of the Volkssturm, whose soldiers mostly kept in some kind of relationship with the factory. On 10 April 1945 he ordered his troops to withdraw towards the Elbe. Under the pretext of relocating the address of Volkswagenwerk GmbH to a safe place, he moved 10 million Reichsmark from Nejdek to Zell am See, where his family owned a farm. The money was supposed to be used for the relocation of a factory from Nejdek to Allgäu, but this never came to happen, and no funds ended up financing Porsche KG. After the war, due to the absence of a notice of dismissal, Piëch continued to serve as chief executive of Volkswagenwerk GmbH until November 1945. He used these final months to pay off bills of Porsche KG. At the request of the French Minister of Justice Pierre-Henri Teitgen, Piëch was arrested in late 1945 in Baden-Baden together with Ferdinand Porsche and Ferry Porsche, following an invitation from French Minister of Industrial Production Marcel Paul. They were accused of forcibly transferring French workers to Wolfsburg, and organizing the deportation of executives of Peugeot to Nazi concentration camps during the German occupation of France. They were also held responsible for dismantling and moving Peugeot equipment and tools to the VW factory. Piëch and Ferdinand Porsche spent 22 months in French prisons. Ferdinand Porsche was ultimately absolved of responsibility by testimony made in court by many witnesses. On 17 September 1948 in Bad Reichenhall, Piëch participated in the signing of the agreement between Volkswagenwerk GmbH (under the leadership of new CEO Heinrich Nordhoff) and Porsche Kommanditgesellschaft. As a result of the new treaty, Porsche was put in charge of the development activity of Volkswagen, as it occurred to date. Through license fees and representation rights paid by VW, financial foundation was laid for the new plant of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG. In 1950, Piëch was manager of the Porsche Konstruktionen-GmbH in Salzburg, which was founded on 1 April 1947 in Gmünd in Kärnten, and of the "Volkswagen General Agency" in Austria, located in Salzburg, which later would become the Porsche Holding, currently the majority shareholder of Volkswagen Group. On 29 August 1952, Anton Piëch died unexpectedly in Klagenfurt. His wife, Louise, became the director of business in Austria. He is buried in Zell am See. See also Porsche family References Bibliography 1894 births 1952 deaths Businesspeople from Vienna Austrian Nazi lawyers