It was more than 26 years ago. As a young manager in Wolfsburg, I had the honor and privilege to be invited to Dr Carl Hahn’s 70th birthday. And when I say “honor and privilege”, I really mean it. This was a surprise invitation for me, as my former girlfriend was his assistant, and she asked me to join her. So, I did, and we chatted, joked, and got to know Dr Hahn’s wonderful American-born Italian wife Marisa and his children, together with other guests. I remember that I borrowed a pen from him in the garden to note something down. It was a cheap one-way pen from the VW office supply, and he handed it with a smile, demanding to return it after use, as it “is valuable”. We had a few more meetings in his office at the Wolfsburg Art Museum, one when I was already in China and returned to HQ for a business trip. Once, he actually fell into a construction ditch the day before and hurt his leg. So, he asked me to hand him the wastepaper basket to put up the leg, and so I sat opposite a pioneer in globalisation talking about China. Carl Hahn initiated the joint venture between Volkswagen and SAIC in Shanghai, becoming operational in 1984. When we celebrated the 20th anniversary in Shanghai in 2004, the CEO of Volkswagen Group, Ferdinand Piëch, put us in a fix. His office informed us that should Hahn be invited, Piëch would not attend. I always avoided Piëch, because when he looked at you, it was so piercing that you may better take an Aspirin before. There were, and for sure still are, a few of these characters at VW. It was the time I learned that organisations are not run through an org chart, but warlords run them. Still, the 2004 celebration turned out to be like living in Martin Posth’s book “1000 days in Shanghai”, describing how the joint venture was set up. Many of the book’s characters became alive in front of me. And they were friends. Of course, I also read Daniel Goedevert’s book “Like a bird in an aquarium”, looking back at his time as CEO at Volkswagen. I never met Daniel Goedevert though.
Last year I was still in touch with Dr Hahn’s office to arrange a meeting. One point I wanted to convey was to thank him for being an inspiration and role model to me. Even sometimes during my travels, when it became tough, I thought of him in his 80s going somewhere in rural Tajikistan to negotiate setting up a shoe factory for Deichmann. Due to the Covid protocols, our meeting was postponed several times.
Yesterday, on January 14 2023, Dr Carl Hahn passed away in his home in Wolfsburg, aged 96. He follows his wife Marisa Traina Hahn. He leaves behind his children, grandchildren and friends. The world lost one of the great industrialists and visionary managers. And many lost their mentor and godfather of their careers. I regret, I could not thank him in person.