A Life of Light and Shadow
Sometimes entrepreneurs or company executives become overbearing figures. The glory of a lifetime clings to their biography like honeydew, obscuring the other side of the coin—which is just as real. Yet this side is either swept under the rug or dismissed as insignificant.
Carl Horst Hahn is such a “super-father” figure for Volkswagen. He held leading positions at Volkswagen starting in 1954, served as CEO from 1981 to 1992, and subsequently sat on the supervisory board until 1997. He is currently being honored on the occasion of his 100th birthday at the Zeithaus in Autostadt; the Wolfsburg Art Museum presented the exhibition “For the Love of Art: Carl H. Hahn on His 100th Birthday” through August 30.
Carl H. Hahn's success was also due in part to his fortunate start in life. Although he was drafted at the end of the war as part of the class of '26, Hahn Senior provided him with papers in 1945—as he himself recounted—that allowed him to escape from the Soviet sector of the Baltic region into the American occupation zone. Later, beginning in 1950, he studied economics and business administration—in Zurich, Bristol, Paris, and Perugia.
There probably weren't many young German men who were able to study in Switzerland, England, France, and Italy at that time. Even if it was “often on the edge of subsistence,” as he writes in his biography *My Years with Volkswagen*. And when he started at VW as an assistant to General Manager Nordhoff in 1954, it likely didn't hurt that his father, Hahn, had previously managed a DKW plant and was well-connected in the industry through both the old and new Auto Union.
VW's rise in America with the Käfer? That was his achievement, but it was also a rewarding time when the Käfer became a global success, selling millions. He wasn't present for the Golf's debut; at that time, he was taking a break from Continental because he didn't get along with Nordhoff's successor. It wasn't until 1981, as the new CEO, that he really hit the gas again.
His involvement in China and the acquisition of SEAT are often praised, though from today's perspective, one might see things differently—not only in terms of SEAT's economic performance but also regarding human rights issues in China. There is no question that the rise to a global, multi-brand corporation was his achievement. But as CEO, he was just as responsible for a foreign exchange scandal in 1986–87 that wiped out an entire year's profit, even if he wasn't the one who committed the offense.
Nothing remained of that success, and with the acquisition of Škoda and the “golden years of sales” following German reunification, his long career ended in a cost crisis that Ferdinand Piëch had to combat starting in 1993 with the “Strangler of Wolfsburg,” aka José Lopez.
The patriarch entered a carefree and active retirement. Senator Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Carl H. Hahn continued to attend engagements around the world and enjoyed driving his little Porsche 914 in classic car rallies. Three secretaries and an assistant helped him with his day-to-day business. In 2023, the honorary citizen of Wolfsburg died peacefully at home—surrounded by shelves full of medals and honors.
