“Former colleagues are not always nice colleagues,” said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer (72) on Friday LinkedIn
knowledge. This refers to his former companions at the “Center Automotive Research” in Duisburg. They had “car pope” Dudenhöffer Set to take place at the end of 2023. There was no reason for Dudenhöffer to retire: he continued with his own “CAR Center Automotive Research” in Bochum. To the displeasure of his ex-colleagues in Duisburg. They wanted to have the car expert banned from using that name by urgent application.
Initially unsuccessful: the Cologne regional court rejected the application. Much to Dudenhöffer’s delight. He sent a big “THANK YOU” to his lawyers Richard Rummel and Gero Wilke. “25 years of MY CAR…. And it lives on with a new logo and new appearance as CAR – Center Automotive Research, Bochum,” Dudenhöffer let his followers know.
He is planning the first major launch under the new flag with a new congress in June. His ex-colleagues also wanted to prohibit him from doing that. The attempt to steal his future was not successful, said Dudenhöffer when asked by manager magazin.
However, the dispute with his ex-colleagues is unlikely to be completely off the table. On the contrary: “We are currently examining a lawsuit in the matter,” Jan Wortberg (42) told manager magazin. Wortberg is managing director of “D+S Automotive GmbH”, which owns the Autoinstitut in Duisburg. Dudenhöffer’s reaction, again via LinkedIn
, it didn’t take long to ask: “Is complaining a business model?”
Gelsenkirchen, Duisburg, St. Gallen and back
Dudenhöffer founded the institute as a professor in Gelsenkirchen in 2000, and moved to Duisburg in 2009. After the university there retired him, Dudenhöffer moved on to the University of St. Gallen at the beginning of 2020. He didn’t stay there for long; after just two months he returned to Duisburg. As director, he continued the Automotive Research Center there, although no longer in a university context, but as a private-sector institute. However, Dudenhöffer was no longer the boss of his own shop: he only held 33.3 percent of D+S Automotive GmbH, which, curiously, still belongs to him today. Jan Wortberg holds the remaining shares.
He explained on Friday that the regional court had rejected the urgent application, but had not decided on the matter itself. “The rejection relates to a formal reason,” says Wortberg: the application should have been submitted earlier, “basically already at the end of 2023 in connection with the discussions with Prof. Dudenhöffer about the expiry of the consulting contract.” At that time, however, it was not yet clear that Dudenhöffer would use the abbreviation CAR “in the way it is now used for his purposes”.
Wortberg and Co. submitted their application at the end of March. Too late from the perspective of the court, which saw no urgency for an interim injunction. After all, Dudenhöffer joined around five months ago LinkedIn
announced his professional future. With lines that he obviously particularly likes: “Good colleagues are not always VERY good colleagues… + now on with CAR Bochum”.