Heinz Heinrich Nordhoff was a German engineer who led the rebuilding of Volkswagen (VW) after World War II. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine on Feb. 15, 1954.
Occupation
entrepreneur, university teacher, engineer, industrialist
Heinz Heinrich Nordhoff (6 January 1899 – 12 April 1968) was a German engineer who led the rebuilding of Volkswagen (VW) after World War II. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine on Feb. 15, 1954.
Nordhoff accepted the British invitation to assume the directorship of VW, directly after WWII, at the time little more than a bombed factory, and guided the company to become to become the fourth largest automotive company at the time of his death in 1968.
Background
Nordhoff was born in Hildesheim, the son of a banker. He graduated from the Technical University of Berlin, where he became a member of the Roman Catholic fraternity Askania-Burgundia.
Nordhoff died on April 12, 1968, from the effects of a heart attack sustained months earlier. He was survived by his wife, Charlotte (Fassunge) Nordhoff (1898-1988) and daughters Elisabeth (later Mrs. Ernst Piech, grandson of Ferdinand Piech) and Barbara Nordhoff (Mrs. Dan Cantacuzino-Corneni, 1929-2022).
