William Werner

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Werner (born November 7, 1893 in New York City , † June 20, 1970 in Sempach ) was a German automobile manager .

Live and act

William Werner was born in Manhattan / New York as the son of the banker Carl Arnold Werner (* 1868) and his wife Marie, b. Haschert (* 1870) born. His parents originally lived in Oederan and emigrated to America in 1892. William had a sister Gertrud (* 1897). In 1907 he moved to Germany and initially took anatomy and drawing lessons from Wilhelm Tank in Berlin . In 1912 he began an apprenticeship as a mechanic and joined the mechanical workshop of the American Multigraph GmbH Berlin as a fitter . As an American citizen, he was exempt from military service. After an evening school course from 1914 to 1918, he passed the engineering examination for mechanical engineering . In 1919 he married Margarete Kaminski (1896–1986) in Berlin-Wilmersdorf . From 1920 to 1924 he worked as a production engineer for leading German mechanical engineering companies such as Bergmann-Borsig Berlin, Berliner AG vorm. Freund and Alfred H. Schütte Berlin. In 1924 he was employed as operations director at the Ludwig Loewe machine tool factory in Berlin and in 1925 as technical director at Schiess AG in Düsseldorf. In 1926 he went on a study trip through the USA , where he worked for various automobile manufacturers, a. a. also worked as a lineman at Chrysler in Detroit . In 1926 he found a job at Horch-Werke in Zwickau , where he was promoted to technical director in 1927 and a full member of the board in 1929 . In 1929 he took on German citizenship . When Auto Union was founded in 1932, he was appointed deputy board member responsible for technology. In 1934 he replaced the departed DKW founder Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen on the board. In this position he was also responsible for the racing program. In the 1930s, Auto Union's car and motorcycle racers succeeded in winning numerous national and international championships (including the European Grand Prix Championship in 1936 ) and setting several European and world records.

During the time of National Socialism , Werner held numerous positions:

This article or section consists mainly of lists, which should be replaced by running text . Please help Wikipedia improve this. More about is here to find.

  • Chairman of the Technical Committee of the Vehicle Industry Economic Group, Berlin
  • Member of the Reich Committee for Performance Enhancement in the Advisory Board of the Plenipotentiary for Motor Vehicles (GBK) Lieutenant General Adolf von Schell
  • Deputy chairman of the industrial council at Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring , this committee advised and decided on all questions of air force production (1941)
  • Head of engine department in the technical office of the Ministry of Armaments and Ammunition under Albert Speer
  • Head of the management office for production facilities in the armaments delivery office / Ministry of Speer, also representative of head of office Walter Schieber (1942)
  • Member of the Armaments Council
  • Member of the armaments staff (1942)
  • Member of the Jägerstab (1944)

From 1940, under the leadership of Richard Bruhn and William Werner, Auto Union developed into one of the leading German arms companies . In addition to passenger cars, motorcycles and trucks, tank and aircraft engines as well as anti-aircraft guns, torpedoes and machine guns were manufactured. The approximately 47,000 employees achieved a turnover of more than 700 million Reichsmarks in the last financial year 1943/1944 .

In 1945 Werner fled from the advancing Red Army to Bad Homburg and founded the “Central Depot for Auto Union” in Oldenburg (Oldb) together with Gerhard Müller (1905–1970), the former head of the Auto Union executive secretariat, for the territory of the British occupation zone Spare parts GmbH ”(based on the model of the“ central depot ”in Ingolstadt for the area of ​​the American occupation zone). In 1948 he set up the moped and motorcycle factory Pluvier NV (“Berini” brand) in Rotterdam and managed it for a while before he was appointed managing director of Auto Union GmbH in Düsseldorf (which was newly founded in Ingolstadt in 1949) in 1956 . In 1957 he became a board member of the Association of the Automotive Industry . In 1958/1959 Daimler-Benz AG took over Auto Union. In 1961 the management of Auto Union was relocated from Düsseldorf to Ingolstadt. In 1962 Werner retired. In 1963 he became a member of the supervisory board of the Zweirad-Union in Nuremberg .

In 1964/1965 Volkswagenwerk AG took over Auto Union and merged it in 1969 with Neckarsulm NSU AG to form Audi NSU Auto Union AG (from 1985 Audi AG ).

Honors

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Audi AG: four rings. The Audi story: Edition Audi Tradition Verlag Delius Klasing Bielefeld 1st edition 2009, ISBN 978-3-7688-2578-8 , page 351
  2. Halwart Schrader : Motor Men: People, Myths and Motors of Automobile History Verlag Motorbuchverlag Stuttgart 2011 ISBN 978-3-613-03202-6 page 246
  3. Audi AG: The wheel of time. The history of AUDI AG Verlag Delius Klasing Bielefeld 2nd edition 1997 ISBN 978-3-7688-1011-1 page 111
  4. Siegfried Rauch : DKW - The history of a world brand Motorbuchverlag Stuttgart 4th edition 1995 ISBN 978-3-613-02815-9
  5. Hans Christoph Graf von Seherr-Thoss : The German automobile industry A documentation from 1886 to 1979. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt Stuttgart and Berlin, 2nd edition Stuttgart 1979
personal data
SURNAME Werner, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German automobile entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH new York
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1970
Place of death Sempach