Amway and Scientology, Apart From the Labels, What's the Difference?

This blog post originally appeared on Quixtar Cult Intervention in June of 2009 on the anniversary of the D-Day Invasion.  The post was authored by David Brear.

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‘A good novel tells us the truth about its hero, but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.’

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

Readers might be interested to know that, currently, around 18 500 hits appear when you search on ‘Google’ for: ‘Amway Scientology.’ However, this is hardly surprising since, down the years, all intellectually rigorous observers have been struck by the blatant (underlying) similarities between the two groups. In fact, it has become a matter of public record that a significant number of unquestioning players of the ‘Scientology’ game of make-believe have also been easily seduced into becoming de facto slaves of the ‘Amway’ myth.


Recently, there have been headline reports in the international media that a major criminal trial involving the ‘Church of Scientology’ and some of its leading adherents has opened in France. The charges (resulting from typical complaints filed up to ten years ago by destitute former adherents) comprise ‘d’escrocrie en bande organisée’ (‘organized fraud’) and ‘exercise illégal de la pharmacie’ (‘illegal practise of pharmacy’). Despite the mysterious refusal of State prosecutors to take prompt action, an independent Investigating-Judge, Jean-Christophe Hullin, examined the same compelling evidence and concluded that ‘Scientology’ has precious little to do with traditional religion. It is a deceptive commercial business using a manipulative system of progressively expensive initiation (dressed-up as a scientifically-based faith) designed to exploit vulnerable individuals to the benefit of a gang of arrogant racketeers based in the USA. At the risk of repeating myself, no matter what transpires in the current, localised French challenge to the authenticity of the global ‘Scientology’ myth , it will forever remain one of the sickest ironies of history that the United States of America, a nation born out of an enlightened rebellion against absolutism, should have poured trillions of tax dollars and the blood of hundreds of thousands of its finest citizens into keeping latter-day absolutism at bay in the 20th century, only have its elected leaders completely fail to recognize essentially the same cancer (albeit in heavy disguise) not just multiplying unchecked in the ‘Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,’ but also infecting the rest of the world.


True to form, ‘Scientology’s’ aggressive echelon of French apologists steadfastly pretend that their ‘Church’:

- is a legitimate, and long-established, world-religion.

- cannot be held to blame for the actions of its individual members.

- is the innocent victim of an unwarranted attack by religious bigots.

- always offers a refund to anyone who is not satisfied. etc.

However, the seven French citizens named in the ‘Scientology’ indictment (who risk maximum fines of 1 million Euros each and ten years in prison) are, in fact, not officially recognised (on the charge sheet) as members of any ‘Church’ or ‘faith group,’ but merely as officers of two (apparently independent) corporate structures registered in France as:

1. ‘SARL Scientology Espace Liberté (Scientology Free Space Inc.)’ a.k.a. ‘SARL SEL,’ a privately-controlled, limited-liability, commercial-company with a declared purpose of being a retail outlet for books, recordings and various merchandise and educational courses (situated in the 17th district of Paris).

2. ‘Association spiritual de l’Eglise de Scientology - Celebrity Center (Spiritual Association of the Church of Scientology - Celebrity Center)’ a.k.a. ‘Ases - CC,’ the French branch of an international philanthropic organization (originally incorporated in the USA in the 1950s).

The widespread inaccurate reporting of recent events in France is a perfect example of how mystifying ‘Scientology’ is and how its manipulation functions, in that, although the group’s own ‘religious’ script continues to be repeated (without detailed qualification or heavy irony) by most commentators, officially, there is no ‘Church of Scientology’ in the French republic. What’s more, there never has been. Indeed, the impossibly-complex international conglomerate which is now most-commonly referred to as ‘Scientology,’ was first presented externally to the American public in 1950 as a single privately-controlled, limited-liability, commercial-company, arbitrarily defined by its instigator as the ‘Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation Inc.’ This initial corporate structure was almost immediately challenged by numerous, intellectually-rigorous observers as a counterfeit beacon luring the vulnerable, and unwary, into a crackpot pseudo-scientific swindle with potentially disastrous consequences. Tellingly, within less than 5 years it had been dissolved to prevent, and divert, investigation and isolate its instigator from liability. Since that time, the underlying fiction has survived all further low-level challenges to its authenticity by subdividing and multiplying its constituent chapters and verses like cancer cells. In its wake, has been left a grim trail of destitution, debt, dissociation, depression, divorce and even death. Today, the same old fiction continues to be presented externally around the globe as a mystifying labyrinth of countless, ever changing and expanding corporate structures, arbitrarily defined as the ‘International Church of Scientology,’ comprising various parent ‘Churches,’ including, the ‘American Church of Science,’ the ‘Church of Spiritual Technology,’ etc., and numerous subsidiary ‘Churches’ and affiliated groupings of adherents, including, ‘United Churches of Florida’; ‘AAS’ (‘American Association of Scientologists’), ‘HASI’ (‘Hubbard Association of Scientologists International’); and as numerous unaffiliated groupings of adherents, including ‘CCHR’ (‘Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights’), ‘WHF’ (‘Way to Happiness Foundation’); ‘ABLE’ (‘Association for Better Living and Education’); ‘CBAA’ (‘Concerned Businessmen’s Association of America’); ‘ARAS’ (‘Academy of Religious Arts and Sciences’), ‘Narconon’, ‘Criminon’, etc.; and as numerous ‘privately-controlled, limited-liability commercial companies,’ including, the ‘Hubbard Explorational Company’; ‘OTC’ (‘Operation and Transport Corporation’); ‘Scientific Press of Phoenix Inc.’; ‘New Era Publications Inc.’, ‘Southern Land Sales and Development Inc.’; ‘Distribution Center Inc.’, ‘HealthMed Inc.’, ‘Sterling Management Systems Inc.’, etc.


Behind this shifty (but frighteningly familiar) edifice lurks a deceptively kitsch Utopian myth of exclusive redemption in a future, secure existence (where only unquestioning believers win Health, Prosperity, Happiness, Freedom, etc.). Self-evidently, this closed-logic game of make-believe is neither original nor unique. Therefore, it cannot be fully-understood in isolation. Although it remains hard for some casual observers to accept, the wider evidence proves beyond all reasonable doubt that the technical-sounding trademark, ‘Scientology,’ was plucked out of thin air in 1952 as the label for what was to become one of the most ridiculous, but nonetheless pernicious and profitable, totalitarian/cultic rackets in recent history. On closer inspection, ‘Scientology’ turns out to be the identical (criminogenic) twin of ‘Amway’- the entrance to a sustainable ‘advanced fee fraud’ based on a perverse plagiarism of various, traditional, esoteric, ritual belief systems. ‘Scientology’s’ fictitious, dualistic scenario of control has been peddled as fact to its core-adherents using a cocktail of pseudo-scientific mystification combined with the traditional myth of a ‘Supreme Spirit of Evil in a state of everlasting conflict with a Supreme Spirit of Good,’ but transposed into the vocabulary and imagery of 20th century, American comic-book science-fiction.


According to the bleating flock of apparatchiks at the ‘Scientology’ Ministry of Truth: currently, there are 8 millions happy ‘Scientologists’ worldwide. Unfortunately, in the adult world of quantifiable reality, the best available estimates from reliable sources (including French, Belgian and German government agencies) reveal that the overwhelming majority of persons who are deceived into buying into this self-gratifying group-delusion, abandon ‘Scientology’ within a short time (without complaint), and that there are probably less than 50 000 long-term believers around the world. That said, during the previous 12 months, the numbers of new customers being caught up in the ‘Scientology’ snowball have been in steep decline due to the energetic activities of a youthful protest movement known as ‘Anonymous.’ Ironically, this peaceful group only came into existence as a reaction to ‘Scientology’s’ leaders’ arrogant afforts to control all information about their activities on the Internet. Needless to say, the closed-logic ‘Scientology’ myth systematically categorizes all free-thinking individuals challenging its authenticity as ‘Suppressives’, ‘criminals’ , ‘ terrorists’, etc.


The author of the ‘Scientology’ myth, and its first self-appointed sovereign leader, was Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (b. March 11th 1911 - d. January 26th 1986), a.k.a. ‘Brother Ron’ a.k.a. ‘LRH’ a.k.a. Ron ‘Flash’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Captain’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Commodore’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Admiral’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Doctor’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Commander in Chief of the Sea Org’ etc., a US Naval Reserve veteran, amateur hypnotist and prolific writer of pulp-fiction. Although all the quantifiable evidence proves Hubbard to have been nothing more than a penniless narcissist turned multi-millionaire charlatan, who ultimately withdrew into a progressively-paranoid, drug, and alcohol, fuelled delusion (spending his final years in hiding to avoid being held to account by agents of the US Internal Revenue Service), for more than half a century, the full explanation of his activities has been occulted his own reality-inverting script of:

‘Adventurer’; ‘Explorer’; ‘Pilot’; ‘Navigator’; ‘Best Selling Author/Screenwriter’; ‘Philosopher’; ‘Scholar’, ‘Researcher’; ‘Mathematician’; ‘Linguist’; ‘Geologist’; ‘Engineer’, ‘Nuclear Physicist’; ‘War Hero’; ‘Inventor’; ‘Philanthropist’; ‘Psychiatric Therapist’; ‘Dianetics’ (‘the Modern Science of Mental Health’); ‘AD’ (‘After Dianetics’); ‘Dianeticists’; ‘New Era Dianetics’; ‘Franchising’; ‘Research’; ‘New Science’; ‘Science of Certainty’; ‘Science of Survival’; ‘Auditing’; ‘Auditing Level’; ‘Processing’; ‘Training’; ‘Analytical Mind’; ‘Reactive Mind’; ‘Pre-Clears’; ‘Clears’; ‘Clear Certainty Rundown’; ‘Sunshine Rundown’; ‘Hubbard Dianetic Auditor’s Certificate’; ‘Journal of Scientology’; ‘Electropsychometric Auditing’; ‘E-Meter’; ‘Personality Test’; ‘Communications Courses’; ‘Introspection’; ‘Religion’; ‘Sacred Scriptures’; ‘Ministers’; ‘Thetan’; ‘BT’ (‘Body Thetan’); ‘OT’ (‘Operating Thetan’); ‘GE’ (‘Genetic Entity’); ‘PTS’ (‘Potential Trouble Source’); ‘Missions’; ‘Fixed Donations’; ‘Diagnosis’; ‘Healing’; ‘Helping Mankind’; ‘Check-List’; ‘Returning Down the Time Track’; ‘Reincarnation’; ‘Engrams’; ‘Truth’; ‘Freedom’; ‘Self-Determination’; ‘Moving up the Bridge to Total Freedom’; ‘Code of Ethics’; ‘Ethics Technology’; ‘Ethics Officers’; ‘Justice’; ‘Human Rights’; ‘Evolution Theory’; ‘Education’; ‘Briefing Course’; ‘Self-Betterment’; ‘Cybernetics’; ‘Engineering Technology’; ‘Radiation’; ‘Modern Management Technology’; ‘Celebrity Centers’; ‘Spiritual Guidance Centers’; ‘Purification’; ‘Saunas’; ‘Oils’; ‘Vitamins’; ‘Minerals’; ‘position against Drugs’; ‘position against Alcohol’; ‘position against Satanism’; ‘position against Cults’; ‘Messengers’; ‘HCO’ (‘Hubbard Communications Office’); ‘CS’ (‘Case Supervisor’); ‘DSA’ (‘Department of Special Affairs’); ‘SZP’ (‘Special Zone Plan’); ‘DGA’ (‘Department of Government Affairs’); ‘Sea Project’; ‘Flag Land-Base’; ‘Guardian's Office’; ‘Orgs’ (‘Organizations’); ‘Sea Org’; ‘Cine Org’; ‘Organizing Board’; ‘Crimes’; ‘Punishment’; ‘Suppressive Acts’; ‘SP’ (‘Suppressive Persons’); ‘Fair Game Policy’; ‘Billion Year Contracts’; ‘Black Propaganda’; ‘Treason’; ‘Isolation Watch’; ‘RPF’ (‘Rehabilitation Project Force’); ‘EOC’ (‘End of Cycle’); ‘Conspiracy’; etc.


Throughout most of his life, Hubbard steadfastly pretended moral and intellectual authority - going to the most extraordinary lengths to maintain an absolute monopoly of information about himself - whilst perpetrating, and sanctioning, a series of evermore serious crimes. The unconditional deference of his deluded core-adherents only served to confirm, and magnify, his own paranoid delusions. When his kingdom was threatened, Hubbard sustained his activities by the imposition of arbitrary codes and contracts (secrecy, denunciation, confession, justice, punishment, etc.) on his subjects, and by the use of humiliation, intimidation, calumny, malicious prosecution (where he posed as victim), sophism, the infiltration of traditional culture, corruption, intelligence gathering and blackmail, extortion, physical isolation, violence, etc; to repress any internal or external dissent. It was Hubbard and latterly his heir, David Miscavige (b. 1960), who organized the creation, dissolution and subversion of all manner of further (apparently independent) corporate structures pursuing lawful, and/or unlawful, activities to prevent, and/or divert, investigation and isolate themselves from liability. In this way, the ‘Scientology’ myth has infiltrated traditional culture to a degree almost without parallel in the sordid Pantheon of modern-day cultism. Sadly, an alarming number of unthinking observers (not just in the media, but also in law enforcement, and in the religious, and political, establishment) have swallowed L. Ron Hubbard’s ‘religious’ bait and insisted that his totalitarian fiction has every right to be peddled as fact.


Copyright David Brear June 2009
(the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings)

Dirty Little Secrets of Their Little MLM Cult

Have you ever had an invite from a friend, associate, or a stranger that left you in the lurch wondering just what the invite was all about? Maybe, just out of the blue, an old acquaintance that you have not seen since high school calls you up and invites you to see something that is so important that you absolutely must do it! Your old friend is very vague about just what this "something" is. Even if you become suspicious and ask if it is "Amway? (Herbalife? Xango? Monavie? Nuskin? Mary Kay)" Your friend might respond and say something like this: "I can't really talk about it over the phone; you will just have to see this for yourself." Your curiosity has been piqued. You most likely have just been exposed to the "curiosity invite", one of the devilish recruitment tactics of a multi-level business opportunity schemes.

Amway is the most well known, although there are other 'clones' that operate basically using Amway's pyramid recruitment practices. Amway claims to be the number #1 on line retailer of health and beauty products in the US, although most of their sales are to their own distributors. These distributors are basically the only real customers for the products which are intentionally priced to be unsellable outside of the distributor chain.

Amway's reputation in the United States has been tarnished by a series of scandals, whistle-blowers, Dateline scrutiny, and bad word of mouth. Amway has run advertising and commercials to help revive their negative image. Amway distributors are called are called either 'Amway Business Owners' (ABOs) or "Independent Business Owners (IBOs). for convenience. These 'distributors' are part of a 'pyramid'system that includes an "up-line" and a "down-line." These 'distributors' receive a distributor discount on the products they buy whether they are sold at retail or consumed at home. The idea is that any product that they retail at full price provides them with profit margin.. Buy at a discount and sell for full retail price is a universally accepted method of making money in any business, but realizing a profit in this business (or many of the other MLM clones) can be very difficult to achieve.

The remainder of this blog post will describe the 'dirty little secrets of their little Amway cult.' A very small number of Amway distributors are known collectively by US courts as 'kingpins. These kingpins run a 'shadow' business monopoly business selling motivational training materials to include seminar and rally tickets which is known as the "tool and function" business. The name 'kingpin' is also used to describe key high level 'capo' in the mafia. Law Professor G. Robert Blakey produced as evidence in Procter & Gamble Company, et al. v. Amway Corporation, et al  which had been ordered 'sealed' but which was subsequently 'leaked.'  Robert Blakey's report said:

"It is my opinion that the Amway business is run in a manner that is parallel to that of major organized crime groups, in particular the Mafia. The structure and function of major organized crime groups, generally consisting of associated enterprises engaging in patterns of legal and illegal activity, was the prototype forming the basis for federal and state racketeering legislation that I have been involved in drafting. The same structure and function, with associated enterprises engaging in patterns of legal and illegal activity, is found in the Amway business." 

Amway kingpins are introduced to new Amway recruits with exalted titles like "Ambassador."  These names are called 'pin' levels that provide aspiring Amway believers are taught to aspire to become and emulate.  The majority of 'kingpins' were early adopters in the Amway pyramid system and reside near the top of the organization.  Their wealth and monetary success are paraded in front of the distributors as proof that one can become wealthy if the Amway 'system' is followed.  The kingpins supposedly sell the 'secrets' of success to their 'down-line' Trappings of wealth serves as the "bait" for starry eyed 'newbie' distributors who have been told that they can also rise to the top of the Amway pyramid. Visions of money, palatial estates, and luxury automobiles inspire the flock to 'slave' under Amway's totalitarian system. New distributors are taught that success in Quixtar comes from profits generated in selling and recruiting a never ending chain of new distributors who will share some of their profits with their 'upline.'

The dirty little secret of the Amway Cult is that the sale of product does not provide the spectacular wealth of those at the top of the pyramid, but it is the sale of the secrets of success: the Amway tools.

Distributors in the Amway business soon realize that the sale of Amway products is difficult and realize that recruitment is the road to the promised treasure.  Therefore, they spend most of their time trying to recruit new distributors into their business where an 'annoying' invite to prospects is made and where the plan is 'sprung' on the prospects. Believers are strongly urged on by the training materials and their up-line superiors.

Amway distributors strive to build a down-line business and new recruits are encouraged to buy the tools and attend every 'function' as the 'key' to become the next Amway success story. The 'tool kingpins' smile all the way to the bank with their tool profits.

In times past, distributors were told that the tools were sold at or near cost and that success in the business came from Amway--not from tool sales. The 2004 Dateline expose on Quixtar (Amway) corruption exposed the dirty little secret of the Amway cult. Although Amway/Quixtar has denied these allegations ever since, the truth has been an open secret.  Not all distributors are fooled by the Amway propaganda machine and have fostered some many a disgruntled, angry distributor which lead to a revolt.

The tool kingpins operate a bait and switch operation; their tool sales benefit by high distributor turn over that the high cost of following the Amway 'system' requires. New distributors represent a cash cow to the kingpins, as the older distributors require less training. The hopeful new distributors  come into the business and are driven like cattle through the "money making machine." Very quickly these treasure inspired believers begin shelling out their own treasure and find themselves in a catch 22.  Like "Simple Simons" they buy the Secrets, attend seminars and rallies and absorb all the 'over-head.' Eventually,  expenditures, unfulfilled expectations, and disillusionment bring their Amway dream to an end. As proof of this, many of these Amway business failures put their accumulated books, cds, videos, materials and unsold inventory up for sale on web auction sites like Ebay at incredible discount . Many times these tools receive no bids, go unsold and remain relatively worthless!

The up-line distributor, in anguish, must now recruit more down-line to replace those that quit. Remember, his goal is to retain new distributors who will help him become profitable by buying products. An distributor constantly must struggle, expend more time and money in search of replacements.  He becomes like a man trying to run up a down escalator: two steps up and one step down; one step up and two steps down! His continued efforts hardly benefits him at all while at the same time it produces a steady stream of new distributors that will for a while buy tools from the kingpins. There are three distinct groups of people in the Amway/Quixtar business, the company owners, the tool kingpins, and the body of every day distributors. The first two groups benefit and prosper from the business while the last group of distributors do all the recruiting, buy the products, and also buy all the tools.

People struggling to succeed in Amway have little time to spend with their family and suffer social stigma. Family and friends become 'disconnected'.  Married distributors are forced to place children in the care of relatives or babysitters.   Marital discourse may arise. Uplines constantly make demands to buy product, tools and to 'show the plan.'  Success in Amway usually ends up not it fulfilled dreams, but in broken ones.  They have been taught that failure is caused by not working hard enough and for not following the system.  It is system that many times the cause of their failure.  99% of those joining Amway never show a profit.

Just How Absurd and Dangerous is 'Amway?'

...by QCI contributing author, David Brear:

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‘A lie can be half-way round the world before the truth has got its boots on.’


James Callaghan (1912-2005)

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Readers who are unfortunate enough to have come into contact with ‘Amway’s’ handful of fanatical Internet apologists know that their devious motto is:


Always attack, never defend!


At the same time, these financially-illiterate sophists (led by David Steadson a.k.a. ‘ibofightback’ a.k.a.‘Insider’ etc.) invert reality by excluding all quantifiable evidence to the contrary whilst steadfastly pretending that the ‘Amway Business’ is an innocent victim under attack from outrageous lies spread by a jealous minority of violently anti-capitalist lunatics who know nothing whatsoever about commerce. In support of this typically-paranoid totalitarian fantasy, the apologists (who pose as independent) sneer arrogantly and wield reams of ‘statistics’ the origin of which can only be ‘Amway’s’ own bleating flock of reality-inverting apparatchiks. However, on closer inspection, this mystifying material turns out to be so absurd, that it almost beggars belief that anyone (outside the most-deluded of ‘Amway’s’unquestioning adherents) can fall for it.


For decades, the ‘Amway’ Ministry of Truth has proudly proclaimed millions of ‘Independent Business Owners’ conducting billions of dollars of ‘Sales’ in dozens of countries. Yet, given the accepted, average annual drop-out rate (approximately 50%), it is possible to extrapolate that, in the adult world of quantifiable reality, tens of millions of aspiring ‘Amway Distributors’ have vanished down the years, to be replaced by an endless chain of wide-eyed would-be millionaires. Only a 1-2% core-group of claimed adherents have remained bedazzled for periods exceeding 5 years and, in the end, even they have abandoned all (false) hope of achieving future redemption in the (non-existent) ‘Amway’ Utopia. Informed readers will notice the remarkable similarity between this ridiculous, self-inflating ‘Amway’ propaganda and that of ‘Scientology.’ Tellingly, the parent ‘Amway Corp.’(including its ever-expanding labyrinth of subsidiaries) has never voluntarily released any accurate, verifiable information as to what percentage of the organization’s (apparently impressive) global market has comprised authentic retail transactions (i.e. sales to persons who are not transient players of the ‘Amway’ game of make-believe). Sadly, it’s not just the ‘Amway’ faithful who have swallowed these sugar-coated lies. Despite having once paid a total of C$70 millions to avoid extradition and imprisonment for perpetrating the largest tax-fraud in Canadian legal history, the co-authors of the ‘Amway’ myth, Richard (‘Rich’) Marvin De Vos (b. March 4th. 1926) and Jay Van Andel (b. June 3rd. 1924. d. December 7th. 2004), and latterly their heirs, have been fêted as philanthropic billionaire-industrialists and exemplary Christian conservatives by an alarming number of casual observers in the international media and political, legal and religious establishment.


Back in the 1970s, when subjected to long-winded investigation by agents of the Federal Trade Commission (who had apparently twigged that the ‘Amway’ myth is a far too good to be true), it was discovered that ‘Amway’s’so-called ‘Multilevel Marketing Scheme’ was, in fact, strangely familiar. Exactly like its Soviet namesake,‘Amway’s’ own ‘Policy Board’/ Politburo (comprising members of the De Vos and Van Andel clans) held absolute control over the means of production, distribution and exchange. FTC agents also discovered that the price and quality of the ‘exclusive’ products being exchanged within ‘Amway’s’ Soviet-style command economy, were maintained in such a way as to render them (effectively) unsaleable on the open market. Contrary to what‘Amway’s’ own reality-inverting apparatchiks and propaganda constantly repeated, the organization’s grinning proselytisers were about as far removed from being ‘Independent Business Owners’ as it was possible to get. They were de facto slave-recruiters indoctrinated unconsciously to accept the following fiction as fact and to exclude all free-thinking individuals and quantifiable evidence challenging its authenticity:


You can buy ‘Amway’ products at a ‘wholesale price’ and then ‘retail’ them to your social contacts at ‘30% profit.’ This ‘short-term strategy’ is fine for some, but, in the end, it’s a ‘waste of time.’ If you are really serious about making big money, there’s ‘no need to sell anything.’ You can ‘Follow a Proven, 2-5 year Business-Building Plan’ and consume a regular quantity of ‘Money-Saving Products’ yourself whilst offering your friends and relations a ‘Helping Hand’ by bringing them onboard. In turn, your recruits can ‘Duplicate Exactly the same Plan’ and consume a regular quantity of ‘Money-Saving Products’ themselves whilst ‘Helping’ their own social contacts to do the same, etc… as ‘Amway’ undertakes to pay its ‘Distributors’ a escalating percentage commission on the totality of their monthly ‘Business Volume’ and on that of their recruits, and on that of the recruits of their recruits, etc… if the ‘Business Building Plan’ is ‘Followed’ correctly, payments automatically multiply in an infinitely-expanding geometric progression. The more people you ‘Help:’ the more money you earn!


In simple terms, vulnerable Americans (who, for whatever personal reasons, needed to believe in the self-perpetuating and self-gratifying ‘Amway’ myth of ‘total financial freedom in 2-5 years’), were actually being peddled infinite shares in what could only be their own finite dollars. Since the centrally-controlled ‘Amway’ market was deliberately designed to produce no real external revenue, no matter how the cash in that hermetic system was divided by its all-powerful treasurers, it was a mathematical impossibility for the overwhelming majority of its powerless participants to receive a profit. The whole of ‘Amway’s’ fiercely complex ‘Compensation Plan’ was, therefore, nothing more than thought-stopping hocus-pocus, but the po-faced agents at the FTC apparently never fully-grasped how the trick was pulled.


Consequently, after 10 years of less-than-intellectually-rigorous FTC enquiries and hearings, ‘Amway’ was merely fined a derisory sum for ‘price-fixing,’ and its greedy rulers were not only allowed to keep their counterfeit company registered in the USA, but also to expand their counterfeit commercial activities overseas. This was because their attorneys steadfastly pretended affinity with the federal regulators and drafted a ‘rule’ which appeared to oblige ‘Amway’ agents to sell-on at least 70% of their own purchases to non-agents before they could qualify to receive commission payments. Interestingly, the US regulators can’t have been completely duped by this devious tactic, because they also compelled ‘Amway’s’ corporate officers to publish accurate and verifiable information about the actual derisory average levels of commission payments. Obviously, this part-regulation only applied in the USA (where ‘Amway’ recruitment took such a dramatic nose-dive that it eventually had to become ‘Quixtar’), whilst all the subsequent evidence proves that the ‘70% rule’ might as well not exist, because, unbelievably, the FTC omitted to introduce any independent instrument to enforce it, or to warn the regulatory authorities internationally of what had really been occurring in the USA. Thus, when ‘Amway’s’ counterfeit commercial activities were recently investigated in the UK, it was discovered that (just as in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s) the organization’s so-called ‘Multilevel Marketing Scheme’ was, in fact, still a ‘Soviet’-style command economy (centrally-controlled by the ‘Amway’ Politburo in the USA), and that the price and quality of the products being exchanged within it, were maintained in such a way as to render them (effectively) unsaleable on the open market. Approximately 96% (and possibly even more) of all ‘Amway UK’s’ claimed ‘Sales,’ were a puerile fiction. Over a period of 35 years, the secret, rolling failure-rate for powerless participants in the premeditated ‘Amway’ closed-market in the UK was (effectively) 100%. Yet again, contrary to what‘Amway’s’ reality-inverting apparatchiks and propaganda constantly repeated, vulnerable British citizens were being peddled the same old Utopian fiction as fact. They were also being indoctrinated to exclude all free-thinking individuals and quantifiable evidence challenging its authenticity.


Mysteriously, senior civil servants in Britain’s Ministry for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (who, off the record, freely-accept that it is impossible to make money in ‘Amway’ and that its core-adherents are brainwashed pawns) chose only to challenge ‘Amway UK’ in the civil courts, rather than try to trigger a diplomatically-embarrassing, international criminal enquiry. However, Lawyers acting for the UK government, like their American counterparts, again failed to explain to both the UK High Court and the UK Appeal Court that, without external revenue (due to the deliberately banal quality and exorbitant pricing of products) ‘Amway’s’ so called ‘Business Model’ is fundamentally fraudulent and that the so-called ‘Compensation Plan’ is utter nonsense. This time, ‘Amway UK’ escaped closure by announcing the expulsion a couple of over-zealous ‘Diamond Distributors’ (including Jerry Scriven) as well as steadfastly pretending innocence and by promising to reform its future activities. However, the counterfeit company is now obliged to publish accurate and verifiable information about the actual, derisory, average levels of commission payments, and its current claimed ‘Distributor’ numbers have dropped to an almost insignificant level.


Unbeknown to the UK High Court and Appeal Court, the identical closed-market swindle was uncovered in France in the mid-1980s; when a minority of confused former ‘Amway’ core-adherents approached consumer, and cult, advice associations complaining of massive financial losses and dissociation from their friends and families. At that time, ‘Amway’ dodged official investigation in France by announcing the expulsion of an over-zealous ‘Diamond Distributor,’ Jean Godzich, and around 80 other over-zealous ‘Distributors,’ for breaking the ‘Amway Code of Ethics.’ The company then steadfastly pretended innocence and promised to reform its future activities, but its claimed numbers of ‘Distributors’ fell from ‘90 000’ to less than ‘5000.’ Godzich went on to operate the identical close-market swindle, complete with (effectively) unsaleable products and a ‘Code of Ethics,’ using a mystifying labyrinth of corporate structures labelled, ‘le Groupement,’ before his re-branded, counterfeit commercial activities were challenged.


In the early 1990s, a complaint was filed against ‘le Groupement’ by a government-funded, French, cult advice group, ‘UNADFI’ (National Union of Associations for the Defence of the Family and the Individual), in conjunction with a consumer advice association, the Women’s Social and Civic Union, on behalf of around 300 destitute former core-adherents. This led to a police enquiry. A French parliamentary report soon revealed that more telephone enquiries (almost 1000 per year) were being made to UNADFI about ‘le Groupement,’ than about ‘Scientology.’ Godzich and 12 associates steadfastly protested their innocence, but they were eventually charged with operating a pyramid scam. In the mean time, the counterfeit company was successfully sued in the civil courts by its victims, but its declared assets were insufficient to pay its debts. ‘Groupement’ was bankrupted and compulsorily wound-up in 1995. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Jean Godzich, but he had already escaped to the USA with a large amount of cash. At this time, approximately 1500 deeply-deluded core-adherents picketed the offices of UNADFI in Paris. The building was occupied, files stolen and a senior UNADFI volunteer, Mathieu Cossu, was held prisoner for several hours and obliged to make a video statement that ‘le Groupement was not a cult.’ Prior to this Jean Godzich had tried to give UNADFI a donation one million French francs (approximately 160 000 Euros). When this blatant bribe was refused, Jean Godzich financed the creation of an (apparently independent) ‘anti-mental manipulation association.’ It was generally believed by paranoid core-adherents that Groupement was the victim of an anti-capitalist conspiracy and that UNADFI was a form of extreme-socialist cult itself.


Some of the other tactics used by Godzich to try to maintain his absolute monopoly of information in France were classics of a cultic movement. A code of silence was introduced along with an internal system of dispute resolution to discourage more dissidents from coming forward. Malicious lawsuits were filed against all external critics in which Godzich posed as victim. Traditional culture was infiltrated via gifts to charity, sponsorship of sport, etc.


The criminal case against Jean Godzich (in absentia) and his associates, didn’t come to trial until the Summer of 2000. At this time, no evidence was presented by the prosecution relating to the much larger ‘advanced fee fraud’ hiding behind ‘le Groupement,’ and the pyramid fraud charge was dropped on technicalities. Amazingly, French law recognizes counterfeit ‘investment schemes’ (or Ponzi schemes) without external revenue or profits to divide, but it does not yet accept that counterfeit ‘marketing schemes’ without external revenue or profits to divide are just a more-sustainable variation of essentially the same crime. However, in January 2007, Jean Godzich received a custodial prison sentence (by default) of 3 years from the Correctional Tribunal of Evreux (Dept. of Eure, Normandy), for illegally transferring around 6 millions Euros of his French-registered company’s social funds to the USA (prior to its compulsory closure in 1995). An international arrest warrant was issued for Godzich (a citizen of both France and the USA) and he was given an additional fine of 500 000 Euros for failing to turn up for his trial in October 2006. Three of his former associates were given suspended prison sentences ranging from 8 months to 2 years along with fines ranging from 10 000 to 80 000 Euros.


At this point, I should like to mention former White House Adviser (on the ‘Religious Right’ to the Bush administration), Doug Wead, who has recently found it necessary to post reality-inverting material on one of his own propaganda Blogs, in which he begins to refer to the Godzich/‘Groupement’ affair, but, tellingly, not by name. In fact, Wead’s propaganda (like that of ‘Amway’s’ instigators) is far more interesting from the point of view of what is excluded rather than what is included. That said, Wead casually acknowledges that he was once an ‘Amway Diamond Distributor’ and that he remains a ‘friend’ of Dexter Yager. However, he steadfastly pretends to be an innocent victim under attack from lies posted by ‘Amway critics’ on the Net. Apparently, it has been suggested (by certain ‘critics’) that Wead helped set up ‘Amway’ and then ‘le Groupement’ in France, and that a warrant was issued for his arrest in France. I should like to set the record straight. Although it is true to say that Wead’s name never appeared on any of the incorporation documents of the counterfeit companies that comprised the French chapter of the ‘Amway/Groupement’ myth, his name did feature on countless books, magazines and recordings sold to hundreds of thousands of ‘Amway’ and ‘Groupement’ victims in France (first during the 1980s and then during the 1990s). He even co-authored books with Dexter Yager and Jean Godzich. Wead was also a regular paid-speaker at ‘Groupement’ mass-rallies. Wead was undoubtedly a major beneficiary of a conspiracy to commit, and occult, an ‘advanced fee fraud’ using a mystifying labyrinth of ever-expanding and changing (apparently independent) corporate structures designed to prevent, and/or divert, investigation and isolate beneficiaries like himself from liability. Just as in the UK, it was Wead’s acknowledged ‘friend,’ Dexter Yager, who received the lion’s share of the illicit cash. Whether, he was the final beneficiary, is still a matter of conjecture. Yager led the ‘Amway Network’ of which Godzich and Wead were members. Yager continued to supply the identical books and recordings to Godzich, even after he’d been publicly expelled from ‘Amway France.’ These fraudulent materials were French translations produced by Canadian companies controlled by Yager. In the mid-1990s, French network television journalists traced Jean Godzich to Phoenix Arizona, where they discovered that he and Wead shared an office and that they were both regular ‘Prosperity Gospel Preachers’ at the ‘First Assembly of God.’ During a 10 year period, thousands of deluded core-‘Groupement’ adherents had been peddled grossly-over-priced tickets to visit Phoenix via a Belgian-registered travel agency owned (on paper) by Godzich and his (then) wife. These individuals had received full-immersion baptism into the ‘First Assembly of God’ from Jean Godzich’s brother, Pastor Leo Mark Godzich. The sinister ceremonies were caught on film by hidden cameras, but (when interviewed by a French television journalist) Godzich steadfastly denied their existence.


Given their track records, one would have to be pretty naïve, and/or dim, to believe anything that Messrs. Yager, Godzich or Wead has to say on any subject, let alone ‘Multilevel Marketing.’ Interestingly, Wead now claims to have long-since retired from ‘Amway’ to become a ‘best-selling author and American historian; However, if by ‘historian,’ Wead means someone who is concerned to discover the truth about the past and to give as accurate a representation of it as possible, then, in respect of ‘Amway,’ he is not a historian. However, Wead is not just another pathetic little narcissist (like David Steadson), steadfastly denying the ‘Amway’ financial holocaust - he’s one of the shameless racketeers responsible for it.


As stated in a previous article, two High Court Judges in the world’s largest democracy have already deduced that what purports to be the ‘World’s Largest Direct Selling Company,’ is actually a global fraud. Exactly the same alarming evidence has been uncovered in India as was found in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s, in France in the 1980s and 1990s and in the UK at the beginning of the 21st. century. Confused Indian victims have come forward to complain of massive financial losses coupled with dissociation from friends and family. However, on this occasion, although all the usual devious tactics are being pursued by the corporate officers of ‘Amway India Enterprises’, and their aggressive echelon of attorneys, in a desperate attempt to maintain their paymasters’ absolute monopoly of information (including the issuing of two malicious, High Court writs to block a police investigation), Chief Justice C.S. Singhvi, and Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy, of the High Court of Judicature, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, have concluded that ‘Amway’s’ so-called ‘Multilevel Marketing Scheme’ is in breach of well-conceived, Indian legislation (dating from the 1970s) which bans all ‘money circulation schemes,’ no matter how ingeniously they are disguised. The High Court has ordered that the Hyderabad Criminal Investigation Dept. should be allowed to continue to follow whatever procedures are permitted by Indian law to hold the corporate officers of ‘Amway India Enterprises’ to account.


Currently (just as in Britain and France in the recent past), the sanctimonious little gang of Bible-thumping, US-based charlatans behind the ‘Amway’ myth remain out of reach of the Indian authorities. It is to be hoped that the new Obama administration will not permit this pernicious international racket to continue for much longer.



Copyright David Brear April 2009

The World's Largest Automobile Factory Was A Fraud

(Originally posted on Quixtar Cult Intervention on February 22, 2009)

...by QCI contributing guide to the Amway Labyrinth, David Brear:



_____________

‘If you tell a big enough lie and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.
Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945)

______________

When I first began to examine the disturbing, ritual images (clean-cut, heterosexual couples with perfect smiles and perfect children, posing beside their shiny new ‘Dream’: cars, houses, pools, boats, etc.), which have been used to keep the vulnerable and unwary swallowing the ‘Amway’ myth, I was struck by the frightening similarity between this kitsch, Utopian propaganda and the sugary pictures once used to coat another poisonous lie. According to the ‘Amway’ myth: everyone, no matter what their class, profession or property can become the owner of an ‘Independent Business’ which (only through effort and unquestioning belief) has been proven to bring ‘Total Financial Freedom in 2-5 years.’ On closer inspection, this ambiguous fairytale turns out to have been adapted from a very specific, and revealing, pattern. In unambiguous terms, according to the same closed-logic of the movement’s controlling scenario: everyone who fails to achieve economic redemption in ‘Amway’, has only himself/herself to blame. Unfortunately (over a period spanning 6 decades), a veritable mountain of quantifiable evidence has proved the so-called ‘Amway Business Opportunity’ to be nothing more than a premeditated, closed-market swindle shielded by (effectively) unsaleable products and mystifying mathematics. The plain truth of the matter is that, behind all the reality-inverting ‘Amway’ propaganda, lurks a self-perpetuating, self-gratifying and progressively-more-expensive-to-play game of make-believe which has been rigged so that no one can win, except the sanctimonious little gang of charlatans who set it up. However, this soul-destroying, totalitarian racket is neither original nor unique. Therefore, it cannot be fully-understood in isolation.

Immediately after usurping absolute power in Germany, Adolf Hitler declared that ‘May 1st 1933’ would be the first ‘National Labour Day.’ Since the end of the 19th century, May Day had been the workers’ festival in Germany and many other European countries. Although the event was traditionally marked with mass-parades of trade-unionists, Socialists and Communists, Hitler now made a typically ambiguous promise - ‘National Labour Day would be celebrated as never before.’ During the final days of April 1933, the leaders of Germany’s trade-unions (agricultural and industrial), along with large delegations of workers, were summoned to Berlin. To give them the illusion that they were making a free-choice, many were offered airline, and train, tickets and accommodation, whilst (for the benefit of the totally positive ‘Nazi’ news-reels) a select few were welcomed at the Chancellery by a smiling ‘Führer’ with beer and sausages. On May 1st, Hitler gave one of his mesmerizing performances in front of an audience of over 100 000 cheering workers at Berlin’s Tempelhof airfield. His reality-inverting script was entitled: ‘Honour Work and Respect the Worker.’ The following morning, every German trade-union office was overrun by hordes of heavily armed ‘Nazi’ agents. At a stroke, all unions were demolished to make way for Hitler’s ‘National Socialist’ Utopia. Union funds were seized and democratically-elected union leaders captured en-mass, beaten-up and packed-off to ‘concentration camps.’ Hitler’s main partner in setting this treacherous trap was one of his most-obsequious acolytes, Dr. Robert Ley (1890-1945). Ironically, in German, Ley is pronounced ‘Lie’.


Robert Ley was born in rural Westphalia. He was the 7th child of 11 children in a family of poor peasant farmers. As a youth, he had escaped his humble origins and attended the Universities of Jena and Bonn to study chemistry. At the outbreak of WWI, Ley (aged 24) was one of the first to volunteer to go to the Western Front. After 2 years in the artillery, he then volunteered to become a pilot, but in the summer of 1917 he was shot down and taken prisoner. It is generally believed that Ley (who returned home with an incurable speech impediment) suffered brain damage when his aeroplane crashed. Despite gaining a shameful reputation as an overbearing, and vindictive, lecher, drunkard and bully, in 1920, Ley received a Doctorate in chemistry from the University of Westphalia. He went on to work as a food chemist for an arm of the I. G. Farben Chemical company in Leverkusen in the Ruhr. However, he couldn’t live with the fact that the Treaty of Versailles had awarded this region to the French. Thus, in 1924, Ley turned to extreme nationalism. When he lost his job (because of his drinking), he became a full-time ‘Nazi’ proselytizer. With his respectable academic title, Ley was welcomed into the fledgling movement with open arms. He immediately found himself in a position of power in a organization presented externally as a ‘political party’, but which internally was totalitarian (i.e. it was centrally-controlled and required of its core-adherents an absolute subservience to the group and its patriarchal leadership above all other persons). ‘Nazi’ recruiters generally targeted alienated veterans. They could be more-easily persuaded to buy into the self-gratifying delusion that Germany and Austria hadn’t lost WWI militarily…. The ‘Aryan race’ had been betrayed and forced to surrender in 1918, by industrial strikes which crippled arms production and supply…. These strikes were instigated by trade union leaders who were the agents of an evil international Communist/Freemasonic conspiracy controlled by sub-human Jews. In 1925, Hitler appointed Robert Ley ‘Gauleiter of the Southern Rhineland.’ He was subsequently appointed ‘Reichsorganizationsleiter’ (‘party organization chief’) and elected to the Reichstag. The celebrated American journalist and author, William L. Shirer (1904-1993), who met Ley on numerous occasions, described him as:

‘repulsive… tough, excitable, vulgar - a brawling roughneck. He seemed to me to have the instability, the sense of insecurity, that was common to most of the men around Hitler.’

Before the end of 1934 (as part of Hitler’s secret plan to tear up the Treaty of Versailles to reignite, and win, WWI), the defunct German unions were replaced by a single corporate structure. This was headed by Ley (who could not be held to account by his membership), presented externally as a non- profit-making association protecting the rights of all workers and arbitrarily defined by the ‘Nazi’ leadership as the ‘Deutsche Arbeitfront’ or ‘German Labour Front’ (‘DAF’). Over 25 millions workers, business owners and professionals were effectively forced to join - no one could legally work in the ‘Nazi’ Utopia without a ‘DAF Work Book.’ In reality, this document was part of a vast intelligence-gathering operation. At the same time, ‘Nazi’ labour-laws took away workers’ rights and reduced them to the position of serfs in a latter-day feudal system. As German employers were given the right to retain ‘DAF Work Books,’ employees were (effectively) barred from changing jobs. Collective bargaining was ended and strikes were outlawed. Powerless German workers could now be allotted an increasingly smaller share of the national income (i.e. the cost of living increased, but wages were frozen). Eventually, most were obliged to live at little better than subsistence level. By 1939, the total annual figure being systematically extracted from ‘DAF’ members in ‘dues’ has been estimated to have exceeded 1 billion Reichsmarks (about $200 millions). The ‘DAF’ had 7000 employees, but it relied on 135 000 ‘volunteers.’ In this way, the ‘Nazi’ leadership eventually acquired absolute control over a capital sum estimated at 5 billions Reichsmarks (about $1 billion).

In order to distract the population from reality, the ‘Nazi’ leadership created a parallel corporate structure, ‘Kraft durch Freude’ (‘Strength Through Joy’ ) or ‘KdF’ — a non-profit-making association providing a range of benefits and amenities for the German working-classes and their families. In 1937, this organization received 29 millions Reichsmarks from the ‘DAF.’ Obviously, this was mostly the workers’ own money. An avalanche of thought-stopping words and images was used to maintain the illusion that redemption was on hand. Concerts, operas, art exhibitions, etc. were organized. Many workers were given ‘free’ gymnastics and football training, whilst others received access to previously exclusive sports (golf, tennis, sailing, etc.). A number of gigantic ‘classless holiday-camps,’ etc., were also constructed. These gained prizes in international, architectural competitions. Hundreds of beach, lake and ski resorts were requisitioned along with ten ocean liners to take German workers on Atlantic, Baltic and Mediterranean cruises. The ‘Nazi’ Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, focused everyone’s attention on what were described as ‘the world’s first, purpose-built, classless cruise-liners,’ the ‘Wilhelm Gustloff’ and the ‘Robert Ley.’ The launch of the 25 000 ton ‘Wilhelm Gustloff’


in Hamburg on May 5th 1937, was an international event attended by tens of thousands of bedazzled believers along with a flock of bleating propagandists. ‘Nazi’ news-reels, newspapers, brochures, magazines, posters, etc., all reflected the same ritual images of prosperous workers and their happy families enjoying the pure air and freedom of the high seas onboard their dream boats. For a short period, ‘KdF’ was the largest travel agency in the world. The holidays it supplied, although Spartan and tightly regimented, were amazingly cheap. Meanwhile, the ‘Nazi’ leadership was free to embezzle huge amounts of workers’ cash from the ‘DAF.’ Robert Ley gave himself an enormous salary. As well as private railway carriage, a fleet of luxury cars and villas in a number of cities, Ley bought himself a country estate near to Cologne and began hoarding art and antiques. His drinking, womanizing and boasting now knew no bounds.


In February 1933, whilst attending the Berlin Motor Show,


Hitler had made another ambiguous promise: Only 1 in 50 men owned an automobile in Germany, compared with 1 in 5 in America.… every German would, therefore, be given the opportunity to own a car… these would be sold for less than 1000 Reichsmarks (the cost of a motorcycle at that time) and make no profits. Although most free-thinking observers recognised this as being impossible (the cheapest, German-produced car on the open-market was 1 500 Reichsmarks), over the next few years ‘Nazi’ propagandists elaborated the ‘Volkswagen’ or ‘People’s Car’ lie until the truth became almost unthinkable. Obviously, many oppressed workers needed to believe in the ‘People’s Car,’ and the concept had existed prior to the Hitler usurping power. As early as 1927, the renowned Austrian automotive engineer, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951),


published a series of sketches of a proposed, lightweight, low-maintenance, rear-engine, family vehicle, capable of 100 kph. By the early 1930s, some prototypes had been built to his designs; first by Zündapp (whose directors withdrew because of problems with the 3 cylinder water-cooled engine), then by NSU (whose engineers introduced a revolutionary torsion suspension and a flat 4 cylinder, air-cooled engine, but whose directors withdrew because of the depressed economic climate). At this time, Ferdinand Porsche seems to have been deliberately targeted by the ‘Nazi’ leadership. All alone and with his design company on the verge of liquidation, he was encouraged to request a meeting with the ‘Führer’ himself. Porsche was easily seduced. In 1934, he signed a government contract containing the following terms:

1). 3 prototype cars had to be available within 10 months.
2). They had to have a carrying capacity of 4 adults, or 2 adults and 3 children,
or 3 soldiers and a machine gun.
3). They had to be able to cruise at 100 kph.
4). Average fuel consumption had to be no more than 8 litres per 100 km.
5). The engine had to be air-cooled.
6). The retail price had to be less than 1000 Reichmarks.

Hitler was completely unqualified to design a car. He couldn’t even drive, but, for obvious reasons, Porsche felt obliged to play along with the story that the ‘People’s Car’ was originally the Führer’s own concept. At the same time, the ‘Nazi’ regime massively expanded the construction of the high-speed, Autobahn, road system. Again, this project (although touted as the part of the ‘Führer’s great vision to free the masses and unify the Reich’), had existed (albeit in a reduced form) prior to Hitler usurping power.

Predictably, Porsche’s design company, in reluctant partnership with the ‘German Auto Manufacturers Association’ (RDA), found it (effectively) impossible to remain within the 1000 Reichsmarks price limit. The 3 prototypes didn’t appear until 1936; thus, missing the 10 month deadline. The Porsche company and the RDA were in breach of contract, so the project could be conveniently restructured under the banner of a further off-shoot of the ‘DAF’, ‘Gesellschaft Zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagen’ or ‘German People’s Car Planning Group Inc.’ (‘GeZuVor. GmbH.’). The ‘Nazi’ propaganda machine went into overdrive - 300 millions marks of accumulated ‘DAF’ funds would be committed to building the ‘Largest Automobile Factory in the World’, it would employ 70 000 people and be capable of producing ‘1.5 millions vehicles a year; Greater Capacity than Ford.’ Daimler-Benz was subcontracted to build 30 test-vehicles. In 1937, the Stuttgart coachbuilders, Reutter, delivered 30 exhibition prototypes in the form of saloons, drop-head coupés and open-tourers. Meanwhile, the workers’ ‘DAF’ money financed a team of architects and engineers (some of whom had been recruited from Ford in the USA) to plan the construction of a vast Utopian factory/metropolis. On May 26th 1938, Hitler laid the cornerstone at the little town of Fallersberlen (birthplace of Heinrich Hoffman, the composer of ‘Deutschland uber Alles’). A flock of around 150 ‘Nazi’ propagandists were in attendance along with a claimed 70 000 people. A smiling ‘Führer’ was filmed in the passenger seat of an open-tourer mobbed by his deluded admirers.


To wild cheering and thunderous applause, Hitler proudly declared that his new car would be called the ‘KdF-Wagen,’ and his new factory/metropolis, ‘KdF-Stadt.’
In reality, this carefully stage-managed event was just a cruel charade, because (whilst it remained in ‘Nazi’ hands) the ‘People’s Car’ was the bait in one of the most-devious advance-fee frauds in history. The switch soon appeared — a counterfeit direct sales scheme or ‘savings plan’ instigated and controlled by the ‘Nazi’ leadership. At this time, there were about 75 exhibition prototypes in existence and they were constantly being shipped around to fairs and festivals all over Germany. Millions of convincing brochures and magazines were circulated. These featured strangely-familiar, ritual images of prosperous workers and their smiling families enjoying the pure air and freedom of the open road in their dream cars. Similar posters appeared in factories and public places.

‘Strength Through Joy announcement (August 2nd. 1938)’

1. ‘Each German, no matter what their class, profession or property can become the buyer of a People’s Car’.
2. ‘The minimum weekly payment, including insurance, will be 5 marks. Regular payment of this sum will guarantee, after a period which is yet to be determined, the acquisition of a People’s Car’.
3. ‘Application for the People’s Car savings plan can be made at any DAF or KdF office, where further details can also be obtained. Factories and shops can submit collective orders’.

‘A People’s Car for every German — let that be our goal. That is what we want to achieve. Will all of you help in that; it shall be our way of saying thank-you to the Führer’;

During the latter months of 1938, masses of Germans felt obliged to apply for the ‘savings plan;’


no one was refused. The propaganda steadfastly pretended that 10 millions Germans would have a car by 1948. The authenticity of this fairytale could not be challenged in the totally positive world according to Hitler. However, the same fiction was widely-reported as fact internationally which, sadly, made it appear even more convincing. In this way, the ‘Nazi Propaganda Minister’ easily maintained an absolute monopoly of information. In reality, many Germans never actually began to pay for their ‘KdF Wagens’ whilst a huge percentage soon dropped-out, simply because the average worker had barely enough money to survive. It was then announced that, after 3 years, ‘regular savers’ would receive a ‘priority contract’ guaranteeing a ‘KdF-Wagen (subject to availability)’… production would ‘begin in September 1939.’ In the spring of 1939, Robert Ley gave a typically sanctimonious speech:

“Our God is the wonderful Law of Creation whose amazing unity of all things shows itself in wonderful flowers, in growing trees, in new born children, in the secrets of a mother, in the growth of our people, in work and accomplishment and creation, in life itself. It is joy we have in everything. How beautiful everything is. Do you feel the same way? I am so happy to be alive. A priest recently asked me: ‘but what about eternity?’ I replied: ‘A day in National Socialist Germany is better for me than all your Heaven.”

At the start of September 1939, less than 350 000 unquestioning Germans were actually still struggling to make their payments, convinced that in 2 more years they would be driving down an Autobahn in a shiny new ‘KdF’ dream car. The propaganda soon claimed that 50 ‘KdF Wagens’ had already been delivered (albeit to ‘special customers’). Even if these had been available to regular ‘contract holders,’ then the odds against getting one would have been almost 7000/1. In reality, Hitler was busy ensuring that the fulfilment of his ‘KdF’ fantasies would be postponed indefinitely, because, at precisely this moment, his long-planned invasion of Poland (facilitated by the Autobahn system) forced the leaders of Britain and France to declare war on the ‘Third Reich.’ The ‘Nazi’ leadership immediately posed as innocent victims – the Fatherland was being attacked by the agents of an ‘evil international Jewish/Freemasonic conspiracy’…. To save the ‘Aryan race,’ ‘KdF-Stadt’ would have to be turned-over to armaments manufacture…. The classless cruise ships, ‘Robert Ley’ and the ‘Wilhelm Gustloff’ (which had already been requisitioned to bring ‘Nazi’ volunteers home from the Spanish Civil War), would have to turned-over to the navy. In this way, not one of Hitler’s ‘KdF’ offers was honoured and not one cent was refunded. The majority of victims couldn’t face the ego-destroying reality that their admired and respected ‘Führer’ had deliberately cheated them. Those who could were obliged to remain silent. All free-thinking individuals challenging the authenticity of the closed-logic ‘Nazi’ myth risked systematic categorization, exclusion and destruction as ‘Traitors.’

During the early 1940s, some 65 000 all-terrain and amphibious, ‘type 82’,


‘type 128’ and type ‘166’ military vehicles (converted from Porsche’s designs) were supplied to the German army. There was also a ‘type 87’ military saloon car for high-ranking ‘Nazi’ officers. By 1943, ‘KdF Stadt’ was principally fulfilling the secret military objective for which it had always been intended - an aircraft repair factory, safe from attack because it did not feature on most RAF maps. However, during 1945, production of the notorious ‘V1’ flying-bomb began at ‘KdF Stadt.’ More than 3500 of these hit London, and the factory became a priority target for the RAF and USAF. After the War, the remains of ‘KdF-Stadt’ and the ‘People’s Car’ project were discovered by a British army officer, Major Ivan Hirst.


He was looking for ideas to rebuild the German economy, but which wouldn’t threaten British jobs. Although several people, including Robert Ley and Ferdinand Porsche, were arrested as a war criminals (12 000 – 20 000 POWs had been forced to work as slaves at ‘KdF-Stadt’ and many deaths had resulted) the ‘Volkswagen Beetle’ eventually became a world-beating product. Porsche was held without indictment for 20 months in Dijon, whilst Ley hanged himself in Nuremberg before his trial. ‘KdF-Stadt’ was renamed Wolfsburg.

In 1961, after a protracted lawsuit, the surviving victims of the ‘People’s Car’ swindle were offered the choice of a cheque for 100 Deutche marks or a discount of 600 Deutche marks on a new ‘VW Beetle.’ Also in 1961, Volkswagen paid the Ringhoffer-Tatra group of Czechoslovakia 3 millions Deutsch marks. In the face of overwhelming evidence, members of the Porsche family accepted that a significant amount of the original ‘People’s Car’ design (particularly, the body styling, torsion suspension and rear-mounted air-cooled engine) was, in fact, copied by Ferdinand Porsche from the revolutionary designs of Professor Hans Ledwinka. These had been patented by Tatra in the early 1930s, and had featured on the ‘T97 Tatra’, first produced in 1936. Prior to WWII, although faced with a mystifying labyrinth of corporate structures which was deliberately designed to isolate the ‘Nazi’ leaders from liability, the directors of the Tatra company had filed a lawsuit against ‘KdF,’ but this automatically disappeared when Hitler’s forces rolled down his nice new Autobahns into Czechoslovakia.

In 1998, to avoid several immense lawsuits filed in the USA, Volkswagen set up a $12 millions private relief-fund to compensate the slaves whose misery had helped establish the corporation in world markets during the ‘Nazi’-era. Conveniently, by this time, only a few former-slaves remained alive.

As for Joseph Goebbels: In the spring of 1945 (as the Red Army approached Berlin), along with his wife, Magda, and 6 children,


he withdrew into the ‘Führerbunker.’ When Hitler shot himself on April 30th 1945, Goebbels was named as ‘Reich Chancellor’ in the ‘Führer’s’ will. The following day, Goebbels ordered an SS doctor, Helmut Kunz, to inject his 6 children with morphine and then break an ampoule of cyanide in each of their mouths. Kunz later claimed that Hitler’s own doctor and the children’s mother had actually administered the poison. About 15 minutes afterwards, Goebbels (probably) shot himself whilst his wife (probably) took cyanide. Their bodies (which were only partially burned due to a lack of petrol), were later identified by Vice Admiral Hans-Erich Voss.

Copyright David Brear 2008
(End)


'If you tell a big enough lie and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.'





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