Opel, Wilhelm Albert von (ennobled 1917)

Engineer, entrepreneur

born: 15.05.1871 in Rüsselsheim

died: 02.05.1948 in Wiesbaden

Opel, the second son of the manufacturer Adam Opel. After attending elementary school in Rüsselsheim and secondary schools in Offenbach and Mainz, Opel began training at the mechanical engineering school at Darmstadt Technical University. He dropped out in 1890. Opel moved to his father's company. At this time, Opel's core business focused on the manufacture of sewing machines. At the urging of Wilhelm von Opel and his brothers, the company initially expanded its product range to include bicycles.

In 1893, Wilhelm von Opel represented his company at the World's Fair in Chicago, where he came into contact with newly developed motor vehicles for the first time. After bicycle production hit a crisis in 1897, Wilhelm von Opel encouraged the production of motorized cars. The company acquired the relevant patents and examined company takeovers. In 1898, Opel finally bought the Anhaltinische Motorwagenfabrik Dessau and produced motor cars in Rüsselsheim based on the Dessau model. In the years that followed, Opel continued to develop its vehicles.

With the beginning of the First World War, the demand for vehicles and engines rose sharply due to armaments orders. Rüsselsheim now mainly produced trucks and military ambulances as well as reconnaissance and scout vehicles. In 1914, Opel was the largest German automobile manufacturer. Opel played a decisive role in this, having introduced the new production techniques he had learned about in the USA, particularly at Ford, into the company.

Wilhelm von Opel was ennobled in 1917. He had previously been appointed Grand Ducal Hessian Councillor of Commerce in 1908 and Privy Councillor of Commerce in 1916.

After the First World War, Opel converted its production to series production in the modern sense. As a result of this conversion, manufacturing costs and sales prices fell and Opel became the largest vehicle manufacturer in the German Reich. In 1928, the company was transformed into a stock corporation and in March 1929 was taken over by the American company General Motors for 154 million RM. In the course of this takeover, Wilhelm von Opel moved from the operational management to the position of Chairman of the Supervisory Board; the management was now in American hands.

Wilhelm von Opel settled in Wiesbaden in 1928. He was also active as a patron of the arts in Wiesbaden. During the global economic crisis, the city of Wiesbaden was struggling with a difficult financial situation. Opel granted it generous loans for the realization of beautification and construction projects with which it wanted to build on its spa tradition before the First World War and position itself as a modern spa and bathing city.

The plans for a modern outdoor pool on Wiesbaden's Neroberg also fell within this context. Opel donated RM 100,000 to the city for the realization of the new building, which had been planned for some time, and gave the city a further RM 150,000 as an interest-free loan. The swimming pool, which was named after Wilhelm von Opel, was opened in 1934 and was considered one of the most modern and beautiful open-air swimming pools in Germany.

In 1938, Opel donated to the construction of a shelter in Wiesbaden's city forest, which was named the Wilhelm von Opel Hut by the Wiesbaden Beautification Association. Further donations from Opel were used to set up field hockey, tennis and golf facilities for Wiesbaden clubs. The Goethe Stone (opens in a new tab) in Frauenstein and the Goethe Watch on the Geisberg (opens in a new tab) and the Wilhelm von Opel Tower (opens in a new tab) on the Kellerskopf (opens in a new tab) also bear witness to his generosity as a donor.

After the National Socialists "seized power", Wilhelm von Opel joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933. During the Weimar Republic, he had belonged to the German People's Party (DVP) until 1930. Between 1930 and 1933, he was close to the German Center Party. After the National Socialists "seized power", Opel also became a member of the German Labor Front, the National Socialist People's Welfare Association, the Reich Association of German Hunters and the Academy of German Law. As a member of the "Stahlhelm - Bund der Frontsoldaten", Opel was transferred to the SA in 1934. He was also a supporting member of the SS with an annual donation of 1,200 RM. The "Fordernden Mitglieder der SS" formed a sub-organization of the SS, which non-NSDAP members could also join and which served to collect donations for the establishment and expansion of the SS. The financial contributions, which were usually paid monthly, were not linked to any formal service in the SS. Wilhelm von Opel was also a sponsor of the House of German Art in Munich, which was commissioned by Adolf Hitler in 1933. Wilhelm von Opel provided the NSDAP with RM 21,000 for further building projects.

As Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Wilhelm von Opel fully supported the organizational adaptation of Adam Opel AG to the National Socialist company constitution. From 1933, the works council was transferred to the German Labour Front, the plants were organized according to the Führer principle and Jewish owners of Opel branches were forced out of the Group. As Chairman of the Supervisory Board and son of the company founder, Opel was the highest representative of the company during the Nazi era, while the members of the American management took a back seat in the public eye. Opel thus maintained close contact with the Nazi leadership in his professional capacity and, for example, greeted Hitler at motor shows on behalf of the company. When Wilhelm von Opel was investigated for a tax offense in 1936, Hitler approved of the Reich Ministry of Economics ensuring that the fine was reduced from 3.5 million RM to 750,000 RM.

With the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Adam Opel AG switched its production to a wartime economy, having already profited considerably from orders in the 1930s as part of the Wehrmacht's rearmament. In Rüsselsheim, production was switched from passenger cars to aircraft components. The problem of American ownership was countered by structural changes. A special committee of the Supervisory Board was formed, of which Wilhelm von Opel was also a member, in order to comply with the National Socialists' requirement that there should be a German management. In this way, the influence of the Americans could be maintained.

Opel used several thousand forced laborers during the Second World War. As Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Wilhelm von Opel was aware of the largely desolate treatment and accommodation of these workers. The extent to which Opel had any influence on living conditions is unclear.

During the Second World War, Wilhelm von Opel was honored several times by the Nazi regime. In October 1939, Opel received the War Merit Cross I Class from Adolf Hitler for his services to the German war economy.

On August 8, 1941, Opel was awarded honorary citizenship of the city of Wiesbaden in the ballroom of the city hall. In his acceptance speech, Wilhelm von Opel referred to Hitler's reconstruction efforts, particularly with regard to the Wehrmacht.

In addition to his good relations with the Nazi regime, there are indications that Wilhelm von Opel was also critical on a few points. For example, he had tried to prevent senior company officials who were either not "fully Aryan" themselves or had a Jewish wife from being dismissed.

Wilhelm von Opel claimed in the course of his trial after the war that, together with Christian Bucher, the head of the Wiesbaden waterworks, he had campaigned for the surrender of Wiesbaden without a fight in the last days of the war in 1945. Both spoke to Colonel von Zierenberg, the commander responsible for Wiesbaden, who finally implemented the surrender of the city to the U.S. Army without a fight.

What influence Opel really had on the combat commander von Zierenberg remains unclear in Bucher's report. It also remains unmentioned whether von Zierenberg, who was completely inexperienced in combat and equipped with completely inadequate forces, seriously prepared a fighting defense of Wiesbaden. In any case, no fighting took place and the Americans were able to occupy Wiesbaden on March 28, 1945.

After the end of the Second World War, Opel had to undergo denazification. The Spruchkammer proceedings against Opel ended on January 8, 1947 with Opel being classified as a "follower". Opel was ordered to pay a fine of 2,000 RM as "atonement" and also to bear the costs of the proceedings. In the run-up to the trial, Opel and his lawyer tried to justify the industrialist's membership of Nazi organizations. The chamber followed the argument of Opel's lawyers that his membership of the NSDAP was not motivated by conviction but by economic interests and that his membership of the SS and SA had resulted from previous memberships. The Chamber also relativized Opel's role in the rearmament and war economy of National Socialist Germany in line with the lawyers' arguments. With regard to the foreign workers and prisoners of war, the Chamber argued that Opel, as Chairman of the Supervisory Board, was not responsible for the care of the workers in the company, but for the management of the company.

Not only the public plaintiff, but also the Works Council of Adam Opel AG appealed against the Chamber's decision and thus Opel's classification as a "fellow traveler". There was no further hearing before the adjudication chamber. The Works Council, among others, had withdrawn its objection, whereupon the order was issued on April 26, 1948 to discontinue the appeal proceedings.

Wilhelm von Opel had suffered a stroke shortly before the proceedings were discontinued. A few days later, on May 2, 1948, Wilhelm von Opel died in Wiesbaden. He was buried in Rüsselsheim.

The Historical Expert Commission appointed by the City Council in 2020 to review traffic areas, buildings and facilities named after people in the state capital of Wiesbaden recommended that the Opelbad be renamed and the Wilhelm-von-Opel-Hütte renamed. In addition, the revocation of the honorary citizenship awarded in 1941 was recommended, as Wilhelm von Opel had belonged to various National Socialist organizations (NSDAP, DAF, NSV, SA, supporting member of the SS, Reichsbund Deutsche Jägerschaft, Akademie für Deutsches Recht). Even before 1933, he was active in a nationalist group with his membership of the "Stahlhelm - Bund der Frontsoldaten". He effectively supported the Nazi movement materially by making substantial donations to the NSDAP, the SS and other Nazi organizations. At public events, including with Adolf Hitler, and in his speech on the occasion of his appointment as honorary citizen of Wiesbaden in 1941, he made a noticeable commitment to National Socialism as a political movement and to the Nazi regime.

[This text was written by Kurz Buchholz for the 2017 printed version of the Wiesbaden City Dictionary, revised and supplemented by Dr. Brigitte Streich and again by Dr. Katherine Lukat in 2024].