Günther Quandt was one of the most powerful industrialists of the Third Reich. The textile entrepreneur benefited from the Nazi armaments boom and the major use of forced labourers and concentration camp inmates.

Among other, he owned the Akkumulatorenfabrik AG (AFA) and the Pertrix GmbH (VARTA) in Schöneweide as well as the Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabrik (DWM) in Reinickendorf. Berlin Jews, foreign forced labourers and concentration camp prisoners were deployed in many of Quandt’s factories.

Today, the Quandts are among the richest families in Germany. After the critical documentary film “Das Schweigen der Quandts” (2007), they began to support research into forced labour in their companies.

More on Pertrix at the Documentation Center Schöneweide (tour “Through the City of Camps”, stop 11)