The former boss of Daimler, Edzard Reuter, is dead. This was announced by the press spokesman for the Helga and Edzard Reuter Foundation. He died on October 27th in Stuttgart at the age of 96. “The death of Edzard Reuter fills us with great sadness,” said Susanne Eisenmann, Chairwoman of the Helga and Edzard Reuter Foundation in a message
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“As a patron and donor, Edzard Reuter has achieved outstanding achievements for decades – the common good was a matter close to his heart. His achievements remain after his death and his work will not be forgotten. Our condolences go out to his wife and family,” said Eisenmann, praising Reuter’s achievements.
Vision of a technology empire did not come true
The son of the former mayor of Berlin, Ernst Reuter, tried during his era to turn the car company into a much broader technology empire. The manager not only helped the Stuttgart-based company to establish a new corporate headquarters, but also to establish its own aerospace subsidiary, DASA. AEG, Dornier and MTU were also included. This brought the boss a lot of attention, but in the end the vision failed. Daimler returned to its core business. What remained was a loss of billions – and Reuter was never able to shake off the label of the greatest destroyer of capital of all time, which was placed on him by critics.
He himself always defended his course. “In detail, we made huge mistakes in our attempt to build a technology group – no doubt about it,” he once told the German Press Agency. “But I am firmly convinced that the fundamental approach was absolutely the right one.” Back then, people were already thinking about what the future of the auto industry could look like and how the company should prepare for it.
Eight years at the helm of Daimler
The studied mathematician and lawyer came to Daimler-Benz in 1965 and became a board member there in 1976. He had already been interviewed twice as boss, but twice other candidates were preferred to him. Then in 1987 it worked.
Reuter didn’t get a glittering farewell in 1995 – on the contrary. He once told “Zeit Magazine” that the reactions after his departure from Daimler were a severe, nasty humiliation. But, as his mother told him, you have to endure something like that if you are convinced that your actions are right.
Commitment to social engagement
In the years after his departure, however, it was mainly topics other than cars that were in the foreground. Anyone who saw Reuter, heard him or read about him may have found it difficult to reconcile this with his former position as a powerful business boss.
The long-time SPD member appeared not only as a champion for more decency and morality in the economy, but also as a social and socio-political warning. From his house on the outskirts of Stuttgart, Reuter himself ran the foundation named after him and his wife Helga, which promotes peaceful coexistence between people from different cultures.
“We have to learn that strangers who come to us and live with us can enrich our lives and change them,” Reuter once told the dpa. He himself grew up in the Türkiye after his family fled there from the Nazis in 1935. He kept a close eye on the situation there as well as the nationalist tendencies in the European Union. He criticized that he could never have imagined that the common values on which Europe is based could one day erode to such an extent.