Max Hoffman

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Max Hoffman , born Maximilian Edwin Hoffmann , nickname "Maxie", (born November 12, 1904 in Vienna ; died August 9, 1981 in the USA ) was an American car dealer of Austrian origin for European imported vehicles.

Life

Maximilian Edwin Hoffmann was the son of a Catholic mother and a Jewish father. His father ran a sewing machine and bicycle workshop. Max Hoffmann drove motorcycle and car races in the 1920s. In 1934 he and a partner founded the car dealership Hoffmann & Huppert, which imported Volvo vehicles to Austria, among other things .

After the annexation of Austria in 1938 he had to flee to France. In 1941 he managed to emigrate to the USA on a Portuguese ship. In New York he ran a fashion jewelry business including his own production. In 1946 he Americanized his name to "Hoffman". After the end of the war he began to import European automobiles to the USA and for this purpose founded the "Hoffman Motor Company" in New York in 1947.

Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (1954–1957)
BMW 507 at the IAA 2009

In 1955 he commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build a house in Rye , which he lived in until 1972. In addition to his job as an automobile dealer, Hoffman collected Impressionist paintings .

After his death, his widow, Marion O. Hoffman, founded the "Maximilian E. and Marion O. Hoffman Foundation Inc." in accordance with his will in 1982. The foundation, based in West Hartford CT, awards grants to students specializing in education and medicine , Religion and art. The foundation has assets of approximately $ 65 million.

Hoffman Motor Company

The Hoffman Motor Company was based on Park Avenue in Manhattan . The architect of the lavish exhibition rooms was Frank Lloyd Wright . The first and initially only exhibit was a luxurious Delahaye Coupé with a body by Figoni et Falaschi . From 1948 Hoffman became a dealer for Jaguar on the east coast of the USA. Other brands in his program were Rolls-Royce , Bentley , Austin , Cooper , Rover , Lea-Francis , Healey and Morgan .

From 1950 Hoffman became a Volkswagen importer for the US East Coast region . The sales success with the VW Beetle fell short of expectations. After selling around 2000 vehicles, he gave up the Volkswagen dealership again in 1953. The collaboration with Porsche was much more successful . To make the Porsche 356 popular, Hoffman successfully participated in automobile races with the sports car. In the mid-1950s, it sold a third of all Porsche production in the USA. He used his influence to bring the "356 Speedster" model onto the market. He also convinced Ferry Porsche to use the coat of arms that is still valid today as the Porsche logo.

In 1952 he began his collaboration with Daimler-Benz , which developed very successfully. He then had to give up the Jaguar representation. At his suggestion, the two models Mercedes 300 SL and later 190 SL were created . At a meeting with the Board of Management of Daimler-Benz when the decision was made to develop the 300 SL, he convinced the participants with the spontaneous statement that he was ready to buy 1,000 vehicles for the US market. The total number of Mercedes vehicles sold annually rose from 253 in 1952 to 6048 in 1957. In 1957, Daimler-Benz restructured sales in the USA and parted with Hoffman in return for a severance payment.

Hoffman also imported Fiat and Alfa Romeo vehicles in the 1950s . The development of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider was significantly influenced by him. He committed himself to accepting the first 500 vehicles. The model therefore appeared first in the USA and only then on the Italian market.

He began working with BMW in the mid-1950s . He developed the basic features for the BMW 507 designed by Albrecht Graf von Goertz . In the mid-1960s, Hoffman canceled most of his dealership agreements and became the exclusive agent for BMW. He successfully sold the vehicles of the so-called " New Class " in the USA. In 1975 it was paid out and BMW took over sales in the USA through its own sales channels.

Frank Lloyd Wright: Hoffman's house in Rye (2006 photo)

In 2004 Hoffman was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Donald Osborne: Max Hoffman Made Imports Less Foreign to Americans . In: New York Times . March 18, 2007. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b Christof Vieweg: The swing that made German technicians dance , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 21, 2015, p. 79 Link
  3. ↑ a b c d Max Hoffman - pulse generator for the 190 SL and 300 SL. In: Initiative as a cultural asset for mobility. Retrieved April 2, 2015 .
  4. ^ The Maximilian E. & Marion O. Hoffman Foundation, Inc. In: Foundation Directory Online. Retrieved April 2, 2015 .
  5. ↑ a b c visionary and car dealer . In: Stern . September 26, 2014. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
  6. ↑ a b Ripper for Europe . In: Spiegel . September 9, 1968. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
  7. ↑ Giulietta Spider . In: autoviva . Retrieved April 2, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Hoffman, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoffmann, Maximilian Edwin (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-American car dealer for imported vehicles
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH August 9, 1981
Place of death United States