Joachim Zahn
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Professor Joachim Zahn (born
Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and tow ...
24 January 1914, died
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
8 October 2002) was the chairman of Daimler Benz AG between 1971 and 1979. Zahn was the youngest of four sons of a Wuppertal Lawyer. He himself studied law at
Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in three ...
and later obtained a doctorate at
Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
based on a study on the limits of credit insurance. During the Second World War he served as an army officer in Russia and Italy. His career in commerce and industry began in 1947, and in 1958 he joined Daimler Benz as Financial Director. In 1965 he was appointed speaker of the management board, and became chairman of the main board in 1971. His time at the top was noteworthy, among other things, for the building of Europe's largest truck factory, at Wörth (between
Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
and the frontier with France at
Wissembourg Wissembourg (; South Franconian: ''Weisseburch'' ; German: ''Weißenburg'' ) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in northeastern France. It is situated on the little river Lauter close to the border between France and Germany a ...
). Although he took over the company's chairmanship shortly before the economic crisis triggered by the 1973 oil shortages, the second part of his chairmanship coincided with a continuing period of profitable growth for the company which was able to accumulate substantial financial reserves: these would play an important part in the company's progress under subsequent leaders. Zahn himself remained actively involved with the business until his death, during his final years as an advisor to Jürgen Schrempp. Zahn's period at the helm was one of growth for Daimler-Benz. Between 1967 and 1976 passenger car output more than doubled, with an average annual growth rate of 6.9% during a decade when the overall growth rate of the German auto-industry was 2.3%. The company's growth in the bus and truck sector outran that of the industry as a whole by an even greater margin. In 1973 he was awarded an honorary professorship by the regional government of
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
, giving rise to the misguided impression in English speaking countries that Germany's leading manufacturer of trucks and luxury cars was being led by an academic. He is better thought of as an expert in finance and taxation with a formidable and clear intellect, and a capacity to inspire affection and respect in colleagues. Remarkably, all four of the Zahn brothers from Wuppertal became captains of industry. This prompted banker Hermann Josef Abs to quip that there were so many teeth in the German economy that it was reasonable to speak of a complete bite. ('Zahn' is the German word for 'tooth'.)


Sources and further reading

1914 births 2002 deaths Businesspeople from Wuppertal Mercedes-Benz Group executives Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg {{germany-business-bio-stub