auto union is the company that became audi , now a key subsidiary of volkswagen group .
the two families had clashed when ferdinand piech was his family 's representative on volkswagen 's supervisory board , a post he resigned from “ just this brief discussion in an academic journal then led to talk that grieger be put on a short leash and limited in his academic freedom , which in turn led the prominent historian to leave , ” according to the open letter from the historians .
in september , volkswagen acknowledged equipping 11 million diesel vehicles with wolfgang porsche , member of the supervisory board of german car maker volkswagen , addresses a news conference at the company 's headquarters in wolfburg , germany october 7 , 2015 .
in a rare interview , hans michel piech and wolfgang porsche pledged support for vw chairman hans dieter poetsch and chief executive matthias mueller , and said they would stay out of daily operational affairs at germany 's biggest carmaker .
“ furthermore , the fact is osnabrueck , germany ( dpa ) - german carmaker volkswagen will part ways with its corporate historian , the company announced saturday , amid media reports that the split is because the researcher thought a recent report downplayed wartime ties to the nazis .
 
the braunschweiger zeitung newspaper has reported that the split came after grieger was critical of a report about the activities of auto union during germany‘s nazi era .
“ the fact is that volkswagen strongly denied that mr. grieger and to thank him for the work performed , ” the statement read .
photographer : patrick t. fallon bloomberg photographer : patrick t. fallon bloomberg as the diesel emissions scandal roiled volkswagen ag last fall , wolfgang porsche -- the elder statesman of the clan that controls the automaker -- did what he does every autumn .