Giovanni Agnelli senior
Giovanni Agnelli (born August 13, 1866 in Villar Perosa , † December 16, 1945 in Turin ) was an Italian entrepreneur . He was one of the eight founding members of the Fiat automotive company .
Life
Giovanni Agnelli was the only son of Edoardo Agnelli senior, a respected farmer and northern Italian large landowner in the area of Villar Perosa, and Aniceta Frisetti. After school, he attended the military school in Modena from 1884 to 1886 and left it as a lieutenant in the Italian cavalry. Shortly afterwards he married Clara Boselli. On January 2, 1892, his son Edoardo Agnelli was born.
He recognized very early the importance of the car and took the Phoenix model from Daimler in 1898 as a template for his reflections to produce cars. On July 11, 1899, he and seven other people founded the Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino ( FIAT ). In 1900 he became executive director ( Administratore Delegato ) of the automobile company. From 1920 to 1943 he was its president.
At times, FIAT was the most modern car factory in Europe with 50,000 employees. It even had a test track on the roof of the main building. So that his cars could be bought on credit, he founded his own bank and achieved great success. The fascists under Mussolini benefited from the successful enterprise. Agnelli tried to keep her distance from them. In the summer of 1945 he was charged with collaborating with the Germans and the fascists and was no longer allowed to enter the factory premises. Four days after his death, it was announced that the confiscation had been reversed and the work was returned to the family.
Giovanni Agnelli was mayor of Villar Perosa from 1895 until his death in 1945. He died of pneumonia at the age of 80.
In 1923 Giovanni Agnelli was appointed a member of the Senate of the Italian Empire ( Senato del Regno ) for life . He received various awards, including Grand Officer of the Order of St. Mauritius and Lazarus (1921) and Grand Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy (1932).
literature
- Vito Avantario : The Agnellis - The secret rulers of Italy , Campus Verlag, Frankfurt 2002, ISBN 978-3-593-36906-8 .
Web links
- Genealogy of his descendants ( Memento from July 13, 2001 in the Internet Archive )
- Giovanni Agnelli senior in the database of Find a Grave (English)
- Arndt Brunnert on NDR
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Cars for Italy , NDR, August 13, 2016
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Agnelli, Giovanni senior |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian entrepreneur, founding member of Fiat |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 13, 1866 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Villar Perosa |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 16, 1945 |
| Place of death | Turin |