HN 2: The British and their Works

In mid-June 1948, general manager Nordhoff complained to
the Industry Administration in Frankfurt concerning the inadequate
provision of materials. He said that the head of
the vehicles construction department had promised to increase
the quota weight per vehicle from 850 to 1,000 kilograms.
Furthermore the allocation of components in no way satisfied
requirements, prompting the general manager to condemn the
current regulation as inadequate. Fritz Wenk made it clear in
self-defence that he had tried to get a fifteen per cent increase
in the quota weight from the special department of economic
planning. However that department did not wish to adopt any
new regulations in view of the immediately forthcoming
currency reform. This was also the reason why the Volkswagenwerk
was being bombarded with "Bezugsscheinen"
(supply permits), because all the customers were pressing for
delivery of a car before the currency change. Because the
Volkswagenwerk could not meet these demands, it was open to
the accusation of deliberately withholding the vehicles.
Incensed at this, Nordhoff informed the Industry Administration
that he was seriously considering "stopping deliveries
altogether, exactly as all the suppliers are doing to us". 203
The stagnation and contraction of the markets in the months
prior to the currency reform gave the general manager little
cause for optimism. Indeed it was with some concern that he
viewed the long-term security of the company. The Industry
Division’s deliberations concerning a transfer of the Volkswagenwerk
to Ford and concentration on the Cologne Ford
works’ car production in Wolfsburg therefore met with his
agreement. In this way Nordhoff believed he could procure the
necessary capital reserves and forge ahead with technical
modernisation of the factory. Amalgamation with Ford furthermore
looked like a good thing from the point of view of eliminating
the export trade restrictions, especially price fixing. The
American car manufacturer was receptive to these plans and
had expressed its interest in a takeover after viewing the
Volkswagen plant in March 1948. They regarded the saloon as a
unique vehicle which, with some improvements in design,
materials and fabrication, had a brilliant future ahead of it. In
the same month Henry Ford II, during his first tour of Europe,
held exploratory talks with the VW general manager.
The initiative finally came from Nordhoff, who in April 1948
sent Ford a letter dealing with the question of a takeover.
The American automotive giant decided to acquire a large, but
minority, interest in the Volkswagenwerk in order to prevent
unpleasant reactions to a foreign takeover. In the Volkswagenwerk
Board of Control the planned merger had a mixed
reception. The Industry Division welcomed the proposal as a way
of improving the capacity utilisation of the factory and bringing
a breath of fresh air into the management. In the meantime the
Property Control Branch envisaged a transformation into a
public company, and refused to discuss the possibility of a
private sale. Its veto may well have contributed to preventing
the marriage of the two carmakers. While Nordhoff and
Radclyffe stuck to the merger plans, in October 1948 Ford retreated
a step, because the unclarified ownership question and
the financing of the deal were meanwhile developing into
insurmountable problems. After the Berlin blockade of 1948/49,
the Ford Company put its European expansion plans on ice for
the time being. 204