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The Daily Update: farewell to Ferdinand Piëch

2019-08-27T16:53:27.249Z


Here you will find the most important news of the day, the most popular stories of SPIEGEL + and tips for your end of workday. The theme of the day: Farewell to Ferdinand Piëch he wrote automotive history - "as a passionate ...



Here you will find the most important news of the day, the most popular stories of SPIEGEL + and tips for your end of workday.

The theme of the day: farewell to Ferdinand Piëch

He wrote car history - "as a passionate manager, ingenious engineer and visionary entrepreneur". With this words, the VW Supervisory Board Chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch has responded to the death of Ferdinand Piëch.

The former Volkswagen and Supervisory Board Piëch died on Sunday at the age of 82 years, "suddenly and unexpectedly," as his wife Ursula announced. Her husband had been an avid engineer and car lover until recently.

More than twenty years dominated Piëch Volkswagen, transformed the ailing Wolfsburg car manufacturer into a global corporation.

He is passionate about cars and technology. A passion that is indeed in the family: Piëch's mother is the daughter of VW Beetle designer Ferdinand Porsche. However, he is not promoted at home, his childhood is marked by parental hardship. Later Piëch studies mechanical engineering, he tinkers, goes into Porsche. Designs the Porsche 917, which should turn out to be a model of success. Hopes to become Porsche boss. But his Porsche relationship does not let him. In 1972, Piëch joins Audi instead, converting the VW subsidiary into a premium manufacturer. In 1993 he becomes VW boss.

  • Visionary strategist, intriguing autocrat: How Ferdinand Piëch created a global auto-empire

Porsche, Historical Archive

The young Piëch with his cousin Alexander and his grandfather Ferdinand Porsche

In 2012, Piëch brings his second wife, Ursula Piëch, to the VW board. Alongside her, long-time former VW CEO Martin Winterkorn was one of his few confidants. In 2015, Piëch starts a power struggle, which he loses in the end. Piëch retires to private life. Shortly thereafter, the biggest scandal of the VW Group history begins - the exhaust gas scandal.

Critics speak of a system of fear that Piëch created, and on whose breeding ground, among other things, the exhaust gas scandal could grow. An idea of ​​how much he polarized with his way of playing authoritarian power, you can hear from his interviews. When in 2015 rumors about his alleged retreat and the ailing health arise, he told the SPIEGEL: "I will not guillotine until I'm sure who it was."

  • Words that moved a global corporation: the most famous quotes
  • Highlights and flops: these cars were created by Ferdinand Piëch
  • "One of the great entrepreneurs in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany": the reactions to Piëch's death from business and politics

As relentless as he gave himself as a group leader, "no matter the man Ferdinand Piëch his legacy has never been," writes my colleague Claus Hecking. He had often said goodbye to business partners with the sentence: "I ask for good slander."

The award-winning SPIEGEL reporter Jürgen Leinemann portrayed Ferdinand Piëch in 1993 - at the height of his power. A man in permanent state of war. At the time, one employee confessed: "Once he smiled, it became dangerous." I recommend you this portrait.

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Quote of the day: "In Freital we have no problem of racism"

Says Candido Mahoche. He has been living in Saxony for 40 years, for a long time in Freital. He is a brewer, sits on the town council for the CDU, and twice a week he trains children at the local football club. Originally he comes from Mozambique. In 2015, his city made headlines as residents lain for days on an asylum shelter. Mahoche worries that the AFD could be the strongest force in Sunday's state election. But he defends his hometown - and Saxony. Racists, he says, are in the minority here. Watch the video report here.

Martin Jäschke / SPIEGEL ONLINE

Defend Saxony: Candido Mahoche from Freital

News: What you need to know today

  • Italy's five-star boss Di Maio has only until Wednesday to close an alliance with the Social Democrats. Otherwise threatened new elections in the country. This could benefit Matteo Salvini in particular.
  • After the explosion at BASF, a court imposed suspended sentences against workers. The district court in Frankenthal sentenced the man to one year in prison on probation. Five people died in the gas explosion in Ludwigshafen in 2016. The details.
  • Trump G7 meeting - What the US president's plan is all about : If Donald Trump goes down, the next G7 summit will take place in one of his golf clubs. Critics see a conflict of interest: This would not just be advertising on the world stage for the host's private business. Foreign delegations would also be forced to pay tax money to a private company of the US president.
  • The White House corrects a Trump statement to First Lady and North Korea's Kim. It made it clear that there was never a meeting between Melania Trump and North Korea's ruler Kim Jong Un. US President Donald Trump said at the conclusion of the G7 summit in Biarritz that he knew Kim "extremely well," and, "The First Lady met Kim Jong Un."
  • NASA pictures show a poison cloud over Brazil. The deep red color on the map indicates high levels of carbon monoxide emissions due to forest fires in the country - the heaviest in years. Carbon monoxide is toxic to humans.

NASA / JPL-Caltech

Simulation with data from the NASA research satellite "Aqua"

Opinion: The most discussed comments

World news! A man has kept a baby! There is a lot going on in our world, an alien visiting would immediately notice. But fortunately, there are also positive things to report - about top fathers, for example. The column by Margarete Stokowski.

Do you know Michelle Bolsonaro? Emmanuel Macron is joking about the appearance of his wife. Luckily, says Harald Schmidt, there are other presidents whose wives you can laugh about. Here is the video.

MIRROR ONLINE

Stories: The most read texts at SPIEGEL +

China's ruling power trembles with her smile: Beijing's state press brands her as a "gang of four" that incites youth: who are the masterminds of the protests in Hong Kong?

YM YIK / EPA-EFE / REX

A "Gang of Four" is behind the protest movement in Hong Kong, including attorneys Martin Lee (r) and Albert Ho

Fasten seat belts! Climate Change! Injured passengers, flying baggage: The number of accidents in aircraft is increasing. Triggers are "Clear Air Turbulences", which occur completely unexpectedly.

What does sugar do with the psyche? Chocolate makes you happy, heavy food depressed? A scientist explains the study situation.

Conny Marshaus / Cultura RF / Getty Images

Why carbohydrates are not "happy food" explains a nutritionist in an interview

My evening: the recommendations for your end of workday

What you might hear: "Jimmy Lee", the album by R & B artist Raphael Saadiq. My colleague Andreas Borcholte has heard the work, it sounds different than contemporary R & B productions, a bit retro, a little eighties, never boring. He says, "'Jimmy Lee' may work through a personal, painful past, but it also touches and pervades America's sorrowful presence - a triumph." Here you can listen.

"Jimmy Lee" by Raphael Saadiq: not a contemporary R & B

I wish you a nice finishing time.

warmly

Maria Stöhr from the Daily Team

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Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2019-08-27

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