Nikolai Borg, born in 1919, claims he developed of the Volkswagen logo in June 1939 under the direction of Nazi engineer Fritz Todt. Borg does not want money but simply acknowledgment from VW. VW is denying Borg’s involvement and claims the logo was submitted to the Third Reich patent office for copyright in 1938. VW also denied Todt ran the “Volswagen” project which was part of a larger Nazi “Kraft durch Freude” project which was a propaganda recruitment campaign. One of the primary aspects of the KdF program is said to have been the encouragement of people to buy the “people’s car” or “Volkswagen.”
The outer ring of the VW logo was a cog, not the current circle. That was later change by the British after WWII. The logo for the DAF, parent to KdF and a Nazi trade union, was a swastika surrounded by a cog. Whether Borg’s claim is true or not, Volkswagen, though it needed really worry at this point, is distancing itself from the situation. Borg will present his case July 6.
