Ford Germany
Chairman )
Wolfgang Kopplin( Parent Ford of Europe | | |
Website | www |
---|
Ford-Werke GmbH[1] is a German-based car manufacturing factory headquartered in Merkenich- Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a fully owned subsidiary of American Ford Motor Company, which operates two large manufacturing facilities in Germany, a plant in Cologne and a plant in Saarlouis and serves as a major hub for the Automaker's presence in the European markets.
Berlin origins
The earliest presence of the Ford Motor Company in Germany was a parts operation set up in Hamburg in 1912.[citation needed][2]
At the end of 1924 the
During 1925 an assembly plant was constructed in a rented warehouse in the Westhafen (western port) district of Berlin, which was well located for receiving deliveries of kits and components via the country's canal network. On 1 April 1926 the first German assembled Model T was produced, using imported parts.[4] The Berlin assembly operation produced 1,177 Model Ts in 1926 and a further 2,594 during 1927 which was the Model T's final year: in August 1927 Model T production in Berlin ended, and it was nearly a year before, on 20 August 1928, Ford auto-production in Berlin recommenced, now of the Ford Model A.[3]
Relocation to Cologne
In March 1929
Small car manufacture started in 1933 with the
The Ford Rheinland was a unique model for the German market, made by fitting a four-cylinder 3285 cc engine into a Model B V-8 chassis but most products continued to be Detroit designs albeit with local names.
The
Ford-Werke AG later Ford-Werke GmbH
The company was re-organised in 1939 and changed its name to Ford-Werke.
Car manufacturing restarted in late 1948 with the Taunus. Henry Ford II visited the factory in 1948 during his visit to Germany when he was considering a purchase of Volkswagen, with which he did not ultimately proceed.[4]
In 1952, a new Taunus appeared and was a great success, enabling record production figures to be reached.[citation needed] The company was now being run by Ehrhart Vitger, who spent time recruiting new dealers to replace those lost in East Germany, but the company continued to rank third in sales in Germany behind VW and Opel.[4]
Ford began to integrate the operations of its European subsidiaries in the 1960s with the launch of the 1965
Use of forced labor during World War II
During the Second World War, Ford-Werke employed slave laborers although not required by the Nazi regime.[10] The deployment of slave labor began before Ford-Werke was separated from the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan, while America had not yet entered the war.[citation needed]
Robert Hans Schmidt presided over Ford-Werke during the Second World War, and engaged slave labor and the illegal manufacture of munitions, including such manufacturing during the period before the U.S. entry into the War. Once the war was over, notwithstanding all his carefully publicized efforts to erase the stain of the company's past, no evidence emerged that either Henry Ford II or any other top-level Ford Motor Company executive ever raised any moral objects to rehiring [Schmidt], who had presided over one of the company's darkest chapters.[11] However, a three-year study which was published by the Ford Motor Company in December 2001 maintained that the U.S. headquarters had no control over what happened at the German Ford-Werke when the Nazi forced labour policy went into effect.[12] It was also maintained that the German subsidiary did not provide profit for the U.S. headquarters.[12] John Rintamaki, Ford´s chief of staff, would acknowledge that Ford-Werke used forced labour, stating that "The use of forced and slave labor in Germany, including at Ford-Werke, was wrong and cannot be justified."[12]
In 1942, German soldiers swept into the city of Rostov in the Soviet Union, moving among the homes of Rostov families, forcing them to register at a labor registration center. Elsa Iwanowa, who was 16 years old at the time, and many other Russians were transported in cattle cars to Wuppertal in the western part of Germany, where they were exhibited to visiting businessmen. From there Elsa Iwanowa and others were forced to become slave laborers for Ford-Werke. "On March 4, 1998, fifty-three years after she was liberated from the German Ford plant, Elsa Iwanowa demanded justice, filing a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Ford Motor Company."[13] In court, Ford acknowledged that Elsa Iwanowa and many others like her were "forced to endure a sad and terrible experience" at Ford-Werke; Ford, however, maintained that cases like that of Elsa Iwanowa are best redressed on "a nation-to-nation, government-to-government" basis.[9] By November 1998, compensation lawsuits were filed against Ford and GM put both the German subsidiaries of both companies under heavy scrutiny for their roles in aiding Nazi forced labor at their production lines in territory controlled by Nazi Germany during World War II.[14] In 1999, the court dismissed Elsa Iwanowa's suit; however, a number of German companies, including GM subsidiary Opel, agreed to contribute $5.1 billion to a fund that would compensate the surviving slave laborers.[9] After being the subject of much adverse publicity, Ford, in March 2000, reversed direction, and agreed to contribute $13 million to the industry-government restitution fund for an estimated 1.2 million survivors of Nazi forced labor during World War II.[15]
Ford Motor Co. AG
Until 27 January 1950, all Ford's European operations other than in the USSR were run from Dagenham and owned by Ford Motor Company Limited, Dearborn's 55% owned subsidiary. In Ford Motor Company Limited's published reports to their British shareholders, Germany and the other Ford European interests were referred to as 'the associated companies'.[16] These associate companies had been established in order to allow for substantial holdings by local shareholders.[note 1] On the outbreak of the Second World War, those shares in Ford Motor Company AG not belonging to German shareholders were placed under the control of the German Commissioner for dealing with enemy property.
Aston Martin Engine Plant
In October 2004, when Aston Martin was a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford, the company set up a dedicated 12,500 square metres (135,000 sq ft) engine production plant within the Ford Niehl plant, with capacity to produce up to 5000 engines a year by 100 specially trained personnel. Like traditional Aston Martin engine production in Newport Pagnell, assembly of each unit is entrusted to a single technician from a pool of 30, with V8 and V12 variants assembled in under 20 hours. By bringing engine production back to within the company, the promise was that Aston Martin would be able to produce small runs of higher performance variants engines.[17]
Marketing
Slogans
Ford's corporate
Year | Units | Market share |
---|---|---|
2012 | 206,128 | 6,70% |
2011 | 230,939 | 7,31% |
2010 | 198,156 | 6,79% |
2009 | 290,620 | 7,63% |
2008 | 217,305 | 7,03% |
2007 | 213,873 | 6,79% |
2006 | 243,845 | 7,03% |
2005 | 246,814 | 7,38% |
2004 | 243,930 | 7,47% |
2003 | 235,279 | 7,27% |
Models
Current model range
The following tables list Ford production vehicles that were sold in Germany in 2023:
Passenger cars
Fiesta | Supermini |
| |
Ecosport
|
Mini crossover SUV |
| |
Focus | Small family car |
| |
Kuga | Compact crossover SUV |
| |
S-Max | Large MPV |
| |
Galaxy | Large MPV |
| |
Edge | Mid-size crossover SUV |
| |
Puma | crossover SUV |
| |
Explorer | SUV |
| |
Mustang Mach-E | SUV |
| |
Mustang | Muscle Car |
|
Light commercial vehicles
Tourneo Connect
|
Panel van |
| |
Transit | Light commercial vehicle |
| |
Ranger | Pick-up truck |
|
ST models
Ford produce high-performance derivatives of their cars developed by their Ford Team RS division.
Ford Focus ST | Compact car |
| |
Ford Fiesta ST | Supermini |
|
Former Ford Germany model range
This is a list of models produced by Ford Germany prior to the creation of Ford of Europe. Although the Taunus TC and MK3 Ford Cortina were related, the body work and engines were different.
- Ford Model A
- Ford Model B
- Ford Rheinland
- Ford Model Y
- Ford Köln
- Ford Eifel
- Ford Taunus G93A "Buckeltaunus"
- Ford Taunus P1
- Ford Taunus P2
- Ford Taunus P3
- Ford Taunus P4
- Ford Taunus P5
- Ford Taunus P6
- Ford P7
- Ford Taunus TC
Notes
- ^
The company (Ford Motor Company Limited of Dagenham) has been formed to acquire and carry on as a going concern the business of motor vehicle manufacturers of:
- Ford Motor Company (England) Limited, Manchester
- Henry Ford and Son Limited, Cork
It will also acquire through holding their share capitals:- Automobiles Ford S.A., Paris
- Ford Motor Company A/S, Copenhagen
- Ford Motor Company S.A.E., Barcelona
- Ford Motor Company of Belgium S.A., Antwerp
- Ford Motor Company d'Italia S.A., Trieste
- N.V. Ford Motor Company of Holland, Rotterdam
- Ford Motor Company A.B., Stockholm
- Ford Motor Company A.G., Berlin
- Ford Motor Company of Finland O/Y, Helsingfors
The new company will offer 40% of the share capital of all the Continental companies to the public in their respective countries.
The Company will also acquire the sole and exclusive rights . . . Ford products in the following parts of the world:- United Kingdom and Ireland the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man
- The continent of Europe (excluding USSR)
- Asia Minor, Iraq, Persia, Afghanistan, Egypt and certain other parts of Africa
and the benefit of all the patents inventions, drawings, designs . . . . . owned by the Ford Motor Company of America and Mr Henry Ford
See also
- Henry Ford
- Ford of Europe
- Ford Motor Company
- Ford of Britain
- List of German cars
- Merkur
References
- Oswald, Werner (2001). Deutsche Autos 1920-1945, Band (vol) 2 (in German). Motorbuch Verlag. ISBN 3-613-02170-6.
- ^ "Datenschutz und rechtliche Hinweise". ford.de. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ISBN 9781107007970. Retrieved 10 April 2018 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Oswald, p 411
- ^ ISBN 1-57958-293-1.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ Oswald, p 412
- ^ Oswald, p 413
- ^ a b Oswald, pp 112 & 531
- ^ Oswald, pp 112 & 314
- ^ a b c Wallace, Max. (2003). The American axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the rise of the Third Reich. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
- ^ Baldwin, Neil (2001). Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate. New York: Public Affairs.
- ^ Wallace, pp. 360-1
- ^ a b c "Report absolves Ford of wartime guilt". 6 December 2001. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
- ^ Wallace, p. 333
- ^ Dobbs, Michael (30 November 1998). "Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged Nazi Collaboration". Washington Post. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
- ^ "Ford contributes $13 million to German slave-labor fund". UPI. 29 March 2000. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
- ^ Ford Motor Company Ltd. The Times, Monday, April 17, 1950; pg. 9; Issue 51667; col E
- ^ "Aston Martin s . Com - Aston Martin Engine Plant Cologne". Archived from the original on 12 October 2011. Retrieved 3 December 2011.