Ferdinand Piëch

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Ferdinand Piëch (2008)

Ferdinand Karl Piëch [ ˈpiɛç ] (born April 17, 1937 in Vienna ; † August 25, 2019 in Rosenheim ) was an Austrian manager and major shareholder of Porsche Automobil Holding SE. From 1993 to 2002 he was Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG and then Chairman of the Supervisory Board until 2015 .

Early years

Ferdinand Piëch was the third child of the Viennese lawyer Anton Piëch and his wife Louise , daughter of Ferdinand Porsche . His older brother Ernst Piëch (* 1929) is the son-in-law of the first VW general director Heinrich Nordhoff . The sister Louise Daxer-Piëch (1932-2006) worked in the management of the Austrian VW / Porsche general importer (today: Porsche Holding ) in Salzburg. The younger brother Hans-Michel Piëch (* 1942) is a lawyer in Vienna.

From 1952 to 1958 Ferdinand Piëch attended the Swiss boarding school Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz in the Engadin. After studying mechanical engineering at the ETH Zurich - with a thesis on the development of a Formula 1 engine - he began his career in 1963 under his uncle Ferry Porsche at Dr. Ing.hc F. Porsche KG in Zuffenhausen . There he headed the development department from 1965 and became technical director in 1971 . During this time he led, among other things, from 1966 for VW the development of a compact car ( Volkswagen EA 266 ) with the engine under the back seat, which was to become the successor to the Beetle . The project ended in 1971.

At the beginning of 1972, due to a family resolution, all family members had to withdraw from the management of Porsche. Piëch then founded his own design office in Stuttgart, where he developed the five-cylinder OM 617 diesel engine for Daimler-Benz , which appeared in the 1974 Mercedes 240 D 3.0 (W 115).

In August 1972, Piëch became head of department for special tasks in technical development at the VW subsidiary Audi NSU Auto Union AG at the Ingolstadt plant, and from 1975 was a board member for technology. On his initiative, Audi NSU launched the first car with a five-cylinder gasoline engine ( Audi 100 5E ) in 1976 . Appointed Deputy Chairman of the Audi NSU Board of Management on September 1, 1983, Ferdinand Piëch took over the position of CEO of the company, which has been operating under the name of Audi AG since 1985, on January 1, 1988 as successor to Wolfgang R. Habbel , where he founded the new Audi Played a key role in shaping the brand image. Some studies and prototypes were developed that did not make it to series production, but also important innovations for Audi such as the permanent quattro all-wheel drive (1980) and the TDI engine with diesel direct injection (1989).

Time at Volkswagen

In management

On January 1, 1993, Ferdinand Piëch succeeded Carl Hahn as Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, which was making heavy losses at the time. He mainly addressed three areas: First, production and procurement should be optimized. Secondly, no more compromises should be made in terms of quality, and thirdly, he expanded the VW Group's range of products into additional areas such as the high-price segment and the truck business. Ferdinand Piëch was Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen until 2002, then Chairman of the Supervisory Board until April 2015.

Production optimization, procurement

In 1993, Piëch brought José Ignacio López and seven of his employees from General Motors (GM) to the Volkswagen Group in Wolfsburg , where he took over the new board division “Production Optimization and Procurement”. Due to the circumstances of the transfer - Lopéz had apparently taken GM company internals with him - Opel and General Motors filed criminal charges against the new VW employees. At the same time, a lawsuit was brought in the USA based on the RICO Act , a law originally created to combat organized crime, which also affected Piëch. In both cases, General Motors alleged betrayal of trade and business secrets and industrial espionage . The lawsuits were withdrawn after a settlement. Piëch had to urge López to resign in 1996, VW also paid 100 million US dollars in damages to GM and purchased components from GM for 1 billion US dollars.

More flexible working time models were introduced.

With extensive restructuring and rationalization measures to reduce costs, Piëch succeeded in bringing the Volkswagen Group back into profitability in the first few years.

quality

In the US-American business in particular, initial quality problems had a devastating effect, especially in golf (called Rabbit there) in the 1980s. The good reputation the Beetle had built up was quickly used up, the several years' lead it had gained over the Japanese competition was lost and VW closed production in the United States. After taking office in 1993, Piëch made few compromises in terms of quality. The Golf III, introduced in 1991, still suffered from quality problems that were exacerbated by Piëch and Lopez's austerity efforts. In some cases, these quality requirements meant that delivery was delayed by months. Piëch was very interested in knowing the cause of manufacturing problems and eliminating them. So was z. In 1997, for example, the B-pillar of the Golf IV was reinforced and partly made by hand so that it was no worse than the Mercedes A-Class in the side impact test.

Additional business areas

During Piëch's tenure as Chairman of the Board of Management at Volkswagen, there was also entry into the high-price segment. In 1997 the company Rolls-Royce Motor Cars was bought, but without the rights to the “Rolls-Royce” brand, which went to BMW . Therefore, only the Bentley brand could be used for the luxury models. In 1998 the “Bugatti” brand was bought and Bugatti Automobiles was founded. Also in 1998 the Volkswagen subsidiary Audi AG took over the Italian company Lamborghini . In May 2002 the upper class model Phaeton came out. The model range was expanded with the Touareg, Touran and New Beetle. In the commercial vehicle sector, Scania and MAN were taken over. With Italdesign Giugiaro , the company was taken over in 2010, its founder Giorgetto Giugiaro golf I had designed. Finally, there was the takeover of Ducati and thus entry into the two-wheeler business.

Farewell to VW

On April 10, 2015, he made public that he was “at a distance” from Martin Winterkorn , CEO of Volkswagen AG and Porsche Automobil Holding SE. On April 25, 2015, Piëch resigned from all mandates in the Volkswagen Group with immediate effect because the members of the Presidium of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG no longer saw the mutual trust necessary for a successful cooperation.

Fortune, legacy, private matters

contracts

The wealth of the founder Ferdinand Porsche was divided equally between the Piëch and Porsche families. The cooperation is regulated in a contract in which the eight grandchildren and Marlene Porsche, the divorced wife of Gerd Porsche, form nine shareholder groups. In September 2010 Ferdinand Piëch transferred his shares in Porsche Automobil Holding as well as the shares in the Salzburg car trading company Porsche Holding GmbH to the two private foundations Ferdinand Karl Alpha (regarding Porsche Stuttgart) and Ferdinand Karl Beta (regarding Porsche Salzburg) based in Vienna . In two 38-page foundation deeds, he tried to create a sustainable solution for the secure future of the company. As a result, Piëch retained sole power of disposal throughout his life; In addition, his wife Ursula took on an important role on the foundation board when certain clauses were observed, and legitimate children have more voting rights than illegitimate children.

In 2017, Piëch sold most of its ordinary shares in Porsche Automobil Holding SE to the Porsche and Piëch families. He also resigned from the company's supervisory board.

Porsche and Volkswagen

The Porsche and Piëch families control Porsche Automobil Holding SE. Ferdinand Piëch alone owned at least 14 percent of the ordinary shares. During his chairmanship of the supervisory board of Volkswagen AG and his simultaneous membership in the supervisory board of Porsche AG, Porsche AG acquired around 21 percent of the ordinary shares of Volkswagen AG at the beginning of 2005 and increased this to a good 42.6 percent by October 2008 from what corresponds to a factual majority at the general meeting of the group.

According to press reports, the Stuttgart public prosecutor has been investigating Piëch since February 2013 in connection with the acquisition of VW shares by Porsche in the years 2005 to 2008. It was about the allegation that Porsche wrongly made public statements in 2008 that it intended to increase its stake in VW denied. Piëch was - like other former members of the supervisory board - accused of aiding and abetting market manipulation .

family

Ferdinand Piëch said he had twelve children from four relationships, three of them from his (last) marriage to Ursula Piëch in September 1984 . Five children come from the first marriage with Corina Piëch, geb. by Planta. Two children come from a twelve-year relationship with Marlene Porsche from the Porsche family , the later divorced wife of his cousin Gerhard Porsche. Two other children come from another relationship. According to a declaration by the widow Ursula Piëch, he left behind - deviating - thirteen children. Then it became known to the public for the first time that Piëch had a son born in 1973 from a relationship with Marlene Porsche.

His son Anton Piëch presented the electrically powered sports car Piëch Mark Zero at the Geneva Motor Show in spring 2019 , which is due to hit the market in 2022. Ferdinand Piëch, however, attached importance to the statement that he had and will have nothing to do with this project.

According to a newspaper article from February 2019, Ferdinand Piëch only had a closer relationship with the youngest of his children, his son Gregor.

Piëch died on August 25, 2019 at the age of 82 after visiting a restaurant in the Heinz Winkler residence in Aschau im Chiemgau in a hospital in Rosenheim.

Recognition and criticism

Services

Piëch's achievements in the VW Group include the development of Audi as a premium brand and the development and expansion of Seat and Škoda (which was put into perspective again during his time as VW CEO) . The developments of the commercially relatively unsuccessful "three-liter" Lupo and the study of the roadworthy one- liter VW XL1 car should also be mentioned . The purchase of the luxury brands Bentley and Bugatti Automobiles also fell under his aegis .

He was nicknamed "Fugen-Ferdl" because of his obsession with small gaps , which in his opinion increase the impression of quality.

Awards

criticism

Acquisition of Rolls-Royce

The purchase of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars from the defense company Vickers turned out to be a problematic investment. Volkswagen initially ran it as 'Rolls-Royce & Bentley Motor Cars Ltd.' further. But since the naming rights to Rolls-Royce were indirectly with BMW , Volkswagen had to sell the prestigious Rolls-Royce brand to BMW and could only use the Bentley brand itself.

Wrong developments in the VW group

The development and construction of the luxury Phaeton model as well as the purchase and development of the Bugatti luxury brand turned out to be economic failures despite technical innovations and cost Volkswagen large amounts each year.

The same applies to the Passat W8. Although the development was already well advanced, Piëch switched from a VW Golf-oriented platform to that of the Audi A4 with the mid-range Passat model presented in 1996, and thus from transverse installation of the engine to longitudinal installation, in order to be able to offer vehicles with more than six cylinders in this class as well . An eight-cylinder engine in a W shape was developed especially for this purpose with enormous effort . This W8 model was rarely sold and the engine was not used in any other group model, which resulted in the subsequent cessation of production. The Passat B6 built from 2005 and its successors are again vehicles with transversely installed engines.

Quality problems

In addition, the austerity policy under Piëch with the newly created board area "Production Optimization and Procurement" under the direction of Ignacio López led to considerable quality problems, especially with the VW Golf IV from the first years of production (for example tooth belt damage , cracked engine blocks and paint and body defects), which burdened the VW Group with high warranty costs and led to image problems.

Personnel policy

As Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, he was jointly responsible for the dismissal of numerous senior management employees and a large number of board members, both at Volkswagen and, in particular, at Audi. Examples:

  • the Audi boss Franz-Josef Kortüm , who was retired after 13 months in 1993 because Piëch was not satisfied with the sales figures.
  • His successor Herbert Demel also had to vacate the post after repeated arguments with Piëch.
  • This was followed by Franz-Josef Paefgen . Piëch fired him in 2001; previously he had accused him of “standing still” at Audi in an interview with FAZ.

The discussion about the future of VW CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder at the beginning of 2006, who was once set up by Piëch as his successor, was also triggered by a statement by Piëch. In February 2006, the latter publicly questioned the support of Pischetsrieders on the part of the employee representatives on the VW supervisory board. Nevertheless, Pischetsrieder's contract was extended in May 2006. However, this did not prevent the Supervisory Board from releasing Pischetsrieder from his position on the Board of Management on December 31, 2006.

VW exhaust scandal

Piëch's role in the VW emissions scandal is unclear, especially when he should have heard of the allegations. Piëch claimed that he had informed members of the supervisory board such as the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony , Stephan Weil , and the works council chairman Bernd Osterloh early on about discrepancies in the area of ​​software. In February 2017, he refused to testify before the Bundestag committee of inquiry .

literature

Radio feature

Web links

Commons : Ferdinand Piëch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b FOCUS Online: Former VW boss Ferdinand Piëch is dead. Retrieved on August 26, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Big wash. In: Der Spiegel , edition 46/1971, page 103.
  3. ^ Christof Vieweg: Vain bearer of hope. In: Die Zeit , June 29, 2016.
  4. ^ Matthias Bruges: Secret cars with four rings. In: Auto Bild , May 15, 2015.
  5. ↑ Alfons Frese: Who is Ferdinand Piëch? In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 6, 2006.
  6. ^ Industrial espionage . Suspects at Opel, Oracle and Ferrari . In: Die Welt , May 12, 2007.
    Heinz Blüthmann: López did more to VW than harmed it. In: Die Zeit , January 17, 1997.
  7. ↑ a b Richard Rickelmann , Dietmar Hawranek: The darned fifth year . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1997 ( online ).
  8. ↑ "The damage will be greater than necessary" In: Der Spiegel , August 6, 1987.
  9. ↑ Steep downhill. In: Der Spiegel , November 23, 1987
  10. ↑ More than just solid and stable in value. In: Die Welt , April 22, 2008.
  11. ↑ Volkswagen Chronicle, 1992–2012, The globalization of the mobility group ( Memento from July 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Volkswagen, accessed on May 31, 2015
  12. ↑ Heinz Horrmann : "You may speculate about a merger" In: Die Welt , April 22, 2008.
  13. ↑ Holger Wittich: Giugiaro now belongs to Lamborghini. In: auto motor und sport , May 25, 2010.
  14. ↑ spiegel.de April 10, 2015: "I'm at a distance from Winterkorn"
  15. ↑ Declaration by the Presidential Committee of Volkswagen AG ( memo from June 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (April 25, 2015)
  16. ↑ Rainer Hank , Georg Meck: The bad end of a good life. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 26, 2015.
  17. ↑ The estate is precisely regulated on 38 pages. In: ORF , September 18, 2010 with reference to FOCUS .
  18. ↑ Ex-VW patriarch resigns his last car manadat. In: Peiner Allgemeine Zeitung , November 8, 2017.
  19. ↑ Porsche brings VW under its control. In: Spiegel Online , September 16, 2008.
  20. ↑ Christoph Ruhkamp: Ferdinand Piëch is accused of deception. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 12, 2013.
  21. ↑ Controversial ties and unknown children. In: manager magazin , February 8, 2006.
  22. ↑ Holger Appel: From governess to group leader. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung September 20, 2010.
  23. ↑ Wolfgang Helmer: Untouched and Untouched. ( Memento from December 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 8, 2006.
  24. ^ The statement of the widow Ursula Piëch in full. In: Handelsblatt , August 26, 2019.
  25. ↑ Jan Dams: Ferdinand Piëch: Hans Porsche is his 13th child . August 31, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed September 1, 2019]).
  26. ↑ Claus Hecking : Engineer of Power. In: Spiegel Online . August 27, 2019, accessed August 27, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Timo Völker: Piëchs Mark Zero: Not necessarily to papa's taste In: DiePresse.com , February 26, 2019, accessed August 27, 2019.
  28. ↑ Maximilian Kettenbach, Marcel Görmann: Drama about ex-VW boss Piëch: He collapsed in a restaurant - celebrity chef gives details. In: Münchner Merkur . Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  29. ↑ Herbert Völker: Piëch in the 1-liter car: In the beginning there was the penguin. In: The Standard . April 5, 2013, accessed April 5, 2013 .
  30. ↑ Rafaela von Bredow : The rowdy is in all of us . In: Der Spiegel . No. 37 , 2001, p. 148 ( online ).
  31. ^ "Piech becomes an honorary citizen of the city of Ingolstadt" , city of Ingolstadt
  32. ↑ City Chronicle Braunschweig 2014
  33. ↑ James G. Cobb: This Just In: Model T Gets Award . In: The New York Times , December 24, 1999.
  34. ↑ Automobilwoche readers choose Ferdinand K. Piëch as Personality of the Decade. In: Automobilwoche , January 16, 2011.
  35. ↑ Ferdinand Piëch elected the most important manager since 1971. In: Manager Magazin , October 19, 2011.
  36. ↑ WHZ press release of November 26, 2012 archive link ( Memento of January 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  37. ^ Ferdinand Piech | Automotive Hall of Fame. Retrieved April 6, 2020 .
  38. ↑ Henning Peitsmeier: The intrigues of the Porsche grandson. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . March 5, 2006, accessed April 28, 2015 .
  39. ↑ Piech charges Winterkorn in emissions affair. In: Manager Magazin . February 3, 2017, accessed February 11, 2017 .
  40. ↑ Piëch does not want to testify to the Bundestag committee on the VW scandal. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . February 11, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2017 .
  41. ^ Letter (pdf) from Piëch's lawyer Gerhard Strate to the 5th Investigation Committee (February 19, 2017)
personal data
SURNAME Piëch, Ferdinand
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Piëch, Ferdinand Karl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian manager in Germany and chairman of the supervisory board of the VW group
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 2019
Place of death Rosenheim or Aschau im Chiemgau