jews generally, and particularly those of this country, not only resent these publications as promoting anti-Semitism, but regard me as their enemy. Trusted friends with whom I have conferred recently have assured me in all sincerity that in their opinion the character of the charges and insinuations made against the Jews, both individually and collectively, contained in many of the articles which have been circulated periodically in The Dearborn Independent and have been reprinted in the pamphlets mentioned, justifies the righteous indignation entertained by Jews everywhere toward me because of the mental anguish occasioned by the unprovoked reflections made upon them.
Henry Ford ordered the remaining copies of his horrible anti-Semitic book to be burned and the production of future copies ceased. The sad reality is that by then, Ford had already used his considerable authority and influence as a cultural icon to legitimise his racist ideals. A lot of Jewish organisations at the time accepted Ford’s apology as sincere, especially since he shut the paper down, but it would later be revealed in the accounts of those that knew him that Henry Ford still firmly held his views behind closed doors, as evidenced by his ongoing involvement financially and publicly with the Nazi Party.
Henry Ford, Hitler and the Nazi Party
Henry Ford had conquered the automobile marketplace in America, with the majority of all car sales split between the ‘Big Three’: Ford, GM and Chrysler by the late 1920s. The American marketplace was an important mountain to climb, but once that was dominated, it was time for the ‘big three’ to set their sights elsewhere in the world; one such place was Germany. Ford had begun to have a German presence in 1912, when they began manufacturing parts in Hamburg. Ford soon began manufacturing in Berlin and on 1 April 1926, the very first German built Model T was assembled. Ford moved its manufacturing facilities to Cologne in 1931, and built a facility right on the banks of the Rhine, providing waterway access between it and other Ford facilities such as Manchester and Dagenham in Britain.
Meanwhile, a young Adolf Hitler was spending hours in his rented room, reading book after book, developing his thoughts on the world and society. One of the things he read was the work of one of the most wealthy and recognisable celebrities in America – Henry Ford. Hitler had access to the four volumes of The International Jew and he held Ford’s work in high esteem.
Hitler published his own manifesto on 18 July 1925, the now notorious book Mein Kampf, which translates as My Struggle. The 720 page book was dictated by Hitler while he was behind bars, serving time for his treasonous but failed coup attempt called the Munich Putsch. Hitler and his Nazi Party tried to seize power in Germany by force, a goal that they would later achieve more through political manipulation. Hitler’s jail time wasn’t spent the way one might imagine; as leader of the National Socialist Party, he was already something of a people’s folk hero in Germany. He received excellent treatment, had comfortable accommodation and enjoyed many visitors during his time in prison.
Mein Kampf would include plans for Germany’s future, observations on culture and, most importantly, groundwork for an anti-Semitic platform that would define the rest of Hitler’s life. There are early suggestions of genocide as an option for dealing with the Jewish people, whom he felt to be inferior. Mein Kampf is an important time stamp in the life of Henry Ford, because he is the one and only American mentioned by name in the hate text. Hitler mentions The Dearborn Independent newspaper articles on the Jewish conspiracy by name and heralds Ford as: ‘one great man, Ford, to their exasperation still holds out independently there even now’, referring to Ford’s resistance of his perceived Jewish control over the American economy and manufacturing. This mention is a powerful insight not only into how vicious and dangerous the anti-Semitic rhetoric propagated by Henry Ford was, but also how far reaching it was. It cannot be underplayed that Henry Ford’s anti-Semitism inspired Adolf Hitler himself; what a powerful and destructive legacy to leave in one’s wake.
If the connection between Hitler and Ford ended with The Dearborn Independent and a mention in Mein Kampf it would be more than enough to tarnish a legacy, but alas the story is far from over. Henry Ford and his son Edsel played a role in the Second World War that is certainly questionable and is the source of fierce debate. Ostensibly, the control of the German Ford plants were placed under German control during the war, as they would be nearly impossible to run from America during that era, but whenever vital elements such as rubber were needed, they went through the American Ford division.
The German government didn’t regard Hitler and his Nazi party as an idle threat. In fact, over a decade before Hitler managed to seize complete power, the German government was already taking steps against him and his ‘beer hall’ political movement. There was also a feeling among some areas of the German population that something wasn’t right with the National Socialist Movement. An article in the New York Times, which ran in December of 1922, bore the title ‘Berlin Hears Ford Is Backing Hitler’. The article details the concern brought to the attention of the American Ambassador in Berlin by the renowned German newspaper, Berlin Tageblatt, that Ford was financing Hitler. The feeling was that Hitler’s lavish accommodation in Munich, highly paid lieutenants and the funds the Nazi party was enjoying were more far-reaching than could be provided solely by contributions from local German citizens. The article goes on to note that Hitler and his men were seen driving two brand new automobiles, that the wall next to Hitler’s desk in Munich had a large portrait of Henry Ford, and owned many translated copies of Ford’s books in his chambers.
A 1931 interview given by Hitler to Detroit News reporter Annetta Antona generated another infamous quote about Henry Ford. During the interview, Antona asked Hitler why he had a portrait of Henry Ford next to his desk, to which Hitler replied ‘I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration.’
Henry Ford would become the source of great controversy yet again in 1938 when he accepted the Grand C
ross of the German Eagle, the highest honour that the Nazi party could bestow upon a foreigner. The flashy medal consisted of an iron cross, flanked by four Nazi swastikas. There was a backlash to this in the United States, as the event was well publicised by newspapers such as the New York Times. Protestors could be found outside of Ford plants carrying signs with statements like: ‘Why Did Ford Get A Nazi Medal?’ The event also served to cause a few diplomatic issues between the United States and Germany at the time. The events were temporary, but the impact was definitely felt.
Ford and Forced Labour
The Ford manufacturing activities in Germany would soon fall under the name Ford-Werke in 1939. The French and German Ford manufacturing facilities would go on to produce not only vehicles and weaponry for the Nazi German military forces throughout the Second World War, but would use forced labour to do so. In fact, the forced labour aspect was in effect long before the start of the war and even before Ford-Werke was separated from the American Ford Motor Company. Forced labour was far from unique in Nazi-controlled Germany. There are reports that upwards of 7.5 million people were forced to relocate from their various conquered homelands to Germany and to work without compensation in order to keep the Nazi war machine running smoothly.
A lawsuit was brought to court in New Jersey in 1998 by Elsa Iwanowa, one of the survivors that was ripped from her home and forced to work at Ford-Werke. The Ford Motor Company went to court and acknowledged Iwanowa’s claims and validated the forced labour, but denied any responsibility for the American wing of the company. The word at the time was that, even after the Second World War began, the American wing of Ford Motor Company still owned a majority stock in Ford-Werke. The lawsuit never got a chance to be fully realised, since it was dismissed in 1999. The statue of limitations to raise a suit of that nature had unfortunately expired.
The Ford Legacy
When Henry Ford died on 7 April 1947, over one hundred thousand citizens made their way to his funeral and waited for several hours in a queue for a chance to view the body of the legendary Henry Ford. Today, Henry Ford is remembered as an influential industrialist and an American icon that changed the course of history. The people have turned Henry Ford into a heroic and immortal figure in history, often choosing to forget the very human and flawed man behind the brand name.
The image of the Ford Motor Company began to change when the grandson of Henry Ford, Henry Ford II, took over control of the company in 1945. One of his first acts as president was to fire Ford’s sketchy ‘muscle’ and head of the Ford Service Department, Harry Bennett. He then set out to surround himself with experienced executives who assisted him in taking the company from the emotional brainchild of one man to a well-respected and long-lasting corporate entity. In 1956, the Ford Motor Company became a publicly traded corporation under the leadership of Henry Ford II.
The Ford Motor Company is a very different company today than it was a century ago. In one glaring example of this, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the company (at the time of writing this book) is a Jewish businessman named Mark Fields. The dark shadows of Henry Ford’s legacy have been left far behind and instead the memory of his technological innovations remain. It would be hard to blame the modern day Ford Motor Company for wanting to brush the history of its founder under the rug in lieu of a legacy of hatred and bigotry.
Chapter Four
Adidas & Puma: Cogs in the Nazi War Machine
The shoe has become its own fashion statement. Consumers often pay big bucks for limited edition or fun new shoes. Sneakerheads, a name given to shoe collectors, will even wait hours or even days in line for limited edition new release ‘kicks’. There are several popular names in shoes, but none carry the nefarious history of Adidas and Puma. The history behind these two companies is riddled with a bitter sibling rivalry between two brothers who founded their fortunes while loyally serving the Nazis.
Early Days of the Dassler Brothers
The Dassler brothers were born two years apart in their quaint hometown of Herzogenaurach, Germany. Nestled quietly in the Middle Franconia region of Bavaria, Herzogenaurach is located right on the Aurach River. Historically, there was little reason to mention the sleepy town, not until it was made famous by the Dassler brothers as the home base of their respective footwear brand giants, Adidas and Puma. Rudolf, the founder of Puma, was the older of the two brothers, born on 26 March 1898. The younger of the two, Adolf, was born on 3 November 1900. Adolf was the founder and namesake for his company, Adidas – a clever mixture of his nickname of ‘Adi’ and his last name ‘Dassler’. The brothers were two of the four children of Christoph Von Wilhelm and Pauline Dassler. They also had another brother named Fritz and a sister named Marie.
The industrious Adi would be the first brother to make a big move towards the future. In the year 1920 he constructed a makeshift shoe production studio in a shed that his mother had previously used for laundry. Adi had only just returned from serving the German military in the First World War and was already looking towards building a future for himself at home. Christoph Dassler worked in a shoe factory to support his family, so the move towards developing footwear was a natural one. Herzogenaurach was, after all, a hotspot in Bavaria for shoemaking, boasting over one hundred individual shoemakers in 1922. Christoph supported his son’s endeavours as Adi teamed with the Zehlein brothers, who were producing spikes for track shoes in their own blacksmithing workshop.
Rudolf eventually joined forces with his brother on 1 July 1924, when he and Adi established the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory (translated from the German Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik). Their goal was to create high-quality footwear for athletes of all kinds. It was a brave venture that the brothers undertook to open their own business in post First World War Germany. On the surface the brothers appeared to be a perfect match. Adi was the soft-spoken and thoughtful craftsman, a master of the workbench, while his brother Rudolf was a gregarious and outgoing salesman. Rudolf was very personable and easily mastered the commercial aspects of the business.
The Dassler brothers had a lot in common and got on quite well, although Rudolf had the assertive and dominant personality of an older sibling. As boys, Rudolf and Adi spent their spare time outdoors playing various sports, where there was always a healthy rivalry and sense of competition between them. Adi had the drive of a younger brother who wanted to outdo Rudolf in some realm and that realm was sports. No matter how hard Rudolf tried, he couldn’t match Adi’s natural talent and athleticism. Adi seemed to understand sport in a more organic way, which would end up translating into his ability to create and craft innovative sporting shoe designs.
Rudolf may not have been a master at sports and the physical, but he did consider himself to be a man of the world. In the early days of the business he was already a young father, husband and businessman. Rudolf married Friedl Strasser on 6 May 1928 and the couple had two sons, Armin and Gerd. Always seen carrying his pipe, he was quite popular with the ladies; his dapper, smooth confidence earned him a lot of affections outside of his marriage. He was well known as a lady-killer and it didn’t amuse his wife Friedl one bit. Although she was well aware of his dalliances, he would usually hide them from her and engage in them while on holiday, sparing her embarrassment and pain. He didn’t always keep to this way of doing things however; he once had an affair while she was pregnant, which destroyed her emotionally.
Rudolf may have been a ladies’ man, but by contrast Adi was a bachelor through and through, that is until he met Käthe, the woman who would become his wife. The two married on 17 March 1934 and went on to have five children together; one son and four daughters. The two families of the Dassler brothers would become quite wealthy and well-to-do within their town, and their two families got along well for a time. The brothers found so much success under the Nazi regime that they soon needed larger factories to cope with the rapid growth. Rudolf’s wife Friedl began to play a very active role in running the family business as a bookkeeper, but A
di’s wife Käthe was less interested in the day-to-day operations.
Käthe was expected to participate and work, but she had only been 17 when she married Adi, and when their first child was born she refused to go to work. She lacked a work ethic, but had plenty of vision for what Adolf’s role in the company should be. Käthe would eventually be the inspiration behind Adolf growing bold enough to move on his own. The two families moved into a joint house next to the factory, despite their personal differences. The families rarely got along and the Dassler brothers became increasingly bitter towards each other, though the subject of many of their early feuds is pure speculation. Adolf and his family resided on the ground floor; Rudolf and his family were on the next floor up and their parents above that. The close living quarters and stresses at work began to culminate in fighting and family disputes.
Nazi Germany
During the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam the Dassler brothers equipped German athlete Lina Radke with her running shoes. Radke went on to be the very first athlete to win an Olympic gold medal for Germany. This accomplishment would reflect well on the Dassler brothers and brought some notoriety to their burgeoning company.
Fate would intervene in the lives of the Dasslers when Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist party assumed power of Germany in 1933. Adi and Rudolf both became members of the Nazi party, a practice that was not uncommon amongst German business owners, at least the ones that wanted to stay in business. It is also likely that Adi, as a veteran of the First World War, would have had strong feelings about the promises being touted by Adolf Hitler for rebuilding German society and the economy. The Dassler brothers, ever industrious, saw the opportunities that could come along with the new era of Aryan dominance sweeping through Germany. It wasn’t long before the Swastika was all over their hometown of Herzogenaurach and the brothers weren’t about to be left out of progress. In May 1933, focussing on what was best for the company at that time, the brothers officially joined the Nazi Party; it was a decision they would later come to regret. As party members however, the brothers were able to obtain a lot of benefits from the government and the Nazis were anxious to get young Germans involved in Nazi-approved sports to showcase their perceived physical superiority and Aryan prestige.
A Secret History of Brands Page 7