"Before getting angry he said just one sentence: Attention, my cigar doesn't burn anymore."

(heresy from the staff of the engineering department)

"I wanted a higher salary, Mr. Borgward did not know me. So the conversation lasted just three seconds: Get out of here and do a good job before you come in again."

(technician)

"He could be pretty rough and heartily. Many years after his death his secretary told me that she had to put him on the usual payroll like any other staff member. He collected these salary "bags" and closed them into the safe. For Christmas he credited the amount to the saving accounts of his children."

(department head)

"He was very impatient, everything went too slowly. Once he looked over the shoulder of a staff member and said: "Mr. O. you should consider my advanced age."

(Engineer)

"I became acquainted with him when he was an old man with whom you could talk excellently. He appreciated good work. And he knew how to thank people. I never understood why he offered his business to those amateurs of the Senate of the City of Bremen."

(Head of the Press Department of Borgward)

"His typical gesture could have been the grip into his cigar box. He offered everybody a cigar, even the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Heuss, who was from Swabian origin and did'nt like this behaviour. During a visit on the IAA (International Automobile Exhibition) Heuss said to him: Listen, Mr. Borgward, I like your cars but not your cigars."

(Head of Marketing Department)