Yahoo Finance Volkswagen boss apologises after Nazi gaffe
Volkswagen chief executive Herbert Diess has apologised for repeatedly echoing a Nazi slogan infamous for hanging on the gates of concentration camps.
Diess had said “EBIT macht frei”, in the same vein as the Nazi slogan, “Arbeit macht frei” – or “Work sets you free” in English – while speaking to managers at an company event following Volkswagen’s annual earnings conference.
EBIT is a business term standing for ‘earnings before interest and taxes’.
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Responding on LinkedIn, Diess said he had meant to say that more profitable divisions had more freedom to make decisions and hadn’t meant to invoke the Nazi slogan.
“It was in no way my intention to put this statement in a false context,” he said.
“That this possibility exists, I did not think of that at this moment. In fact, it was a very unfortunate choice of words and if I had unintentionally hurt feelings with it, I am extremely sorry.”
He said he and Volkswagen employees are keenly aware of Volkswagen’s history with the Third Reich.
Volkswagen was founded in 1937 by the German government with a mandate to mass-produce affordable vehicles. It was first operated by the German Labour Front, a group with Nazi ties.
The Volkswagen factory was also repurposed during the Nazi era to build military vehicles and equipment.
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