Let us not forget, either, Hugo Boss, who made his fortune and his company, literally on the backs of the SS. He designed the uniforms so beloved of those cheeky little Nazi psychos. Funny how this is never mentioned in the ads…
Also worth pointing out Chanel and the Daily Mail. I guess some people think it’s stupid to malign them for this, but the chain of management rarely deviates to a great degree and they’re making money off a brand popularised by Nazis. Kind of puts Tiger Woods into perspective.
I don’t follow what you’re saying about Chanel. Abominable as her behavior was, her places in fashion and perfume history were well established long before the war started, and she doesn’t seem to have materially profited from her Nazi activities. Boycott Chanel on general principles, if you like, but I don’t see how profiteering comes into it.
Ditto for the Daily Mail. Being pro-Hitler before the war actually broke out argues something very wrong with Lord Rothermere’s soul, but he died in 1940, and I cannot think that the paper was better off during the war years for its pre-war stance.
Well, the arguments usually run along the lines that Nazis no longer profit should we purchase these goods, so it’s best to let their past rest. However, brands such as Ford were built on the back of the mystery surrounding their progenitors and luminaries… I’d feel rather uncomfortable buying a scent named after a Nazi spy.
As I say, you can boycott them if you like merely because they backed the Nazis, which they did, but that’s not the same as boycotting them because they profited by the Nazis, which (as far as I can tell) they didn’t. One should always try to keep one’s thinking clear.
Anyway, it’s impossible, in the end, to completely boycott Chanel, at least for women. Any woman who wears something other than jeans is wearing a descendant of Chanel’s designs; she continues to dominate dress design as thoroughly as Gilbert and Sullivan dominate English comic opera or Tolkien dominates heroic fantasy.
I don’t really differentiate between a company whose founders supported the Nazi party by providing them with a service (namely spying or propaganda, even if those services were not remunerated) and those that provided them with a specific exclusive product.
Actually, if we extend the boycott to any company that profited from Nazi era Germans, we’ve indemnified IBM andCoca-Cola.
Well, variations on a theme are memetic evolutions. Dresses preceded Chanel, even if she imparted some common themes to them. We don’t buy suits from Brummell Inc., nor is there a Department of Propaganda in the US, despite the Press Secretary serving in a variation of that role. Likewise, dragons preceded Smaug and Elvarg shares aspects in common with its ancestors (otherwise it would be unrecognisable as a dragon), but has notable differences as well.
My personal opinion is that unless the individual(s) themselves who profited are still profiting, it’s pointless to continue blaming the companies. By that standard, we shouldn’t by cotton garments made in US, because cotton used to be picked by slaves.
Most of the individuals who were in charge of these companies at the time are dead. Unless the company is still supporting the Nazis (or similar ideals I disagreed with), I personally wouldn’t see a need to dwell on past associations.
Marc
This is getting off-topic, but I don’t think you really appreciate how much of a radical difference Coco Chanel made in women’s fashion; designers have been doing variations on her themes for nearly a century now, and Lady Gaga is about the only present-day female public figure who doesn’t depend on Chanel’s basic concepts.
And where did Hitler get these specs from?
A man named Josef Ganz, a Jew, had been working on a small, rear engine, car with many of the features of the later Beetle. Ganz had been working on the design since the early 1920s. The car, the Standard Superior was even named the concept of Volkswagon and the model was called the Maikäfer which means “May Beetle”.
According to the various reports, Hitler had seen this car in the 1933 auto show and immediately fell in love with it. Of course, Ganz, a Jew couldn’t be allowed to continue working on the car. Ganz was arrested shortly after the auto show, and Hitler first talked to Daimler Benz and later Porsche about creating such a people’s car.
Radio Netherlands had a story on this. This whole thing came out about a decade ago, but quietly died back down. I’m not sure what happened.