Willy Ochel

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Willy Ochel (born January 27, 1903 in Wiedenest ; † January 12, 1992 in Dortmund ) was a German engineer and manager .

Life

The son of August Ochel (1869-1946), foreman in a Bergneustädter textile factory, and Johanna Ochel (1875-1937), born Heinrichs, attended grammar school in Gummersbach and then studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Hanover . In 1927 he passed the examination as a qualified engineer. Ochel began his professional career as a designer and test engineer at Flottmann-Werke in Herne . Two years later he moved from the Ruhr area to Berlin and got a job as a senior engineer with specifications for compressor construction at Borsig AG . In 1936 he switched to engineering at the Ehrhardt & Sehmer machine factory based in Saarbrücken . In 1941 he became a member of the board of directors of Orenstein & Koppel AG , which, during the Nazi era, was a subsidiary of Hoesch AG under the company name Maschinenbau und Bahnbedarf AG, or MBA for short. His responsibility there included locomotive, wagon and engine construction as well as the reorganization of the Babelsberg locomotive factory.

During the Second World War , Ochel was involved in the production of armaments and a member of armaments committees. The Reich Ministry of Armaments and Ammunition put him in charge of the entire tank engine production , although he had told Albert Speer in 1943 that he did not have a good relationship with the NSDAP . Although he was not a member of the NSDAP and is said to have complied with the task assigned to him only reluctantly, he was appointed head of the main committee in the Armaments Ministry, was awarded the War Merit Cross with Swords and belonged to the Albert Speer Circle of Friends after the end of the war.

In the SBZ , Ochel was appointed main director for all locomotive and wagon construction. He refused to join the SED that was suggested to him, and he also turned down the offer to take on a position as deputy trade minister . Finally, in February 1949, he moved to West Germany , where he took part in the reconstruction of the Hoesch works.

The Hoesch Group was broken up by Allied legislation in 1952 and divided into three corporate groups. Ochel continued his career at what was now Hoesch Werke AG in Dortmund, became a member of the board in 1952 and had been the company's chairman since 1960. While he was on the board, numerous steelworks were rebuilt, renovated and modernized, primarily the largely destroyed main plant “ Westfalenhütte ” in the north-east of Dortmund. In addition, the mechanization and automation of the production processes began. In the course of the structural change, Ochel proposed a reorganization in the mid-1960s that provided for the nationalization of the mining operations attached to the steelworks. The project, known as the “Ochel Plan”, encountered resistance from the mining authorities and could not be implemented as a result. 1966 Ochel led together with Fritz Harders , CEO of Dortmund-Horder hut Union AG , the merger by the hut Union with Hoesch. In 1968 he moved from the executive board to the head of the supervisory board. Ochel was opposed to the further planned merger with the Dutch mining company Koninklijke Hoogovens to form the Estel group, which was carried out in 1972, whereupon he resigned his mandate as chairman of the supervisory board prematurely in 1970.

Ochel was President of the Dortmund Chamber of Commerce and Industry from 1955 to 1963 and became its Honorary President in 1968. From 1963 to 1970 he was a member of the board of directors of the German Industry and Trade Convention , from 1962 to 1970 a member of the board of trustees of the Volkswagenwerk Foundation , from 1968 to 1970 chairman of the Society of Friends of the University of Dortmund and from 1971 a member of the Max Planck Senate -Society . He was also a member of the church leadership of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia from 1967 to 1970 .

Willy Ochel married Ilse Klehne (1906–1983) in 1934. The couple had two sons and three daughters.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ochel, Willy. In: Who is who? The German who's who. 17th edition. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1973, p. 788.
  2. ↑ a b c d Willy Ochel (1903–1992). In: Wolfhard Weber (Hrsg.): Engineers in the Ruhr area. (= Rheinisch-Westfälische Wirtschaftsbiographien . Volume 17). Aschendorff, Münster 1999, ISBN 3-402-06753-6 , p. 507.
  3. ↑ 13 at table . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1966, pp. 46-47 ( Online - Jan. 24, 1966 ).
personal data
SURNAME Ochel, Willy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ochel, Willi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer and manager
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Wiedenest
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1992
Place of death Dortmund