Arrest
Josef Ganz himself was arrested by the Gestapo in May 1933 based on falsified charges of blackmail of the automotive industry. He was eventually released. He fled Germany in June 1934 – the month Adolf Hitler assigned Ferdinand Porsche to design a mass-producible auto for a consumer price of 1,000 Reichsmark.
After a short period in Liechtenstein, Josef Ganz settled in Switzerland where with government support he started a Swiss auto project. In Germany production of the Standard Superior and the Bungartz Butz ended. The first prototypes of the Swiss auto were constructed in 1937 and 1938 and plans were formed for mass-production inside a new factory. After the start of World War II, however, Ganz was again under threat from the Gestapo and Swiss government officials who claimed the Swiss auto project as their own. After the war, a small number of Swiss auto were built by the Rapid car company. Ganz took the Swiss to court.
After five years of court battles, Ganz left Switzerland in 1949 and settled in France. Here he worked on a new small car, but could no longer compete with the Volkswagen.
In 1951 Josef Ganz emigrated to Australia. For some years he worked there for General Motors – Holden, but suffered ill health after a series of heart attacks in the early 1960s.
In 1965 the Federal Republic of Germany sought Australian Government permission to bestow on Josef Ganz the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. However under regulations existing at that time in relation to foreign awards to Australian citizens, the request was denied.
Josef Ganz died in obscurity in Australia in 1967.
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