Decal Douchebags: Fhrerocious Sticker Adds Ten Very White Horsepower

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems
Volkswagen gets a lot of unflattering press these days, but a faction of the automaker’s fan base seems determined to malign its name even more.A disturbing subculture exists on the fringes of the Volkswagen fanboy community, and it manifests itself in decals and not-so-subtle window stickers that feature Nazi imagery.Most normal, reasonable people would want to avoid associating themselves with a man who can claim responsibility for causing the deaths of about 70 million people, but there’s weirdos out there, and some of them are really keen on their Volkswagens. Frankly, it’s as depressing as the atmosphere inside the Fuhrerbunker, circa early May, 1945.The photo above was sent to us today from a reader in Charlotte, North Carolina. Besides being subject to two recalls, this 2010 Volkswagen CC Sport has other problems to deal with.As the photo shows, some sinister (or just braindead) owners are plastering the Nazi Eagle carrying the Volkswagen logo onto their cars. The design, called the Parteiadler, was the official emblem of the Nazi Party. The cogs encircling the Volkswagen version are the same as those that surrounded the swastika in ceremonies at the original Volkswagen plant in 1939 (and mirror the pre-WWII logo). This vehicle and Nazi Germany are intertwined, was the message.
Everyone knows that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler kicked off production of the People’s Car in the late 1930s via nationalized factories and a design sourced from Ferdinand Porsche. The Volkswagen of 2016 can’t help what happened in the past, and makes no historical associations beyond the happy, free-love 1960s.Pulling this decal stunt means begging for your car to be keyed, or have your ass kicked from here to the Rhineland. These losers should count their lucky stars there’s few remaining WWII vets around to tell them a thing or two.A fluke, maybe? A one-off? Doesn’t seem like it:One year ago, a reddit user from Texas asks how to get the Volkswagen/eagle emblem off of his GTI to avoid any parking lot sucker punches that could be coming his way.“I feel like I’ve made a huge mistake,” he says, before assuring everyone he’s on the up and up. “Just to be clear I am not a Nazi.”A post on JaguarForums.com from 2011 describes an encounter between a father and a Nazified Volkswagen in a Peterborough, Ontario parking lot:I have never in my life wanted to put a baseball bat through a persons rear window until today. Both of my grandfathers fought in the war, and were lucky enough to see the end of it. So many didn’t. Some punk a$$ kid puts this sticker on his car. 66 years ago, this kid would have had the snot kicked out of him. And we find this acceptable today? I don’t think so. If I didn’t have my kids with me, I would have had a different story to tell….A 2008 post from the Volkswagen enthusiast forum VW Vortex asks if anyone has that emblem on their daily driver.It’s very likely that many people who slapped the eagle on their Volkswagen (or bought one with eagle attached) were ignorant as to the image’s origin, but no one answering this eBay ad from the UK (of all places) would have any doubt as to its Nazi origins.A quick Google search will turn up tons of hits, with many variations of the eagle/Volkswagen decal being sold through graphics companies and online listings. The Google search also makes it clear where the logo came from.So, what’s the deal, select Volkswagen owners? Have enough years passed that this has become okay? Is worrying about slave labor and association with concentration camps passé? Or is it all just a joke, like “nuke the whales” t-shirts or Jesus giving the thumbs-up on the cross?
Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Fishiftstick Fishiftstick on Apr 17, 2016

    The douchebags who apply those stickers to their German cars are not entirely wrong. Let me explain. I exist because my grandmother was one tough cookie who escaped the Germans with her three kids. Her husband was not so lucky. One day he went out to buy bread, was arrested and eventually murdered by the Germans. They also killed his mother; his father; his brother, his wife and their child (US citizens, the latter two, but that availed them nothing) and another brother. Along with countless other relatives. Jews, you see. Some of these--the Germans kept meticulous records--were put on trains to extermination camps and gassed upon arrival. Others were not so lucky. Their murders were slow and lingering, as literal slaves of German industry. While everyone knows about the extermination camps, like Auschwitz, not everyone knows that a majority of German concentration camps were in fact slave labour camps for German industry where Jews, Gypsies, Poles and other untermenschen were sent to be eradicated by overwork and underfeeding. Most Germans today were born after these events. They are not guilty of crimes committed by their parents and grandparents, and I bear them no ill-will. But the companies that participated in genocide still exist. And they have names like Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW. These companies were complicit in the rise of the Nazis to power, they participated in and profited from slavery and genocide, and those profits have in some cases never been disgorged. BMW is still owned by the Quandt family, who were such enthusiastic Nazis that one of them married Goebbels. BMW has never paid compensation or even apologized for its role: see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpQpgd_EeWY. And Mercedes? They actually used "Conspiracy", a movie about the Final Solution, for Maybach product placement. So in a way, the douchebags using that sticker have a point. Obviously, it's not the point they are trying to make, but a point that needs making nonetheless.

    • Tedward Tedward on Apr 17, 2016

      It's fascinating to see just how profound an effect wwII had/has on survivors and family members. My grandfather, for intance, felt VERY much the same way about Japanese products. Being a salty, old school, Southern Baptist Texan it manifested in racist tirades that were literally ear curdling, but I believe he was probably coming from a similar place with it despite the crap delivery. Hell, I'd probably feel the same way if I had to survive Mitsubishi or bmw branded hardware looking to lodge a bomb up my a$$. Another great example is what's happening in the comments above. To see a heated poliSci/history argument break out on this scale is rare indeed outside of very topical blogs, and this is on a crappy click bait article on a auto industry nerd blog. It's nice to see that everyone gets really buthurt when they get compared to hitler. Really, a good sign. People need to remember that hitler was literally a psychopath, and not an annoited representative of any political philosophy. Remember that it is wildly insulting to draw parallels between that kind of creature and other, non genocidal, people, especially when they are argued well (cough, pch). The closest anyone gets to hitlerish in our democracy is rabble rousing against Mexicans, rednecks, blacks etc... both parties do this, neither is actually elevating politicians who will do horrific things with it. Hitler level lunacy absolutely exists in this world, just thankfully, not where we live, and certainly not in our government.

  • Speedlaw Speedlaw on Apr 18, 2016

    Hmm. My comment appears to have been censored ? Don't reference obscene bumper stickers, I guess....

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