Herbert Quandt

Herbert Werner Quandt (22 June 1910 – 2 June 1982) was a German industrialist and member of the Nazi Party credited with having saved BMW when it was at the point of bankruptcy. and made a huge profit in doing so. Quandt also oversaw the use at his family's factories during World War II of tens of thousands of slave labourers, many of whom perished. Quandt was affected by a retinal disease that left scars, and he was nearly blind from the age of nine. Consequently, he had to be educated at home.

Nazi period The Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award-winning documentary film The Silence of the Quandts by the German public broadcaster ARD described in October 2007 the role of the Quandt family businesses during the Second World War. The family's Nazi past was not well known, but the documentary film revealed this to a wide audience and confronted the Quandts about the use of slave labourers in the family's factories during World War II. As a result, five days after the showing, The independent 1,200-page study that was released in 2011 concluded: "The Quandts were linked inseparably with the crimes of the Nazis." This turnover was due in large part to the concentration of acid gas in the air of the factory in which the slave labor was forced to work. Slave labor was used extensively throughout the Quandt factories and as early as 1938. Herbert Quandt was not tried after the war, though his father was interned until 1948 while he was investigated. BMW was an ailing company and in 1959 its management suggested selling the whole concern to Daimler-Benz. Herbert Quandt was close to agreeing to such a deal, but changed his mind at the last minute because of opposition from the workforce and trade unions. Instead he increased his share in BMW to 50% against the advice of his bankers, risking much of his wealth. He was instrumental in reversing the company's fortunes by financing the BMW 700 which transformed the company's profitability. They joined the board in May 1997.

Herbert ensured that the shares in his companies were not thinly spread and so to avoid family disputes the children of the previous marriages received large shares in other Quandt family companies. Silvia Quandt, the oldest child, received extensive investments and property in the 1970s. Later the three children from the second marriage were given the majority of the shares of VARTA Battery AG but these have since been sold. Susanne also received his shares in Altana AG, while Stefan also received shares in a holding company called Delton with interests in medical products and power supplies.

Herbert Quandt died on 2 June 1982 in Kiel.

There is now a foundation in the Herbert Quandt name through BMW.