General Motors and the Nazis – The Struggle for Control of Opel, Europe`s Biggest Carmaker Hardcover – Illustrated, 15 July 2005

The 2009 political dealings surrounding General Motors' proposed sale of Opel to Magna have a precedent - the machinations in the 1930s around how to deal with GM's large subsidiary Opel under Nazi law.It is all in this fascinating book. Hardback only and quite pricy - but worth it to me!In the 1920s, Opel at Rüsselsheim was Europe's largest car factory. General Motors, expecting massive expansion of car sales in Continental Europe, bought it for $33.3m in 1929-31 (Vauxhall was also purchased in 1925 for $2.5m).There were big problems for an American company continuing production under National Socialism. It was impossible, or unrealistic, to remit dividends to the US; it was expected that a Nazi Betriebsführer ("Company Leader") would be in charge (Opel named a leading worker (not the company boss) as Betriebsführer - on the cover you see him (Rudolf Fleischer) on the right at the 1938 Berlin car show talking to Hitler while the managing director (man in specs) Wilhelm von Opel, son of founder Adam, looks on)and the company was forever having to do deals with people like Jakob Sprenger, the Gauleiter of Frankfurt, the military, and Goering (who was responsible for the Four Year Plan.)One senior GM employee even believed he could stop the war and was in discussions with the US President and Goering!Opel at Rüsselsheim used to make parts for Junkers bombers...and there was a new Opel works at Brandenburg (later dismantled by the Russians) which made the Opel Blitz lorry favoured by the Wehrmacht...