As developed, the course will have four main themes: "The History

Channel part", the "Business Week part", the "Stodgy Econ part" and the "Get

Your Own part". 

The first part of the course will look at the company's development in a chronological fashion. This part will have a pronounced historical character starting from the establishment of the company, the goals of its inceptors and promoters, as well as the roles the company had to play in times of war and afterwards.

The second part will stay more on the business side.  The corporate structure of the conglomerate will be discussed by marques and the different strategies and market orientations will be presented.  The class will present information about the market share of the company on the global and the local levels. Inferences would be made into the future strategies of the conglomerate.

The third part of the class will deal most explicitly with the trends in the German economy after WWII. The so-called "German Miracle" will be articulated on the basis of the data presented in the two previous sections of the class.  A critique of the bloom of the economic revival and the current stagnation will be presented and the question will be asked what caused the German exception and why it does not seem to work anymore.  A worthwhile pursuit is the question whether the company's growth through technological innovation and expansion into new markets can cause another revival in the German economy.

The last and briefest section of the class will present useful data about buying or leasing a car, different approaches, financing options, as well as suggestions about the pros and cons to getting a new or used vehicle.  This will be an ideal topic for a VW or AUDI representative to be a guest speaker.  This presentation will explicitly be dissociated from commercial advertising.

Quizzes:

There will be 2 ten minute quizzes and one 20 minute Final exam for this class.  The quizzes will consist of 10 questions each and together will account for 40 % of the class grade.  The Final exam will consist of 30 questions and will constitute 60% of the grade.  Class participation will be encouraged but will be considered only for clarifying borderline grades and not as a mandatory part of the class grade.