Wilhelm von Opel

Wilhelm Albert Opel (from 1917 by Opel, born May 15, 1871 in Rüsselsheim, † May 2, 1948 in Wiesbaden ) was a German entrepreneur and co-owner of the Adam Opel KG ( 1928 AG). In the 1920s he led the Opel " tree frog " in the German automotive industry assembly line production.

Life

His father, Adam Opel founded 1862 in Rüsselsheim factory for sewing machines, which also produced bicycles later. Wilhelm von Opel studied at the Technical University of Darmstadt engineering and founded the Academic cycling club at the TH Darmstadt, from the 1893 Corps Franconia emerged. 1897 married William Martha Bade, from the marriage came two children, Fritz von Opel and Opel out of Elinor. After the death of his father in 1895 he took with his mother Sophie Opel and four brothers, the company. Three years later bought the Adam Opel KG Anhaltische motor car factory of Friedrich Dessauer Hofschlossermeisters Lutzmann and so began in 1898 with the automotive manufacturing.

William was appointed jointly with his brother Henry on 13 March 1917 in Darmstadt from the last Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig privy to and collected at the same time in the Grand Ducal Hessian nobility. His brother Carl was raised on 17 January 1918 in the nobility and appointed on March 7, the privy. The youngest brother Ludwig Opel fell in 1916 during the First World War.

In 1929 he sold along with his brother Friedrich Opel for a total of 154 million Reichsmarks the converted to an AG Rüsselsheim company to General Motors. As a Supervisory he remained until 1945, the company connected. In 1933 he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Wiesbaden.

On 1 May 1933 he joined the NSDAP and was among other things a sponsoring member of the SS, Senator of the House of German Art in Munich and a member of the Academy of German Law. In denazification court Opel was classified as a hanger on January 8, 1947, ordered to pay RM 2000.