Hans Walz (Manager)

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Hans Walz (born March 21, 1883 in Stuttgart ; † April 23, 1974 there ) was a German businessman and from 1926 to 1963 managing director of Robert Bosch GmbH .

After attending the commercial college, Walz did a two-year apprenticeship in banking and then worked in banking and wholesale. In 1912 he occupied a commercial administration position at Bosch and was the personal secretary of Robert Bosch with his asset management. In 1919 he was appointed to the company's supervisory board.

He was also a member of the supervisory board of the Stuttgart Homeopathic Hospital Society.

In the Weimar Republic , Walz was a member of the Association for Defense against Anti-Semitism and a friend of Karl Adler , which, in addition to his membership in the committee of the advisory board of the Evangelical Church in Württemberg , brought a negative assessment by the security service of the Reichsführer SS in 1942 .

In 1933, Walz and other high-ranking Bosch employees submitted applications for membership in the NSDAP (membership number 3.433.104). The applications for membership were processed in late summer and autumn, and in the Walz case, membership was granted retrospectively to May 1st of that year. Walz was also an SS member (membership number 155.369) and a member of the Friends of the Reichsführer SS , with district manager Fritz Kranefuß complaining to the Reichsführer that there were "unpleasant discussions" with Walz. Nevertheless, at the end of 1943 and beginning of 1944, he was appointed military economics leader.

From 1938 to 1940, Walz financed the emigration of Jews for Karl Adler, for which he was honored by Israel in 1969 as Righteous Among the Nations .

In 1953 Walz was awarded the Great Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 1958/59 he was the first treasurer of the liberal Friedrich Naumann Foundation . His mentor Robert Bosch was personally committed to Friedrich Naumann's state school.

In 1963, Hans Lutz Merkle was appointed chairman of the Bosch board of management to succeed Walz.

literature

  • Daniel Fraenkel, Jakob Borut (ed.): Lexicon of the Righteous Among the Nations: Germans and Austrians , 2nd edition, Wallstein Verlag , Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-900-7 . P. 278 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ June 2, 2011 in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
  2. ↑ Joachim Scholtyseck : Robert Bosch and the liberal resistance against Hitler 1933 to 1945 . Beck, Munich 1999, p. 461.
  3. ↑ Scholtyseck 1999, p. 153.
  4. ↑ Scholtyseck 1999, p. 159.
  5. ↑ HIMMLER CIRCLE: Loyalty in the choir . In: Der Spiegel . No. 42 , 1965 ( online - Oct. 13, 1965 ).
  6. ↑ Scholtyseck 1999, p. 468.
  7. ↑ http://db.yadvashem.org/righteous/family.html?language=en&itemId=4018152
  8. ^ Short biography on the Friedrich Naumann Foundation homepage .
personal data
SURNAME Walz, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman and managing director at Bosch
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1974
Place of death Stuttgart