Corruption was part of the agenda under Konrad Adenauer. When his advisor Hans Kilb was charged in the rental car affair, the Chancellor did everything to stifle the proceedings.
The first large Mercedes of the post-war period, the 300 model, was called “Adenauer-Mercedes”. But in the mid-1950s, the first chancellor of the democratic post-war republic threatened to be alienated from the car manufacturer from Stuttgart. With the 505 prototype, BMW entered government business in 1955. The chancellor was impressed by the Bavarian limousine and had his chauffeur and his advisor, Hans Kilb, take it for a test drive.
Source: Stern
