Karl-Ludwig Barths

Who is Karl-Ludwig Barths?

Karl-Ludwig Barths was born in Kolbatz near Stettin. After completing secondary school he entered the Wehrmacht in 1937. After fighting in World War II and subsequent Soviet captivity, which he described in his 2007 book Jungmann. Erlebte und erzählte Episoden 1939-1949, he became an export/import apprentice in Hamburg. In 1953 he started working for Volkswagen, where he became responsible for the company's business in North America.

In 1963, Barths moved to Toronto in Canada where he was president of Volkswagen Canada Ltd. There, he also held the offices of a governor of the town's Central Hospital and director of the Toronto Symphony. In 1972, Barths moved to Wolfsburg in Germany where he was chairman of the Volkswagen Versicherungsdienst Gmbh until 1985, and president of the Deutsch-Kanadische Gesellschaft until 2000.