Günther Quandt
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Günther Quandt (28 July 1881 – 30 December 1954) was a German industrialist who founded an industrial empire that today includes
BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...
and Altana, a car and chemical company, respectively. Between 1921 and 1929, he was married to Magda Ritschel, later the wife of
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. In the 1930s he joined the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
, becoming one of its strong financial supporters. His descendants were ranked as the wealthiest Germans by
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in 2014.


Early life

Günther Quandt was born in Pritzwalk in
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, the son of Emil Quandt (1849–1925). Emil had in 1883 married the daughter of a rich textile manufacturer (Reichswolle AG) and Günther took charge of the company in 1900. Günther had three siblings: Gerhard, Werner, and Edith. Werner married Eleanor Quandt, who after
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
helped to protect her brother-in-law, Günther, from prosecution by the Allies. Edith married the owner of another textile company. During
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, under the leadership of Günther Quandt, his family supplied uniforms to the German army, which helped them accumulate a large fortune. After the war, Günther used this fortune to acquire Accumulatorenfabrik AG (AFA), a battery manufacturer based in Hagen. AFA later became known as VARTA. Additionally, Günther invested in a potash-mining company, metal-working companies (including IWKA), and acquired stakes in
BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...
and
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.


The Nazi period

After
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
's appointment as Chancellor in 1933, Quandt joined the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
, becoming one of Hitler’s strong financial supporters. In 1937, Hitler gave him the title of a ''Wehrwirtschaftsführer,'' (Leader in the Military 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. 80% of these labourers, numbering in the tens of thousands, died. An execution area was set up in the grounds of AFA's Hanover factory. Quandt also appropriated factories throughout
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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 Quandt was an important director in German industry, with several interlocking companies, syndicates and corporations. He had interest in such areas as insurance, banking, automobiles, ammunition, textiles, electricity, batteries and other areas. They also found out about his ''Wehrwirtschaftsführer'' title. The
Hanns-Joachim-Friedrichs-Award The Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award is a German award for excellence in journalism. It was first awarded in 1995. The award is named for the German journalist Hanns Joachim Friedrichs, who died in the year before the awards had established. The w ...
winning documentary film ''The Silence of the Quandts'' by the German public broadcaster ARD described in October 2007 the role of the Quandt family businesses during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The family's political past was not well known, but the documentary film revealed this to a wide audience and confronted the Quandts about the use of slave labourers in the family's factories during World War II. As a result, five days after the showing, four family members announced, on behalf of the entire Quandt family, their intention to fund a research project in which a historian will examine the family's activities during Hitler's dictatorship. The independent 1,200-page study that was released in 2011 concluded: "The Quandts were linked inseparably with the crimes of the Nazis", stated by Joachim Scholtyseck, the Bonn historian who compiled and researched the study. , no compensation, apology or even memorial at the site of one of their factories have been permitted. BMW was not implicated in the report.


After the war

In 1946, Quandt was arrested because of the Goebbels connection, and interned. To the surprise of many, he was judged to be a '' Mitläufer'' (fellow traveller), namely someone who accepted the National Socialist ideology but did not take an active part in crimes. In January 1948, Quandt was released without charge. One of the prosecutors in the Nuremberg trials, Benjamin Ferencz, now says that if today's evidence against Quandt had been presented to the court at the time, "Quandt would have been charged with the same offences as the directors of
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." The directors 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
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in 1951. He died on vacation in
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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.


Personal life

Günther Quandt first married Antonie '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 best man. His second wife died in 1945 with their six children.


See also

* Herbert Quandt (1910–1982), son of Günther, regarded as having saved BMW ** Johanna Quandt (1926–2015), Herbert's wife *** Stefan Quandt (born 1966), son of Herbert and Johanna *** Susanne Klatten (born 1962), daughter of Herbert and Johanna ** Silvia Quandt (born 1937), daughter of Herbert * Harald Quandt (1921–1967), son of Günther, a German industrialist


References


Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Quandt, Gunther 1881 births 1954 deaths People from Pritzwalk People from the Province of Brandenburg Gunther German people of Dutch descent Nazi Party members Businesspeople from Brandenburg German industrialists 20th-century German businesspeople Prisoners and detainees of the United States military Nazi war criminals