Georg von Opel

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Georg Friedrich Karl Adam Opel (from 1918 of Opel * 18th May 1912 in Frankfurt am Main ; † 14. August 1971 in Bad Soden am Taunus ) was a German automotive entrepreneur , a sports official and successful athletes from the family Opel .

Life

Georg Opel was born in 1912 as the grandson of Adam Opel and the son of Carl Opel . When his father Carl was raised to hereditary nobility in 1918, his descendants were also ennobled and entitled to use the von in their name.

At the age of 16, Georg von Opel received a considerable fortune from the sale of Adam Opel AG to General Motors . He invested his money together with his uncle Fritz Opel (and not with his cousin, the rocket racing driver Fritz von Opel ) in the Opel Automobile sales company , an Opel dealer in Frankfurt on Mainzer Landstrasse .

In 1937 Georg von Opel, who according to the sports journalist Steffen Haffner “had no fear of contact with the elites of the Third Reich”, joined the NSDAP . The following year, the Nazi regime forced Rudolf von Goldschmidt-Rothschild , the grandson of the Jewish patroness Baroness von Rothschild , to cede the Villa Rothschild to Opel as part of the Aryanization process before he himself had to flee to Switzerland. In 1942 von Opel sold the property to the Reichsgruppe Banken and the economic group of independent banks .

From 1946 Georg von Opel was chairman of the supervisory board of Continental Gummi-Werke (1946–1969) and founding president of the Association of German Opel Dealers (today Association of German Opel and Chevrolet Dealers - VDOH).

In 1952 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Mainz . In 1956 he founded the Georg-von-Opel outdoor enclosure for animal research , today's Opel Zoo in Kronberg im Taunus .

Opel mausoleum in Rüsselsheim am Main

In 1938 Georg von Opel married his cousin Irmgard von Opel , a famous show jumper. Their first son, Carlo von Opel , was born in 1941 ; Heinz von Opel was born in 1943 . The marriage ended in divorce in 1957.

In 1957 he married his second wife, the Colombian diplomatic daughter María Eugenia Adelaida Herrán Olozaga. She was a sister of Emita Herrán Olozaga, who had been married to his cousin Fritz von Opel since 1947. María Eugenia Adelaida died in a car accident on the Julier Pass in 1964 .

The children Georg (* 1966) and Gregor (* 1968) come from Opel's third marriage to Sigrid Revers (* 1945).

Georg von Opel died at the age of 59 of a heart attack, as a result of which he had an accident in his car. He is buried in the Opel mausoleum in Rüsselsheim am Main .

His son Gregor von Opel took over the group of companies. In September 2005 he sold it to Deutsche Bank .

Sports

Georg von Opel did many sports: he was a rifleman, cyclist, rider, car and motorcycle driver, skier, boxer, tennis player, aviator and underwater fisherman, but in particular he was a rower . Between 1928 and 1953 he won 117 rowing races for the Rüsselsheim RK , he started in Henley in 1932 and 1933 in a single . At the Olympic elimination in 1936 he only had to bow to the later Olympic champion Gustav Schäfer . Under rowing trainer Fritz Brumme von Opel was German rowing master seven times, in 1947 in one and eight , in 1948 and 1949 in four without helmsman and eight, and in 1951 in eight. At the German championship rowing in 1952, the Olympic elimination for the Games in Helsinki , at the age of 40 he only lost with "his" eighth of the rowing community Flörsheim-Rüsselsheim against the eighth of the Cologne RV 1877.

Von Opel was not only an active rower, but also improved the technique of the sport. So he introduced the reclining helmsman.

In 1951 Georg von Opel also set five automobile world records.

Georg von Opel was Vice President of the German Rowing Association , co-founder and President of the German Olympic Society (DOG) (1951–1969), President of the German Shooting Association (1957–1971), initiator of the “Golden Plan” for the construction of sports facilities and co-founder of the Deutsche Sporthilfe Foundation . He was a member of the National Olympic Committee (NOK) (from 1951) and from 1966 until his death a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) . The Georg von Opel Prize is named after him and is awarded by Adam Opel GmbH to athletes who distinguish themselves through social commitment or unselfish athleticism

In 2008 Georg von Opel was inducted into the Hall of Fame of German Sports as one of 40 athletes .

Further activities and honors

Georg von Opel wrote several books. He financed the marker binding as the first world-famous ski safety binding. In 1950 he became an honorary citizen of Flörsheim . Werner Trense rediscovered the Mesopotamian fallow deer in 1957 on a research trip he financed . Subsequent breeding in the Opel Zoo saved the species from extinction. He found the "inherited" consultancy title from Haiti to be inappropriate and returned it in the 1940s. He founded the Walking Tour Foundation. V. Von Opel had a large collection of trophies and a remarkable collection of Gothic sculptures and art objects from Asia, Africa and America.

Georg von Opel GmbH group of companies

The group of companies founded by Georg von Opel in 1936 was the second largest Opel dealer in Germany with operations that were mainly located in the Rhine-Main area . In addition to vehicles from Opel, the brands Suzuki , Saab , Cadillac and Chevrolet were also represented. The group's turnover in 2005 was 200 million euros. Due to financial problems, various investors under the leadership of Deutsche Bank England took over 51% of the group in September 2005. On June 12, 2006, the Georg von Opel GmbH group filed for bankruptcy and was taken over by the MAG-Metz group in 2008.

Autohaus GVO GmbH

As a result of the group's insolvency, the majority of the last 26 car dealerships were either sold or closed completely and a rescue company was founded for the employees of the companies concerned.

The remaining nine car dealerships were brought into the new Autohaus GVO GmbH on February 1, 2007 , but three more dealerships had to be closed due to unprofitability. In the same year, the company took over the former Mercedes-Benz branch on Frankenallee in Frankfurt , and the former main building on Mainzer Landstrasse was sold to DB FuhrparkService .

In the summer of 2008 the Autohaus GVO GmbH gave up its independence and was taken over by MAG Metz GmbH , but continues to operate under the name "Georg von Opel". On February 18, 2010, MAG Metz GmbH and other subsidiaries filed for insolvency at the local court. As of January 1, 2011, the Wittenberg FORD dealership group Dinnebier took over a large part of the insolvent MAG Metz group in Berlin and Brandenburg.

Works (selection)

  • 5000 kilometers Africa , Berlin 1940
  • Ibi the ibex fawn , Frankfurt 1957
  • The last first person. Visit to a Bushman village , Frankfurt 1962
  • In all five continents , Hamburg / Berlin 1966

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steffen Haffner: Georg von Opel on the 100th birthday . In: Olympic Fire 2/2012, accessed on January 5, 2021.
  2. ↑ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Hesse: Cultural monuments in Hesse: Villa Rothschild as a whole , accessed on January 5, 2021.
  3. ^ Georg Opel serving as chairman of the supervisory board between 1946 and 1969 in Continental AG, International Directory of Company Histories, Encyclopedia.com
  4. ^ Fritz Jantschke: History of the Persian fallow deer Dama dama mesopotamica at Opel Zoo Kronberg . In: International Zoo Yearbook . tape 29 , no. 1 , 1990, p. 202–205 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1748-1090.1990.tb03353.x .
  5. ↑ A piece of cake in the bankruptcy estate FAZ.net, March 3 of 2010.
  6. ↑ Involvenzantrag the MAG Metz group
  7. ^ FAZ October 23, 2010 Investor wanted for the Georg von Opel dealership group
  8. ↑ Wittenberg FORD dealership group Dinnebier takes over a large part of the insolvent MAG Metz group in Berlin and Brandenburg on January 1, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Opel, Georg von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Opel, Georg (until 1918)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German automobile entrepreneur and sports official
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH August 14, 1971
Place of death Bad Soden am Taunus