Information about Ivan Hirst

Major Ivan Hirst (March 4, 1916 - March 15, 2000), was a British Army officer who was instrumental in reviving Volkswagen from a single factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, into a postwar major automotive manufacturer.

Education

Born in Saddleworth, Lancashire, England. Hirst's family had founded the Hirst Brothers Company, a manufacturer of watches, clocks and optical components in Oldham. Hirst studied optical engineering at the University of Manchester, prior to forming his own company repairing optical instruments.

World War 2

Hirst landed in Germany in the summer of 1945 when the British Army took control of the town of Wolfsburg. He was a major in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. The original intention was to scrap the factory and use the proceeds as war reparations. But the young Briton found that the factory could be used to produce cars for the British Army. Hence, Hirst laid the foundations for Volkswagen's successful automotive business.

Memories

Hirst had strong memories of his time at Wolfsburg which he would share with his local VW enthusiasts. The one strongest memory he would refer to regularly was the smell of the fish glue used to fix the cardboard headlinings in early cars. In later life he became somewhat more reticent about his involvment, often saying that it was only by chance that he had been involved and that if he hadn't done it someone else would have.

He also told friends that he was in later life haunted by memories of what he had been shown in some of the SS run areas of the Wolfsburg complex.

Being a keen amateur photographer his home was littered with photos taken in the early days at Volkswagen, including one really early photo of a prototype coupe which was very similar to the Hebmüller cars of the early 1950s.

Presentation of the model cars

Maj. Hirst once showed me a scale model of a VW Beetle that he had been presented with by Volkswagen. He was under the impression that only four such apprentice pieces had been made by VW. The first, a model of a Kdf-Wagen had been presented, during WWII to Adolf Hitler. The second and third models, this time of an early Split-Window Beetle, were presented to Maj. Hirst and another colleague, and the final one was in the Wolfsburg museum. Maj. Hirst's model is now a part of the REME museum collection.

Later life

Ivan Hirst died on 15 March 2000, aged 84. Just one month earlier, he had appeared in an edition of the British Top Gear magazine, which revealed the story of how Major Hirst revived the Volkswagen car plant. He was also photographed driving a new front-drive, front-engined Beetle in the magazine.

References

• Ivan Hirst - Author: Ralf Richter, Published by: Volkswage AG, Corporate History Wolfsburg
• http://www.mishalov.com/Hirst.html