Günther Quandt - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Günther Quandt was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

industrialist and Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

who founded an industrial empire that today includes BMW

BMW

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...

and Altana

Altana

The Altana AG is a German chemical company based in Wesel. Altana develops and produces products in the specialty chemicals business. The ALTANA Group, with headquarters in Wesel/Germany, sells 85% of its products overseas...

(chemicals).

Eight of the hundred currently richest Germans are among his descendants.

Early life

He was born in Pritzwalk

Pritzwalk

Pritzwalk is a town in the district of Prignitz, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 20 km west of Wittstock, and 33 km northeast of Wittenberge....

in Germany

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

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, 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

Hagen

Hagen is the 39th-largest city in Germany, located in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the eastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne, Volme and Ennepe meet the river Ruhr...

that would become VARTA, a potash-mining company, metal-working companies (including IWKA) and stakes in BMW

BMW

and Daimler-Benz

Daimler-Benz

Daimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and internal combustion engines; founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest - which was valid until year 2000 - was signed on 1 May 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had...

.

Günther Quandt first married Antoine ‘Toni’ Ewald. They had two sons Helmut Quandt (1908–1927) and Herbert Quandt

Herbert Quandt

Herbert Werner Quandt , was a German industrialist who is regarded as having saved BMW when it was at the point of bankruptcy and made huge profit in doing so.- Early life :...

. 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

Bad Godesberg

Bad Godesberg is a municipal district of Bonn, southern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From 1949 till 1990 , the majority of foreign embassies to Germany were located in Bad Godesberg...

to Magda Ritschel

Magda Goebbels

Johanna Maria Magdalena "Magda" Goebbels was the wife of Nazi Germany's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels...

produced another son, Harald Quandt

Harald Quandt

Harald Quandt was a German industrialist, stepson of Joseph Goebbels. After World War II, Harald and his half-brother Herbert Quandt ran the industrial empire that was left to them by their father.-Early life:...

. Magda was half Günther's age. The marriage ended in divorce in 1929. Two years later Magda married Joseph Goebbels

Joseph Goebbels

Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...

with Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

as a witness.

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. 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

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...

, 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

Wintershall

Wintershall AG is the largest crude oil and natural gas producer in Germany. The company is based in Kassel, Germany. Wintershall is a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF, based in Ludwigshafen. The name Wintershall is derived from the surname of the enterprise co-founder Carl Julius Winter and the...

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

Heringen

Heringen is a small town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hesse, Germany lying right at the boundary with Thuringia.- Geography :- Location :...

(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, Lüdenseheider Metallwerke A. G., Lüdenscheid/Westfalen (electrical installation apparatus)-Deputy chairman; A. G. für Verkehrswesen, Berlin (railroads and other transportation)-Director; Daimler-Benz

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

Schweinfurt

Schweinfurt is a city in the Lower Franconia region of Bavaria in Germany on the right bank of the canalized Main, which is here spanned by several bridges, 27 km northeast of Würzburg.- History :...

(ball bearings; subsidiary of SKF of Sweden)-Director.

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 Mitlaufer, 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

Nuremberg Trials

The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....

, 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

IG Farben

I.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...

." 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

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

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.

Early life

The Nazi period

After the war

Further reading

See also