What didn’t we know about Henry Ford? The Hillbilly Who Became Hitler’s Friend

How did this man become the king of cars? After all, he never learned to read blueprints in his entire life, and the engineers simply made a wooden model for him, which he studied.

What life rules did this person follow?

Let’s see the secret of one of the most famous industrialists in history.

Childhood

Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863 in the family of a Michigan farmer, an emigrant from Ireland. His father was dissatisfied with him, considering him lazy and a sissy; his son behaved like a prince who accidentally found himself on a farm.

Henry did everything he was told to do reluctantly. He hated chickens and cows and couldn’t stand milk. “Already in my early youth I thought that many things could be done differently — in some other way.”

For example, he, Henry, has to climb steep stairs every morning, carrying buckets of water. Why do this every day if you can just lay two meters of water pipes underground?

When his son turned twelve, his father gave him a pocket watch. He could not resist — he pryed off the lid with a screwdriver, and something wonderful was revealed to his eyes.

The parts of the mechanism interacted with each other, one wheel moved another, every cog was important here. Having disassembled and reassembled the watch, the boy thought for a long time.

What is the world if not one big mechanism? One movement is generated by another, everything has its own levers. To achieve success, you just need to know which levers to press.

Henry quickly learned how to repair watches and for a while even worked part-time, touring surrounding farms and repairing broken chronometers.

The second shock was the meeting with the locomobile. Henry and his father were returning by cart from the city when they encountered a huge self-propelled vehicle shrouded in steam.

Having overtaken the cart and frightened the horses, the smoking and hissing monster rushed past. At that moment, Henry would have given half his life to be there in the driver’s cab.

At the age of 15, Ford left school and walked at night, without telling anyone, to Detroit: he would never become a farmer, as his father wanted. At the factory where he got a job, they made horse-drawn carriages.

Worker and Farmer

He didn’t last long here. Ford only had to touch the broken mechanism to understand what was wrong.

Other workers began to envy the gifted newcomer. They did everything to survive the upstart plant, and succeeded in this — Ford was fired.

Henry later got a job at the Flower Brothers shipyard. And at night he worked part-time by repairing watches so that he could pay for the room.

Meanwhile, William Ford decided to make one last attempt to return his son to farming: he offered 40 acres of land on the condition that he would never utter the word “car” again in his life.

Unexpectedly, Henry agreed. The father was pleased, and the son too. Gullible William had no idea that his son was simply fooling him.

Wife and family

Soon Henry Ford decided to get married. Clara Bryant was three years younger than him. They met at a village dance.

Ford was a brilliant dancer and amazed the girl by showing her his pocket watch and declaring that he had made it himself.

They had a lot in common — just like Henry, Clara was born into a farmer’s family and did not disdain any kind of work.

The girl’s parents are pious and strict people; of course, they would not give her up for a young man without a penny, without land and a house.

Having hastily built a cozy house on his property, Henry settled in it with his young wife.

Many years later, the automobile monarch would say: “My wife believed in my success even more strongly than I did. She has always been like this.”

Clara could spend hours listening to her husband talk about the idea of creating a self-propelled carriage.

Throughout her long family life, she always knew how to maintain an elegant balance — she was interested in her husband’s affairs, but never interfered in them.

On the farm, he came up with a gasoline-powered grain thresher. Ford sells the patent for this invention to Thomas Edison, and he invites Henry to his company.

However, even there, in the position of chief engineer, Henry is still most attracted to cars.

Having married in 1887, he would live with his wife all his life. Once, when asked by journalists whether he wants to live another life, Ford will answer this way: “Only if he can marry Clara again.”

Interestingly, Henry Ford was a staunch supporter of the theory of reincarnation.

In particular, he believed that in his last incarnation he died as a soldier at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Ford described his views in the San Francisco Examiner of August 26, 1928: “I accepted the theory of reincarnation when I was twenty-six years old.

Religion did not provide me with an explanation for this phenomenon, and my work did not bring me complete satisfaction.

Work has no meaning if we cannot use the experience accumulated in one life in another.

When I discovered reincarnation, it was like discovering a universal plan — I realized that there was now a real chance for my ideas to come true.

I was no longer limited by time, I was no longer a slave to it.

Genius is experience.

Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but in reality it is the fruit of experience gained over many lifetimes.

Some souls are older than others and therefore know more. Discovering the concept of reincarnation calmed my mind.

If you record this conversation, write that it helps calm the mind.

I would really like to share with everyone the peace that this vision of life brings.”

With all this, Ford paid great attention to diet and a healthy lifestyle.

The inscription on the gates of his factories read: “Remember that God created man without spare parts.”

First quad bike

In November 1893, Clara gave Ford her only son. The boy was named Edsel.

That same year, in a brick barn behind the semi-detached house where he lived with his wife Clara, Ford completed construction of his first experimental car.

The inventor worked for two days without rest or sleep, and at two o’clock in the morning on June 4 he came to tell his wife that the machine was ready and he was now going to test it.

Called the “Quad”, the vehicle ran on four bicycle tires.

Life’s work

In the same 1893, Henry Ford became the chief engineer of the Edison Company, which specialized in lighting Detroit, and then, in 1899, the chief engineer of the Detroit Automobile Company.

But after a while they began to notice that Ford was spending all his mental and physical strength on a gasoline cart, and not at all on working in the office.

Henry was offered a leadership position on the condition that he give up his invention.

Ford hesitated. The arguments of reason were as follows: the family had to be supported, there were no savings — everything was spent on building the cart.

Clara, seeing his hesitation, said that no matter what Henry Ford did, she would approve of his decision.

But Henry remains true to his idea of transforming a car from a luxury item into a means of transportation, and, full of hope for the future, leaves the service:

“If you have passion, you can accomplish anything. Enthusiasm is the basis of any progress.”

After all, if Ford has set his sights on turning millions of ordinary pedestrians into proud car owners, then nothing can stop him on his chosen path: “When it seems that the whole world is against you, remember that the plane takes off against the wind!”

The Detroit Automobile Company did not last long. “There was no demand for cars, just as there is no demand for any new product.

I left my post, determined never to be in a dependent position again,” Ford recalled.

After quitting, Ford began to “sell himself.” He was looking for wealthy partners, because Henry himself did not have money, as such, and in his new enterprise he assigned himself the role of a supplier of ideas.

But so far no one wanted to buy these ideas. He was simply obsessed with the idea of creating a car that was accessible to everyone.

Ford correctly believed that: “ideas themselves are valuable, but every idea is, after all, just an idea. The challenge is to implement it practically.”

But does he give up? No. Ford once again demonstrates his approach to life’s failures, considering them “an opportunity to start again, but more wisely.”

He believed that honest failure is not humiliating, but the fear of failure is humiliating. It’s hard to disagree with him.

After all, there is hardly a person in the world who always gets everything right the first time.

Tenacity, determination and perseverance are the qualities of a real fighter.

“People give up more often than they fail,” said Henry Ford.

In 1902, he made an amazing advertisement for his car — while driving his car in auto racing, he was ahead of the American champion!

It’s hard to imagine a better PR company, but Ford, like no one else, understands the importance of advertising:

“If I had 4 dollars, I would spend 3 of them on advertising.”

Ford Motor Company

In 1903, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated. Henry became general manager.

Being a self-taught mechanic himself, Ford willingly hired such geniuses at the plant: “The specialists are so smart and experienced that they know exactly why this and that cannot be done, they see limits and obstacles everywhere.

If I wanted to destroy competitors, I would provide them with hordes of specialists.”

He devotes all his efforts to creating a universal car, simple, reliable and cheap.

At that time, the idea of a “car for everyone” was not clear to many; a mass-produced car was something fantastic, just like now, for example, a “mass-produced airplane.”

However, Henry doesn’t care much about all this, because he believes that “everything can be done better than it has been done so far.”

In 1905, Ford’s financial partners did not agree with his intention to produce cheap cars, because… Expensive models were in demand, the holder of the majority stake, Alexander Malcolmson, sold his share to Ford, after which Henry Ford became the owner of a controlling stake and president of the company.

Here is another interesting episode related to the young Ford company.

The Ford Motor Company faced competition from a syndicate of automakers that claimed a monopoly in this area.

In 1879, Selden patented a design for an automobile, which was not built; it contained only a description of the basic principles.

The first patent infringement lawsuit he won prompted the owners of a number of automobile manufacturing companies to purchase appropriate licenses and create an “association of legal manufacturers.”

The lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company, initiated by Seldon, lasted from 1903 to 1911.

“Legitimate manufacturers” threatened to sue buyers of Ford cars.

But he acted courageously, publicly promising his customers “help and protection,” although the financial capabilities of the “legitimate manufacturers” far exceeded his own.

In 1909, Ford lost the case, but after a review of the case, the court decided that none of the automakers violated Selden’s rights, since they used an engine of a different design.

The monopoly association immediately collapsed, and Henry acquired a reputation as a fighter for the interests of consumers.

This was one of Henry Ford’s four principles of management, which he formulated as follows: Ignore the competition. Let the one who does the job better work.

An attempt to upset someone’s affairs is a crime, because it means an attempt to upset the life of another person in pursuit of profit and to establish the rule of force in place of common sense.

By the way, the other three management principles voiced by Ford are no less worthy.

Here, look, for example, regarding profit: Put work for the common good above profit. Without profit, no business can survive. There is nothing inherently wrong with profit.

A well-run enterprise, while bringing great benefits, should and will bring great income.

But profitability should result from useful work, and not lie at its basis.

Or here’s the thing about the modern “bought cheap, sold high”: Producing does not mean buying cheap and selling high.

It rather means buying raw materials at reasonable prices and converting them, at as little additional cost as possible, into a good product, which is then distributed to consumers.

Gambling, speculating and acting dishonestly only means complicating this process.

And finally, the fourth principle, philosophical: Don’t be afraid of the future and don’t be respectful of the past.

He who is afraid of the future (failures) limits the range of his activities.

Failures only give you a reason to start again and smarter. Honest failure is not shameful: fear of failure is shameful.

The past is useful only in the sense that it shows us the ways and means to development.

At the same time, Henry received an education that left much to be desired at a church school.

Already an adult, Ford still made mistakes when drawing up important contracts.

One day he will sue a newspaper that called him “ignorant,” and when accused of being uneducated, he will answer: “If I … needed to answer your stupid questions, I would only have to press a button in my office, and specialists would appear at my disposal with answers.”

The automobile king never learned to read blueprints in his entire life: the engineers simply made a wooden model for the boss and gave it to him for judgment.

Ford did not consider illiteracy a disadvantage, but a reluctance to apply intelligence in life: “The most difficult thing in the world is to think with your own head. That’s probably why so few people do it.”

Success

Ford simplifies the design of the car, standardizes its parts and mechanisms. He was the first in the world to introduce a conveyor belt into machine production.

This innovative solution instantly makes it a leader in the automotive industry, leaving its competitors far behind.

And although the conveyor was used in the 19th century and before it, when we say “conveyor” we mean Henry Ford, the man who, with his help, achieved his dream and unprecedented success.

Henry Ford’s real triumph was the introduction of the Model T, which meant a change in all guidelines in the concept of the automotive industry.

He created it like a sculptor, cutting off everything unnecessary, creating not a luxurious toy for the elite, but an affordable product for millions of “average Americans.”

The success exceeded all expectations. Over the years of production of the Model T, over 15 million cars were sold, conquering the consumer market.

In 1909, a Ford T costs $850, in 1913 — $550. In 1914, the company celebrated the production of the 10 millionth Ford T.

At that time, 10% of all cars in the world were these cars.

Also in 1914, Henry Ford decides to increase workers’ wages to $5 a day.

He believed that: “If you require someone to give his time and energy to a business, then make sure that he does not experience financial difficulties.”

Probably one of Ford’s main secrets lies not so much in innovations in production, but in his humane attitude towards his fellow man:

“My secret to success is the ability to understand the other person’s point of view and look at things from both his and my points of view.”

Behind his back, workers called him “The Man Who Invented the Day Off,” and this man additionally rewarded non-smoking and non-drinking workers. People lined up to get jobs with Ford.

When selecting personnel, he only assessed willingness to work: “I don’t care where a person came from — from prison or Harvard. We hire the person, not the story.”

There were no issues with staff turnover, although discipline at the factory was strict.

“Time doesn’t like to be wasted,” said Ford, not allowing himself or his workers to relax.

He was convinced that: “Only two incentives make people work: the thirst for wages and the fear of losing it.”

At his enterprise, Ford introduced the principle of “less administrative spirit in business life and more business spirit in administration.”

Having decided that paperwork is slowing down the process of producing cars, Ford at his plant — just walk like that! — abolished statistics.

Ford had no production meetings, no unnecessary paperwork, and no communication between departments. “Who should be the boss?” — is like asking: “Who should be the tenor in this quartet?”

Of course, the one who can sing tenor,” said Ford, now the rightful owner of a huge company.

By the early 1920s, Henry Ford was selling more cars than all of his competitors combined; out of 10 cars bought in the USA, 7 were made by him.

It was at this time that he received the title of “car king”.

Ford invests money in the purchase of other factories, mines, coal mines, and everything that is required to produce cars.

Thus, the “owner of factories, newspapers, ships” creates an entire empire, independent of foreign trade.

At the same time, a successful industrialist does not get hung up on dollars; it is he who owns the phrase:

“The main use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money to improve the difficulty of life.”

In 1922, Ford published an autobiographical book, “My Life, My Achievements,” written vividly and imaginatively.

However, neither competitors nor buyers allow Henry Ford to live peacefully until retirement, reaping the fruits of past successes.

Sales of the most affordable car are starting to fall. The creator of the Ford T believed that “if you buy it once, you will always buy it.”

However, people wanted variety, and Ford could only offer “a car in any color, as long as that color is black.”

General Motors provided customers with a variety of car models and beat Ford’s competitive advantage of affordability by selling cars on credit.

By 1927, sales of the Ford T had declined so much that Ford was in danger of going under.

“Well-wishers” anticipated the collapse of the businessman, but Ford did not give up this time either.

After all, if yesterday’s beliefs did not justify themselves, this is only a reason to come up with something new: “They are everywhere — these strange people who do not know that yesterday is yesterday, and who wake up every morning with last year’s thoughts in their heads.”

Through his example, Ford showed that positive thinking works and brings results.

If you are sure that luck will come to you, so it will be: “Thinking about the future, the desire to do more, brings the mind to a state where it seems that nothing is impossible.”

Ford suspends production and dismisses almost all workers, while he works on creating the next car.

In 1927, he introduced the new Ford A model (prototype of the Soviet Pobeda), which compares favorably with existing ones in technical characteristics and appearance.

Ford emerges victorious again.

He runs the company until the 30s, and then transfers the business to his son, but again returns to the post of head of the company after his death in 1943.

Ford and Hitler

Coming from a family of Irish immigrants, Ford was perhaps one of the most famous anti-Semites on the planet.

Since 1918, the industrialist’s money was used to publish the newspaper The Dearborn Independent, which, among other things, published anti-Semitic materials, including “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

In 1920, a selection of articles from the Dearborn Independent was published as a separate book entitled International Jewry. The original world problem.”

Subsequently, until the end of 1922, three more volumes were published: “Jewish Activities in the United States,” “Jewish Influence in American Life,” and “Aspects of Jewish Power in the United States.”

In 1920, the Jewish magazine American Hebrew challenged Ford to select a jury of prominent American leaders to whom he would present evidence of a Jewish conspiracy.

If Ford had failed to convince the jury of the existence of a conspiracy, he should have admitted his mistake and published the names of those who convinced him of the existence of this conspiracy.

Ford did not respond to the call, and the publications continued. In this campaign, Ford received the support of some Americans, including the famous Thomas Edison.

Then 119 prominent Americans, including 3 presidents, 9 secretaries of state, 1 cardinal and many other US government and public figures, published an open letter condemning Ford’s anti-Semitism.

They wrote that Ford challenged American civic and democratic principles.

In 1924, Aaron Shapiro filed a libel case, and named the defendant not the newspaper or the editor, but Ford personally.

In March 1927, newspaper editor William Cameron testified under oath that the newspaper’s materials had not been discussed with Ford.

Cameron claimed that he never sent advance copies of the weekly to the owner of the newspaper and never saw Henry Ford read even one of the articles.

Cameron’s statements were met with great disbelief by society.

After this, Shapiro summoned Ford himself to court, who for a long time avoided receiving the summons and ultimately did not appear at the court hearing.

Another lawsuit against Ford was filed by the author of the book “The History of One Deception — “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”” Herman Bernstein.

As a result, Ford settled the conflict out of court, including by paying a large sum, the amount of which was classified under the terms of the deal and is still unknown.

At the same time, Ford retracted his anti-Jewish statements and sent a letter to the press on July 7, 1927, in which he apologized to Jews for the harm caused to them, promised to withdraw published materials from circulation and ensure that his publications did not contain such attacks.

By that time, the treatises published by Ford had already found their readers. Among them was the future leader of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler.

In Mein Kampf, the only American the author mentions is the founding father of Ford Motors:

“Every year gives them more and more control over the producers of a nation of 120 million; only one great man, Ford, arouses their hatred by maintaining complete independence.”

The sympathy turned out to be strong and mutual — Henry Ford was impressed by the head of the NSDAP.

According to some researchers, the American began to provide financial assistance to the Nazis long before Hitler and his followers came to power.

In the early 1930s in the United States, Hitler was considered, although radical, to be quite a “handshake” character.

In 1931, an American journalist from The Detroit News interviewed Hitler and drew attention to the portrait of Henry Ford hanging in the Fuhrer’s office.

Having inquired about Hitler’s attitude towards the head of Ford Motors, the reporter heard in response: “I consider Henry Ford my inspiration.”

With Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, both friendly and business ties were established between him and Ford.

According to the most conservative estimates, Ford’s investments in the German economy on the eve of World War II amounted to more than $17 million.

According to American military historian Henry Schneider, Ford helped the Germans obtain rubber, vital to German industry.

The German branch of Ford Motors was engaged in the production of cars that were used for the needs of the Wehrmacht.

The production of heavy trucks commissioned by Hitler’s army in the 1940s took place at the German Ford plant, although formally the father, the founder of the company managed by his son, had nothing to do with this enterprise.

An even more interesting situation arose with the French branch of Ford. After 1940, it found itself occupied by the Germans, but did not curtail production.

Aircraft engines, trucks and cars — all this was sent to the German army.

It reached the point of complete absurdity — for example, in 1942, Ford’s American enterprises, as part of Lend-Lease, assembled cars for the needs of the Red Army, and at the same time the same cars went to the Eastern Front, replenishing the mechanized units of the Wehrmacht.

By the way, cooperation with Soviet Russia began much earlier, which was modestly kept silent in the country of the victorious revolution.

Soviet GAZ cars at the dawn of their era were copies of Ford designs. Henry Ford entered into a contract with the leadership of the USSR, which had two main points.

First.

In the Soviet Union, an automobile plant was built using the achievements of Henry Ford, which was later called upon to produce cars according to the company’s drawings, and Soviet workers were sent to Detroit factories in the USA for internships;

And the second one.

The Soviet Union signed a multimillion-dollar contract for the supply of Ford cars and tractors. This fact was hidden from ordinary people, like many others at that time.

Already in our time, in 2003, journalist Max Wallace published the book “The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of the Third Reich,” in which he cited documents indicating a close connection with the Nazis not only of Henry Ford, but also of his son Edsel, who was at that time the immediate supervisor of Ford Motors.

At the same time, Wallace points out that the labor of prisoners from concentration camps at the European enterprises of the Ford family was used even before the formal transfer of the factories to Nazi control.

Representatives of Ford Motors responded to this book as follows: “We think there is nothing new in it about the activities of Henry Ford.

He was a great innovator, but also a man who made mistakes.” But let’s go back to the pre-war years.

In 1938, on Henry Ford’s 75th birthday, “friend Adolf” awarded the industrialist the Order of Merit of the German Eagle, the highest award of the Third Reich for foreigners.

When the German consul presented the Hitler award to Ford, the creator of the auto industry did not look gloomy.

In 1945, when Hitler committed suicide in a Berlin bunker, Henry Ford finally retired, passing the presidency to his grandson, 28-year-old Henry Ford II.

The young heir began to work energetically, preventing bankruptcy looming on the horizon.

Henry Jr. was far from his grandfather’s views and made a lot of efforts to change the company’s reputation.

In particular, Henry Ford II financed several large Jewish organizations and founded an automobile assembly plant in Israel.

Ford Motor Company sponsored the Holocaust film Schindler’s List.

This was Ford, who embodied the “American Dream.”

And when journalists asked him what such a rich man could want, he answered them like this:

“I would like to improve the world by living in it.”

Did it really make him better? And if so, what exactly?

It’s time to move to the comments under the video and read the opinions of deeply respected experts.

That’s all for today, thank you for watching, liking this post and see you on our channel.