Das ist vom August – ich habe erst kürzlich davon erfahren, aber es scheint nicht viel zu geben, was die Reaktion angeht.
How has the news of Volkswagen being found guilty of running slave plantations in Brazil in the 1970 & 80s been received in Germany?
byu/sdn ingermany
Von sdn
16 Kommentare
No one is surprised considering their history in WW 2
Germans be like 🤷🏼♂️
Wundert einen eigentlich nicht mehr so viel Scheisse bei deutschen „Traditionsfirmen“ im Keller zu finden.
Full ignorance. (Really, it’s almost disgusting, but typical for Germany)
Was acknowledged and didn’t seem people were surprised. Brazil was under military rule at that time
It was news item several years ago. This is the judicial part only.
Also: It did jot surprise anyone for real back then.
Welcome to capitalism. First day on this planet?
The discovery is truly unsettling, and it’s difficult not to feel deeply affected by it. Yet, despite the disturbing nature of what has come to light, the way it has been documented and presented is remarkably well done. It manages to strike a careful balance between honesty and sensitivity, neither sensationalizing the subject nor downplaying its gravity. The presentation invites reflection and empathy rather than mere shock, and that makes it all the more powerful. It’s one of those rare cases where something heartbreaking has been handled with genuine care and thoughtfulness.
That’s fifty years ago.
Nobody in charge during those days is alive anymore.
For you it changed your entire life, for me it was a Tuesday… Something like that
It’s VW what do you expect. It’s the same company that decided to design and put chips in their cars that cheat on emission values instead of start building their electric i3 and i4 for which they had plans in their drawer since 2010.
It’s not the worst shitty thing a German company did, nor the latest (Tönnies). You get kinda used to it.
I ran into a book by Volkswagen dealing with their involvement with the Brazilian dictatorship a while ago.
I just looked it up, it’s on their own history section and from 2017. It’s free and also available in Portugese:
https://www.volkswagen-group.com/de/historie-15914
(scroll to Forschung Positionen Dokumente)
https://uploads.vw-mms.de/system/production/documents/cws/001/741/file_de/853fcc58905ddf336feff19ba28386838ed5a743/VW_do_Brasil_in_the_Brazilian_Military_Dictatorship_1964_-_1985_Portuguese.pdf?1683793957
https://uploads.vw-mms.de/system/production/documents/cws/001/740/file_de/9238840942a98a751e313b4e54fba4f52455126c/VW_do_Brasil_in_the_Brazilian_Military_Dictatorship_1964_-_1985_German.pdf?1683793882
Looking into it, it mentions the farms and the ecological damage. The living conditions are described as being governed by „paternal authoritarianism“. They mention the use of Agent Orange and the harmful effect on the human body, which could have been prevented (but wasn’t). The worst conditions existed for migrant laborers who weren’t housed nor supplied with clothes nor proper food. They also were subjected to violence.
Anyway, I’d say that stuff wasn’t new to anyone who looked at VWs history nor is it something VW is hiding, rather to the contrary.
They still relied on slave labor until recently (and maybe still do). A company I am avoiding as a German. https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/05/27/volkswagen-address-uyghur-forced-labor
I just think it’s weird only VW ever gets found guilty when all others do it, too.
Same as the complicity of German companies in Holocaust. Nobody touches the capital.