#Heritage

The Volkswagen Group is continuing its long-term commitment to promoting a culture of remembering the victims of National Socialism by donating 150,000 euros to the International Auschwitz Committee (IAC) and the International Youth Meeting Center (IYMC) in Oświęcim, Poland.

Driven by the commitment to keep memories of the Holocaust and the understanding of its unfolding alive, Volkswagen supports several visits at the Museum für Fotografie which is hosting ‚Flashes of Memory’. The exhibition had been developed by the World Holocaust Remembrance Center Yad Vashem and presents photographs and films documenting the Shoah from the view of perpetrators, victims and liberators.

The Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand was not developed by acquisition, but grew organically within the Volkswagen Group. Officially, the brand was established in July 1995, with a view to pooling all the commercial vehicle expertise and resources of the Group. Although Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles was not established as an independent company, it was organisationally and financially assigned to the Volkswagen brand as the future controlling body for the Group’s international commercial vehicles business. The Group had decided on this step in view of the growing importance of its commercial vehicles business line, which generated sales totalling about 10 billion DM from its main Hanover plant and its international facilities in Poland, Spain, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa in 1995. The product range, including the Caddy, Pick-Up, Transporter and Caravelle as well as the LT and heavy trucks, ref lected the progression of the brand from a lightweight to a heavyweight. In 1996, the Multivan was added to the T4 range, introducing a modern version of a product line that had already formed part of the first Transporter generation.

The sports car brand Porsche is literally a big noise in the automotive world. The typical sound of its high-performance engines embodies the ultimate in power and dynamics. The make takes its name from world-famous designer Ferdinand Porsche. With sports car models such as the 356 and 911, and race cars such as the 550 Spyder and the 917, the Porsche family business has created automotive icons of pure passion. Porsche vehicles built in Zuffenhausen and Leipzig are in high demand all over the world, and represent a genuine dream for many automobile lovers. Since August 1, 2012 the high-performance brand has been operating under the umbrella of the Volkswagen Group. The acquisition of the remaining 50.1 percent of shares in Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG by Porsche SE created an integrated automotive concern which had been instigated by an agreement in principle signed on August 13, 2009.

MAN – the three letters stand for one of the world’s leading vendors of commercial vehicles, large diesel engines and special gear systems. Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft acquired a majority share in the parent company MAN SE at the head of the capital goods concern, with its workforce of over 54,000 people worldwide, in a gradual process culminating on November 9, 2011. MAN has been an independently operating brand of the Volkswagen Group since that time. Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft had held a strategic minority share of 15.06 percent in MAN AG since October 3, 2006. The control and profit transfer agreement approved at the shareholders’ meeting of MAN SE on June 6, 2013 and implemented by entry in the Register of Companies on July 16, 2013 also aided the creation of an integrated commercial vehicles unit. MAN is now one of the three commercial vehicles brands of the Volkswagen Group which since September 1, 2012 have been co-ordinated by Group parent Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft’s Management Board Commercial Vehicles function. Like the other brands, MAN runs its vehicle business operations independently. The Volkswagen Group’s integrated commercial vehicles strategy seeks to utilise synergies from the closer co-operation between Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, MAN and Scania under the umbrella of parent company Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft.