Rudolf von Bennigsen-Foerder (Manager)

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Rudolf Christian von Bennigsen-Foerder (born July 2, 1926 in Berlin ; † October 28, 1989 in Düsseldorf ) was a German industrial manager and long-time CEO of VEBA AG.

Live and act

Rudolf von Bennigsen-Foerder came from a branch of the old Hanoverian noble family von Bennigsen , which had produced numerous lawyers, officers and civil servants (including the liberal politician Rudolf von Bennigsen ). His father, Rudolf Johann Alexander von Bennigsen-Foerder (* 1879 in Reinbek ), the youngest son of Albert von Bennigsen-Foerder , was a lawyer and was temporarily on the board of directors of the Borsig company in Berlin before the Second World War . On his grandmother's side, he was also related to the Prussian officer family von Treskow .

After military service and imprisonment, Bennigsen-Foerder studied law in Erlangen from 1947 and was chairman of the General Student Committee (AStA) there. In 1949/50 he was also a member of the board of the Association of German Student Associations (VDS) as 2nd chairman .

During this time Bennigsen-Foerder was still a student employee of the then State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance , Alfred Hartmann , who was chairman of the supervisory boards of several large federally owned companies, including the United Electricity and Mining AG (VEBA) , which was then still fully federally owned . After the second state examination in 1957, Bennigsen first became a consultant for federal investments in the Federal Ministry of Finance and two years later moved to VEBA with Hartmann. As of 1965, he was appointed general representative, was appointed to the company's board of directors in 1969 and finally became chairman of the board in 1971. In this position, which he held until his death in 1989 and in which he was responsible for the restructuring and privatization of the former state company VEBA, Bennigsen-Foerder became one of the most famous and influential managers in the Federal Republic of Germany at that time. Among other things, he was a personal member of the executive board of BDI and BDA .

Bennigsen-Foerder has repeatedly and actively participated in economic and environmental debates. In the dispute over the closure of the Rheinhausen ironworks, for example, he appealed to the socio-political responsibility of the economy. He also coined the term “the third factor of production, nature”, which must be rewarded as well as capital and labor. After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster , he advocated a new consensus on energy policy in which nuclear energy should find its place at least temporarily as a "transitional technology" in order to make the costs of generating electricity from German hard coal, which is expensive by international standards, manageable. In the dispute over the Wackersdorf reprocessing plant , Bennigsen-Foerder concluded a contract for the reprocessing of German fuel elements in La Hague, France, against the will of the Federal Government at the time , thus paving the way for the decision against Wackersdorf.

On June 18, 1980 Bennigsen-Foerder received the exequatur as Honorary Consul General of the Kingdom of Norway. The consular district comprised the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.

At the end of October 1989 Rudolf von Bennigsen-Foerder died unexpectedly of pneumonia.

Honors

Foundation and science award

After his death in 1989 Rudolf v. Bennigsen Foerder Foundation for Science and Education established in the Stifterverband for German Science . The purpose of the foundation is to promote science and education in the field of law and economics in the states of Berlin , Brandenburg , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia . The foundation has made significant contributions to equipping the legal libraries in Jena, Berlin, Greifswald, Halle and Frankfurt (Oder), made teaching positions in economics at the Humboldt University of Berlin and at the University of Potsdam possible, and an endowed professorship for civil law, Focus on commercial law, corporate law and antitrust law at the University of Jena co-financed. Another endowed professorship for corporate management has existed at the Humboldt University of Berlin since 1999.

In 2005 Rudolf v. Bennigsen-Foerder aid fund for training young people in the Ruhr area transferred to the foundation.

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has also been awarding a Rudolf von Bennigsen Foerder Prize for innovative projects by young scientists since 1989 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Announcement by the Prime Minister of July 1, 1980 (MBl. NW. 1980 p. 1803). Ministerialblatt des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, accessed on April 16, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Bennigsen-Foerder, Rudolf von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bennigsen-Foerder, Rudolf Christian von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German industrial manager and long-time CEO of VEBA AG
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 1989
Place of death Dusseldorf