Ferdinand Porsche - Views On Labor

Views On Labor

Ferdinand visited Henry Ford's operation in Detroit many times where he learned the importance of productivity. There he learned to monitor work. The need to increase productivity became an obsession for him. Conventional methods for increasing productivity include longer working hours, a faster rate of work, and new labour-saving techniques. Under Adolf Hitler, German workers enjoyed full employment, but historian William L. Shirer says this came at a cost of serfdom like qualities and poverty wages. The Volkswagen plant was completed in 1938 after Italian Labor was brought in. This workforce can be considered exploitative, but people were exhorted to follow this example. Although Porsche joined the Nazi party on his own free will in 1937, and was an SS activist, he did not have any "blood on his hands." Even so, Volkswagen, under Ferdinand Porsche, profited from forced and slave labor. This would include a large number of Soviets. In the spring of 1945, 90% of Volkswagen’s workforce was non-German