Carl von Opel

Georg Adolf Carl von Opel (31 August 1869 – 16 February 1927 ), known as Georg Adolf Carl Opel before being ennobled in 1918, was a bank specialist and industrialist of the Opel family and one of the founders of the German automobile manufacturer Opel.

Biography

Carl's parents are Adam and Sophie Opel. His father had founded the family firm in 1862 in Rüsselsheim as a manufacturer of sewing machines, and later diversified into bicycle manufacturing. After Adam's death in 1895, control of the company passed to his wife and two of his sons. In 1898, Carl and his brothers Wilhelm and Fritz brought Opel into the automobile industry with the purchase of the small Lutzmann automobile factory at Dessau.

On 30 May 1895 he married Helena Wilhelmine Mouson, daughter of Johann Jacob Mouson and of Eleonore Dorothea Hock. He had two sons and two daughters, Johann Jacques, Georg, Sophie and Eleonore.

On 17 January 1918 in Darmstadt, Carl was raised to the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, one year later than his brothers Wilhelm and Heinrich. In the same year he was appointed as privy councillor.

Carl von Opel was a member of the Corps Franconia Darmstadt.

The name the 'Opel Karl' small car built in 2015 is an homage to this Opel ancestry.