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German official author (?Bundesarchif)

Henry Ford, US automobile king and pioneer of assembly line production, presented with the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle by the German Ambassador to the USA, 1938. Henry Ford was a truly innovative industrialist and, in his early days, an enlightened employer. He paid his workers premium rates on the basis that this would incentivize them to work well. Later, however, he moved (I suppose one would say) to the Right, adopting trade union-breaking and such tactics to control his workers. In this context, it is not insignificant that he embraced the "Reverend" Frank Buchman's post-Christian, proto-Fascist "Oxford Groups" movement (not to be confused with the 19th century Anglo-Catholic "Oxford Movement"). Further, he exhibited ever-increasing anti-Semitism, financing newspapers devoted to promulgating his own, and others', anti-Semitic ravings and, increasingly, pro-Nazi sentiments. For this, he received the Order of the German Eagle, the highest German civil award available to non-Germans. Even after the war broke out, Ford's companies were not exactly uncooperative in licensing and technology transfer (under the counter) to Nazi Germany. Admittedly - although it was not recognized at the time - Ford appears in retrospect to have suffered from what we now describe as "early onset dementia" which, by 1938, had left him pretty ... unfocused. Nonetheless, he remained, in the industrial system of that time, a very powerful person. Also, some evils know no boundaries ... In sadness, JR.