Englishman Who Saved Volkswagen Dies at The Age of 84

Major lvan Hirst, the British army officer who played such an important part in the resurrection of Volkswagen after the war, died last Friday 10 March 2000 at the age of 84.
He was posted to Germany as a member of the British REME in the summer of 1945, with responsibility for the management of the Volkswagen factory. He once said: "Nobody gave me a real brief - I was just told to go there and do something."

In difficult conditions, and against the predictions of prominent members of the British motor industry, Hirst was successful, not only in re-starting production of the Volkswagen Beetle, but placing Volkswagen on a commercial footing for the first time as a motor vehicle manufacturer. In 1947 he appointed Heinrich Nordhoff, who took over as General Director and steered the fate of the factory from 1 January 1948.

lvan followed the fortunes of Volkswagen and its products right up to the very end of his life. He maintained frequent contact by telephone and in writing with his friends at Volkswagen in the UK and in Germany and was among the first people in Britain to try the New Beetle.
He frequently welcomed to his home authors, TV producers and motoring historians keen to speak to a living legend. These visitors, encountering lvan for the first time, always reported meeting a highly intelligent man who talked factually and with great warmth and modesty about the part he played. From his background in optical and mechanical engineering, accuracy was important to him. This quickly became clear to any journalist who interviewed him for their reporting would be challenged if was riot faithful to the truth.

Major Hirst's last letter to Volkswagen, received at the end of February, made constructive comments on a recent document on the history of the Volkswagen Transporter in which he was credited with developing the first Volkswagen load carrier, the Plattenwagen, and told Volkswagen how happy he was with the Golf V5 automatic which he bought last year.
Though he played an amazing part in the history of the Volkswagen Beetle, awarded "The Car of the Century" accolade at the Auto 1 Awards In Geneva this month, it was not his style to talk about these things unless asked. Many local shop keepers and cafe owners who would know this dignified and friendly old gentleman as their regular customer would not have known of his legendary status as the saviour of what is now Europe's largest car company.

All Volkswagen communications reproduced with permission of Volkswagen UK