I’ll actually give Goodyear a pass. My reasoning is that the partnership was to allow a German company, zeppelin, to produce and sell blimps in the US.
They never produced aircraft for the Nazis, and they actually brought German engineers and researchers out of Germany.
When the war broke out the partnership dissolved and Goodyear started producing aircraft and synthetic rubber for the allies. They never reformed the partnership, so no laundering the business like coke and Fanta.
Beyond that, the zeppelin company and leadership was about as anti Nazi as you could be. The leadership at the time of their rise to power ended up being forced to share control with a fascist and was censored because he spoke against them.
Less relevant but still an interesting bit of trivia
Yup, and there are so many companies where they did the shitty thing.
In this case Goodyear was founded in Ohio, and Zeppelin by Count Zeppelin. (Weirdly, Goodyear wasn’t founded by Goodyear, just named after him because he invented vulcanized rubber).
The Goodyear-zeppelin partnership turned into Goodyear aerospace before the war, then severed ties with Zeppelin when the war started, and eventually got purchased by Lockheed Martin, which doesn’t make blimps, so it kinda just went away.
Goodyear, the Nazi blimp of choice.
I didn’t know about that one, so I looked it up.
I’ll actually give Goodyear a pass. My reasoning is that the partnership was to allow a German company, zeppelin, to produce and sell blimps in the US.
They never produced aircraft for the Nazis, and they actually brought German engineers and researchers out of Germany.
When the war broke out the partnership dissolved and Goodyear started producing aircraft and synthetic rubber for the allies. They never reformed the partnership, so no laundering the business like coke and Fanta.
Beyond that, the zeppelin company and leadership was about as anti Nazi as you could be. The leadership at the time of their rise to power ended up being forced to share control with a fascist and was censored because he spoke against them.
Less relevant but still an interesting bit of trivia
Didn’t know that. Just had heard it was the same people who started the company.
Yup, and there are so many companies where they did the shitty thing.
In this case Goodyear was founded in Ohio, and Zeppelin by Count Zeppelin. (Weirdly, Goodyear wasn’t founded by Goodyear, just named after him because he invented vulcanized rubber).
The Goodyear-zeppelin partnership turned into Goodyear aerospace before the war, then severed ties with Zeppelin when the war started, and eventually got purchased by Lockheed Martin, which doesn’t make blimps, so it kinda just went away.