Mr. Volkswagen

I just learned today by chance, on what would have been his birthday, that former Volkswagen CEO Carl Hahn died back in January of this year (2023) at the age of 96.  Note to American television news: You suck!  Though to be fair, he died just a couple of days after Elvis Presley's daughter, so his obitaury was probably overshadowed considerably.

That out of the way, I am sad to hear this news.  Carl Hahn was hardly just another Volkswagen executive.  Apart from Heinz Nordhoff,  who got the fledgling company up and running after the Second World War, Hahn is the most important figure in VW's postwar history.  He is the only man to serve as both president of Volkswagen of America and as CEO of Volkswagen AG.  He started the Beetle on its upward sales trajectory in the U.S. and he later built Volkswagen into a global powerhouse.

When Hahn first arrived in the United States in 1959, the Beetle was selling in respectable but miniscule quantities.  Most advertising for the Beetle was local, varying from one metropolitan area to another, and Detroit dominated the U.S. automotive with its pushy, glitzy ad campaigns.  After deciding to hire an advertising agency to compete with the Big Three, whose own small cars were just beginning to come onto the market, Hahn soon found himself disgusted with the cookie-cutter advertising for the Volkswagen that each agency he went to offered.  Then he went to Doyle Dane Bernbach a small New York agency whose co-founder Bill Bernbach, a Jew, had numerous Jewish businesses such as Ohrbach's department store and Levy's rye bread as clients and was known for producing ads with subtle, cheeky Borscht Belt humor.  Doyle Dane Bernbach roved to be the right fit for Volkswagen, as its propose advertising, rather than try to hype the car with gimmickry and novelty value, would instead admit to its small size, its odd shape, and its noisy engine.  The plan was to turn these deficiencies into assets, explaining how the car was fuel-efficient, inexpensive to buy and maintain, and how its improvements were under the skin.  Volkswagen, Doyle Dane Bernbach planned to stress, would not focus on how the car was changed on the surface to look better but how it was changed underneath to last longer.  Yes, the car was small, underpowered and even ugly . . . but it got you where you wanted to go. 

Hahn found Doyle Dane Bernbach's approach refreshing and he found Bernbach and his partners to be men of integrity.  He went ahead and hired the agency, and it created the most memorable ad campaign in history. 

The ads  Doyle Dane Bernbach created would send Beetle sales skyrocketing in the U.S., and they became as much as part of the pop-culture landscape as the Beetle itself and the Microbus.  Doyle Dane Bernbach would get the ad account for Volkswagen globally, and it would ultimately do business for Volkswagen of America for 36 years.  It also diluted the stigma against Volkswagen; a Jewish ad agency, was selling Hitler's car.  The years that Hahn and his successor, Stuart Perkins, spent running Volkswagen of America were the most fruitful for the German automaker in the United States.  The house that Hahn built - the Volkswagen of America headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey - became the preeminent import-car business in America.  His faith in the Beetle earned him the affectionate nickname "Mr. Volkswagen" from American VW enthusiasts.

After a stint as CEO of Continental Tire in the seventies, Hahn returned to Volkswagen to become chairman in 1982, and his eleven years at the helm of Volkswagen AG saw the greatest expansion in the firm's postwar history.  Having inherited the new line of water-cooled, front-engine automobiles such as the Mark 1 Golf / Rabbit and the Scirocco, Hahn sought more markets for Volkswagen.  He invested in a small manufacturing plant in China, setting the stage for VW's phenomenal growth there, and would also set up Volkswagen dealer networks in the newly liberated Eastern European countries and as well as former Soviet republics such as the Baltic States.  Hahn's takeover of other automakers at this time was fueled by a vision  that was as romantic as it was opportunistic; he acquired Spain's SEAT and Czechoslovakia's Škoda, two companies that had once been the wards of totalitarian governments as Volkswagen had been, and modernized their lineups, freeing them from their authoritarian past as Volkswagen had been.  He also assumed control of the assets of VEB Sachsenring, the East German automaker that made Trabants, and converted the Zwickau factory into a modern plant, which now makes the electric ID.3 hatchback.  Hahn himself, in fact, had been born and raised nearby in Chemnitz and escaped to West Germany with his father, an executive at Auto Union (the forerunner of the modern Audi brand), and his mother when Auto Union relocated to Ingolstadt as Chemnitz fell into the Soviet zone of the occupation of Germany after World War II. 

One accomplishment Hahn failed to achieve as Volkswagen CEO, ironically, was the resuscitation of Volkswagen's U.S. division after it had languished in the face of stiff competition from the Japanese and Detroit.  After an making initial effort at improving sales in the United States and introducing the GTI to the country, Hahn more or less left Volkswagen of America to its own devices and concentrated on growing the business elsewhere.  By the time he retired in 1993, Volkswagen sales in the U.S. had sunk so low that it almost left the U.S. entirely.  Hahn, who had established Volkswagen in America, came extremely close to being remembered as the man who let the brand die in the U.S. market.  Only the strong actions by his successor as Volkswagen chairman, Ferdinand Piëch, prevented such an outcome.

Hahn's record is still admirable.  Under his time as Volkswagen AG chairman, the company not only expanded globally but produced exciting products such as the the Rallye Golf, the third-generation Passat, the third-generation Golf and Jetta, and the awesome Corrado sports coupe.  The incredible 16V engine and the G supercharger were also created in that time.  The cars became more advanced, more stylish, and increasingly fun to drive.  Hahn understood the meaning of Volkswagen - solid transportation at an affordable price with driving pleasure.  It showed in the way Americans embraced the Beetle in the sixties and American VW enthusiasts revered such cars as the Golf GTI and the Jetta GLI as well as the base Jetta in the eighties.  It's too bad that today's managers of Volkswagen of America - who would rather sell American-style SUVs than live up to VW's German heritage - don't get that.  RIP, Carl Hahn. 😢