Carl Hahn

Carl Horst Hahn, who lived from 1 July 1926 to 14 January 2023, was a German businessman who headed the Volkswagen Group from 1982 to 1993 as chairman of the board of management of Volkswagen AG. Born in Chemnitz, he took a doctorate in economics at the University of Bern in 1952 and joined Volkswagen in 1954. As president of Volkswagen of America from 1959 to 1965 he hired the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency, whose advertising helped the Beetle and the Microbus sell strongly and earned him the affectionate nickname Mr. Volkswagen. In 1973 he left to lead the German tire company Continental AG, then returned to Volkswagen in 1982. Under him the group raised car production from two million units to 3.5 million in a decade, bought SEAT outright by 1990, entered the Chinese market in 1984 and formed a joint venture with Škoda Auto after 1991. Rising costs led to his replacement by Ferdinand Piëch in 1993.