Herbert Werner Quandt was a German industrialist and member of the Nazi Party credited with having saved BMW when it was at the point of bankruptcy and made a huge profit in doing so.
16 Facts About Herbert Quandt
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Herbert Quandt was born in Pritzwalk, the second son of Gunther Quandt.
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Herbert Quandt was affected by a retinal disease that left scars, and he was nearly blind from the age of nine.
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Herbert Quandt was the director of Pertrix GmbH, a Berlin-based subsidiary of AFA.
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Herbert Quandt was not tried after the war, though his father was interned until 1948 while he was investigated.
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Herbert Quandt mentioned that Herbert kept quiet about any evidence that could have been used to prosecute him or his father.
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Herbert Quandt gained greater responsibility for companies which his father had acquired and after 1945, he rebuilt them.
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Herbert Quandt developed a business philosophy of decentralised organisation which gave executives wide powers for decision-making and allowed employees to participate in their company's success.
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When Herbert Quandt's father died in 1954, the Herbert Quandt group was a conglomerate of about 200 businesses including the battery manufacturer, several metal fabrication companies, textile companies and chemical companies.
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Herbert Quandt was close to agreeing to such a deal, but changed his mind at the last minute because of opposition from the workforce and trade unions.
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Herbert Quandt was instrumental in reversing the company's fortunes by financing the BMW 700 which transformed the company's profitability.
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When Harald died in 1967 in an air crash, Herbert Quandt received more shares in BMW, VARTA and IWKA.
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Herbert Quandt married his first wife, Ursel Munstermann, in 1933 but they divorced in 1940.
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Herbert Quandt married his third wife Johanna Bruhn in 1960, just a year after his second divorce.
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Herbert Quandt had been a secretary in his office in the 1950s and eventually became his personal assistant.
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Herbert Quandt did not remarry after Herbert's death, and lived quietly in Bad Homburg until her own death in 2015.