Volkswagen Saves the World

The Biggest cause of World War II was World War I, and not just because two follows one...

The Great War, as it was called at the time, was chaos and devistation like the world had never seen before. Hundreds of miles of trenches were carved into Mother Earth through Belgium, France, and Germany. Weapons of Mass Destruction such as machine guns and mustard gas were born and/or perfected during this time. Boys went "Over the Top" to their inevitable deaths running headlong into showers of bullets from machine guns. Disease was rampant in the mud of the Somme and Ypres. The war wiped out generations of able-bodied men in nations across Europe, and it was sparked because of the assasination of an archduke.

The United States kept its hands out until the last moment... we swept in like a noble cavalry charge in a poorly made film and helped clean up the mess. We helped Britain and France whup the "Huns" of Germany and Austria. Once the bullets stopped and the treaties were signed, we redrew the map of Europe, gave large chunks of Germany to other countries, and left the "Huns" to rot in Hell, thank you very much.

Big Mistake.

We think that the US had it bad when the market crashed in 1929. Imagine life in a war-ravaged country, void of a entire generation of men, with the world's economy spiralling down the drain. Along comes a man who offers you a clean shirt, a job, and a hot bowl of soup. You don't care that the shirt is Brown and the job is rebuilding Germany's army (even though Germany is not allowed to have an army, as stated in those treaties signed in Paris ten years before.)

So starts World War II.

The Allies learned from their mistakes at the end of The Great War, and knew that to insure global economic stability they couldn't1. leave the defeated countries to Rot In Hell again.

One factory retooled for civilian production was a factory in a town that would be named Wolfsburg (named for a nearby castle). That factory was Volkswagen, which was originally started in 1938 for the production of the People's Car, a car that never before or during the war saw civillian production save for a few prototypes. By 1946 under British supervison, the factory slowly started churning out the ugly little "bugs". By 1956, Volkswagen was strong enough to ship to the North American market. Germany's economic stability was guaranteed.

No, Volkswagen was not the only business that was rebuilt by the Allies, but it might be one of the most globally recognizable as GERMAN that was part of the rebuilding of war torn Germany. And because of the economic stability provided by such a company, hopefully Germany will never again give a foothold to a maniac like the evil we saw spawned by the distant Great War...