Yes, Henry Ford had an auto-manufacturing subsidiary in Germany before World War II and before Adolf Hitler came to power. [1, 2]
## Key Timeline and Details
* Early Operations (1925): Ford first established a commercial presence in Germany in 1925, initially operating an assembly plant in Berlin. [1, 2]
* Cologne Plant Construction (1929–1931):
* Following General Motors' acquisition of Opel in 1929, Henry Ford decided to build a large-scale manufacturing plant in Cologne, Germany.
* Henry Ford and Cologne Mayor Konrad Adenauer laid the foundation stone on October 2, 1930.
* The Berlin assembly operations closed in April 1931, and the first vehicle rolled off the new Cologne production line on May 4, 1931 (predating Hitler's appointment as Chancellor in January 1933). [2]
* Name Change (1939): The German subsidiary eventually became known as Ford-Werke AG in 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. [1]
[1] [https://www.adl.org](https://www.adl.org/resources/news/ford-motor-company-and-third-reich)
[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Germany)