Ivan Hirst

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Ivan Hirst (born March 4, 1916 in Saddleworth , England; † March 10, 2000 in Marsden , England) was a British officer (major) and engineer at REME ( R oyal Electrical and M echanical E ngineers).

biography

After the end of the Second World War , the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg in Wolfsburg , previously “City of the KdF Wagons ”, became the trusteeship of the British military government , which was planning to dismantle the plant. Hirst was sent to Wolfsburg in autumn 1945 as Senior Resident Officer by the British military government, where he was a member of the plant's control commission. This appointed Hermann Münch as chief trustee and first general director for the Volkswagen plant , among other things through the British Colonel Marsh as representative of Property Control of the British military government . After Rudolf Brörmann was dismissed as production manager in 1946, Hirst arranged for Herrmann Steinmeiers to be appointed as his successor.

Hirst campaigned for the preservation of the Volkswagen factory by initially helping to secure orders from the British government. The dismantling plans were postponed several times and the future of the plant was ultimately secured. Hirst pushed ahead with the expansion of the plant and, in particular, eliminated supply and traffic bottlenecks in order to improve production conditions. He ensured the beginning of Volkswagen exports. On the recommendation of Hirst, Heinrich Nordhoff was appointed General Director of the Volkswagen factory on January 1, 1948. Ivan Hirst left the Volkswagen factory in August 1949. The official handover of the trusteeship of the Volkswagenwerk to the federal government was on October 8, 1949.

Hirst stayed with the British Army until 1955, before moving to the OECD in Paris in 1955 . From 1976 he lived near Manchester in retirement.

Honors

A street in Wolfsburg was named after Hirst in 2007 (Major-Hirst-Straße).

literature

  • Hans Mommsen, Manfred Grieger: The Volkswagen factory and its workers in the Third Reich. ECON Verlag, Düsseldorf 1996, ISBN 3-430-16785-X .
  • Ralf Richter: Ivan Hirst. British officer and manager of Volkswagen construction. Volkswagen AG, Wolfsburg 2003, ISBN 3-935112-12-2 . ( Available online , pdf, 8 MB)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ralf Richter: Ivan Hirst British officer and manager of Volkswagen construction. P. 121.
  2. ↑ Hans Mommsen, Manfred Grieger: The Volkswagen factory and its workers in the Third Reich. P. 966
  3. ↑ Hans Mommsen, Manfred Grieger: The Volkswagen factory and its workers in the Third Reich. P. 967
  4. ↑ Hans Mommsen, Manfred Grieger: The Volkswagen factory and its workers in the Third Reich. P. 974
  5. ↑ Dedication of Major-Hirst-Strasse in Wolfsburg near the city of Wolfsburg on April 12, 2007

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hirst, Ivan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British major and engineer
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Saddleworth
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 2000
Place of death Marsden (England)