Günther Quandt
Günther Quandt (28 July 1881 – 30 December 1954) was a German industrialist and Nazi who founded an industrial empire that today includes BMW and Altana (chemicals).
Eight of the hundred currently richest Germans are among his descendants.
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[edit] Early life
He was born in Pritzwalk in Germany, the son of Emil Quandt (1849–1925). Emil had married in 1883 the daughter of a rich textile manufacturer (Reichswolle AG) and he took charge of the company in 1900. He had three siblings: Gerhard, Werner and a younger sister named Edith. Werner married Eleanor Quandt, who after the Second World War helped to protect her brother-in-law, Günther, from prosecution by the Allies. Günther's sister Edith married the owner of another textile company.
During World War I, with Günther in charge, the Quandts supplied the German army with uniforms, building up a larger fortune that Günther would use after the war to acquire Accumulatorenfabrik AG (AFA), a battery manufacturer in Hagen that would become VARTA, a potash-mining company, metal-working companies (including IWKA) and stakes in BMW and Daimler-Benz.
Günther Quandt first married Antoine ‘Toni’ Ewald. They had two sons Helmut Quandt (1908–1927) and Herbert Quandt. Antonie died of the Spanish flu in 1918 and Helmut died of complications from appendicitis in 1927.
His second marriage on 4 January 1921 in Bad Godesberg to Magda Ritschel produced another son, Harald Quandt. Magda was half Günther's age. The marriage ended in divorce in 1929. Two years later Magda married Joseph Goebbels with Adolf Hitler as a witness.
[edit] The Nazi period
After Hitler's election in 1933 Quandt joined the Nazi Party. In 1937 Hitler gave him the title of a Wehrwirtschaftsführer, (Leader of the Armament Economy), like other industrialists who played a leading role in the war economy. Quandt's businesses supplied ammunition, rifles, artillery and batteries, using slave labourers from concentration camps in at least three factories. Hundreds of these labourers died. An execution area was set up in the grounds of AFA's Hanover factory.[1] Quandt also appropriated factories throughout Europe after German invasions.
At the end of World War II, the US Senate held hearings on the operations of the German economy during the war. They found that Gunther Quandt was an important director in German industry, with a number of inter-locking companies, syndicates and corporations. He had interest in such areas as insurance, banking, automobiles, ammunition, textiles, electricity, batteries and other areas. They found that he was given a title, “Leader in the War Economy” (Wehrwirtschaftsführer)” by the Nazi government. Gunther Quandt's known connections in 1942 are as follows: Banking: Deutsche Bank, Berlin-Director; Westfalenbank A. G .. Bochurn/Westfalen-Director. Insurance: Gerling-Konzern, Rheinische Versichrungsgruppe A. G., Köln Insurance; subsidiary of Gerling-Konzern)-Chairman; Friedrich Wilhelm Lebensversicherungs A. G., Berlin (life insurance; subsidiary of Gerling-Konzern)-Chairman; Gerling-Konzern, Rückversicherungs A. G., Köln (re-insurance; 100 percent subsidiary of Gerling-Konzern Rheinische Versicherungsgruppe A. G.)- Deputy chairman; Gerling-Konzern, Lebensversicherungs A. G., Köln (life-insurance; 100 percent subsidiary of Gerling-Konzern, Rückversicherungs A. G.)-Deputy chairman. Industrial: Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft, Berlin (electric trust) – Director; Accumulatoren-Fabrick A. G., Berlin (storage batteries; Quandt owns 75 percent of the stock)-Chairman of management committee; Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken A. G., Berlin (arms and ammunition; probably belongs to the Quandt interests)-Chairman of management committee; Durener Metallwerke A. G., Berlin (miscellaneous metals; subsidiary of Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken A. G.) -member of management committee; Berlin-Erfurter Maschinenfabrik Henry Pells &: Co., A. G., Berlin (machinery; 100 percent subsidiary of Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken A. G.)- Chairman; Concordia Elektrizitäts A. G., Dortmund (electrical installations; subsidiary of Accumulatoren Fabrik A. G.)-Chairman; Dominitwerke G. m. b. H., Berlin (electrical apparatus; subsidiary of Accumulatoren-Fabrik A. G.)-Chairman; Pertrix-Werke G. m. b. H., Berlin (flashlights and batteries; subsidiary of Accumulatoren Fabrik A. G.); Wintershall A. G., Kassel (potash)-Deputy chairman; Bergbau A. G. Lothringen, Bochum-Gerthe (mining; subsidiary of Wintershall A. G.)-Deputy chairman; Gewerkschaft Victor-Stickstoffwerke, Castrop-Rauxel (nitrogen products) owned by Wintershall A. G.)-Member of mining committee; Gewerkschaft Wintershall, Heringen (mining)-Chairman of mining committee; Gebrüder Draeger Tuchfabrik, Pritzwalk (textile factory)-Co-owner; Draeger-Werke G. m. b. H., Potsdam-Babelsberg (textiles)- Manager; Byk-Guldenwerke Chemische Fabrik A. G., Berlin (chemicals)-Chairman; Deutsche Wollenwaren-Manufaktur A. G., Grünberg/Sehlesien (woolen products; subsidiary of four German Grossbanken under leadership of Dresdner Bank)-Chairman; Deutsche Tuchsyndikat G. m. b. H., Berlin (German cloth syndicate)-Chairman; Hermann Herzog & Co. A. G., Neugersdorf/Sachsen (textile finishing; subsidiary of Concordia Spinnerei & Weberei)-Chairman; Busch-Jaeger, Lüdenscheider Metallwerke A. G., Lüdenscheid/Westfalen (electrical installation apparatus)-Deputy chairman; A. G. für Verkehrswesen, Berlin (railroads and other transportation)-Director; Daimler-Benz A. G., Stuttgart (automobiles)-Director; Deutsches Kalisyndikat G. m. b. H., Berlin (potash syndicate)-Director; Kammgarnspinnerei Stöhr & Co. A. G., Leipzig (wool yarns, worsteds)-Director; Vereinigte Kugellagerfabriken A. G., Schweinfurt (ball bearings; subsidiary of SKF of Sweden)-Director.[2]
[edit] After the war
In 1946 Günther Quandt was arrested because of the Goebbels connection, and was interned. To the surprise of many, he was judged to be a Mitläufer, namely someone who accepted the Nazi ideology but did not take an active part in crimes. He was released in January 1948. One of the prosecutors in the Nuremberg trials, Benjamin Ferencz, now says that if today's evidence against Günther Quandt had been presented to the court at the time, "Quandt would have been charged with the same offences as the directors of IG Farben." They served up to eight years in jail. Instead Quandt was able to re-install himself in the supervisory boards of various German firms, e.g. Deutsche Bank. He also became honorary citizen of the University in Frankfurt in 1951. He died on vacation in Cairo on 30 December 1954.
His two surviving sons, Herbert and Harald, administered their inheritance together, though Harald Quandt concentrated on the industrial plants Karlsruhe Augsburg AG (IWKA) which were involved in mechanical engineering and arms manufacture, while Herbert Quandt managed the investments in AFA/VARTA, Daimler-Benz and BMW.
[edit] Further reading
- Rüdiger Jungbluth: Die Quandts: Ihr leiser Aufstieg zur mächtigsten Wirtschaftsdynastie Deutschlands. Campus 2002 (ISBN 3593369400)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ English summary of TV programme transmitted by ARD in October 2007
- ^ United States, and Bernard M. Baruch.1945. Elimination of German Resources for War. Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Military Affairs, United States Senate, Seventy-Ninth Congress, First Session, Pursuant to S. Res. 107 (78th Congress) and S. Res. 146 (79th Congress) Authorizing a Study of War Mobilization Problem : Testimony of Hon. Bernard M. Baruch Before the Full Military Affairs Committee on Control and Occupation of Germany, Relations with Russia, Cartels and Nationalized Industries against Free Enterprise. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., July 1945. Pages 780-781, 863.
