Volkswagen Headquarters Searched for WWII Bombs

"Explosive disposal experts" dispatched to Wolfsburg.
www.thedrive.com

Share

Volkswagen’s been having a rough go of it lately. The scandal, the outrage, the enormous fines—all results of the company’s own doing, but this? This is just something else.

Per Reuters, Volkswagen’s main facility in Wolfsburg, Germany was searched Friday by “disposal experts” looking for unexploded WWII bombs. Local construction workers discovered suspicious metal fragments at four locations within the plant last month, according to a city spokeswoman. Evidently, the unearthing of volatile, 75-year-old artillery isn’t entirely uncommon at the site, but often times disruptive. Considering the original Wolfsburg facility was built on Hitler’s orders in 1938, there’s a metaphor in there somewhere.

Should any unexploded bombs be found, officials will evacuate the residents of nearby Sandkamp, roughly 700 people. But even if that happens, “there will be no effects on production,” says one Volkswagen rep: Though the facility pumps out nearly 4,000 vehicles (Golfs, Tiguans, and Tourans) per day during peak times, workers get a three-week summer break, which just started July 1.