The strongest son-in-law
In 1865, in a small town called Pritzvalk, about 130 kilometers northwest of Berlin, Germany, a 16-year-old migrant boy stepped into a town called Ludwig. Dregg's textile mill.
This one is called Emir. Quant, who lost his father at the age of six, was raised by his mother as a part-time worker, and had to go to a factory to support his family after graduating from secondary school, and he worked hard for the next ten years, growing from the lowest apprentice to the company's business manager.
However, what affected his fate was not his own efforts, but the favor of his boss Greg Sr.; Due to the problem of the heir of the Greg family, there was no one in the family who was worthy of the great responsibility, so this shrewd and capable young man walked into the eyes of the old Gleik.
Emir. Quant and his wife
In 1879, the owner of the factory, Ludwig . Greg died, Emile. Quant took control of the company and the following year married Edved, the elder's daughter. Dregg; However, what the old Dregg did not expect was that his decision did not keep the Dregg family's business, but made his hard work the original accumulation of the Kuante family; After the death of Drake the Elder, Emile . Quant took out 35,000 thaler to buy all the shares in the old Dregger and officially took control of the textile factory; he really realized the counterattack of his son-in-law.
Emir. After Quant took control of the textile factory, he began to purchase a large number of the most advanced new equipment in China for production, and began to develop a large number of new products to expand market share, so that the company turned a profit and obtained a large amount of cash flow. Emir. Quant's education is not high, so he is a very conservative person in business; He never used loans to run production, but insisted on using cash flow from the company's production. In this way, in the economic winter that followed the Franco-Prussian War, the emir's factory was able to survive, while many of his colleagues in the emir closed down in the economic winter.
Taking advantage of the large number of companies to sell at low prices in the economic depression, Emile . With a large amount of cash flow in his hands, Quant acquired a large number of companies, and after the economic winter, the textile factory of the Quant family has become a monopoly in Germany and has truly become a giant company.
The second generation of heads
Unlike family business owners in the United States and family business owners in China, many family business owners in Germany almost always want their children to inherit their father's business, and many of the children in the family will be closed to learn about family culture and skills, and the same is true for Emir. The eldest son of the Kuante family, Günt. Quant has enjoyed his father's favor since he was a child; Emil sent him to Berlin as a child in Günther and enrolled him in the best elementary and high schools in Berlin.
After graduating from high school, Emile sent Günther to the Prussian Higher College of the Textile Industry; Not only that, in order to train his own heirs, the emir often brought his eldest son to the Universal Exhibition in Paris. While studying at the Pedignanchoschule de l'Textile Industry in Berlin, Emil was diagnosed with serious liver and bile diseases; For the sake of the family inheritance, Emil had to advance his plan and put Gunter. Quant was recalled from Berlin to be cultivated by his side, and six months later the Quant family was officially entrusted to Gunter.
Günt. Quant
As an old Chinese saying goes, "the tiger father has no dog son", Gante is also a person like his father, more than his father. After Günter took charge of the family business, he abandoned his father's conservative style and took out a large number of bank loans to expand his business. In the early days of Gunter's management of the family business, Gunter analyzed after a lot of observation and research that the rapid population growth in the capital Berlin and the rest of the country at that time would inevitably lead to a large increase in demand for cotton fabrics, so Gunter invested heavily in a relative's larger textile factory for the production of cotton fabrics.
After the outbreak of the First World War, the hasty German army's large demand for cotton fabrics promoted the development of the German cotton textile industry, in order to get huge orders from the German army, Gunte from the price reduction and the supplier's channel, won the German army's orders. The output of the Gunte textile factory quickly increased to four times the usual amount, and the silver of white flowers flowed into the pockets of the Kuante family, and the capital of the Quante family snowballed rapidly.
After the war, Germany was saddled with staggeringly large war reparations, the domestic economy withered, the people lost their children in the war, and many families went bankrupt. Households that have lost their labor force are experiencing inflation again, and Germany is in mourning. But the Quante family is excluded.
Günter took advantage of post-war inflation to quickly get rid of the loans he owed and used his cash flow to buy a large amount of real assets before the war, avoiding possible losses. After World War I, Günter began to look beyond the textile industry; Under the eagle-like gaze of Güntter, Battery Factory AG (AFA) entered Günter like a rabbit.
After careful research, Günter speculated that AFA had great physical value. Based on this, Günter in order not to arouse the sophisticated AFA founder Aldolf. Mueller's attention began to consciously buy AFA shares from the exchange system. In the end, Gunte successfully became the majority shareholder of AFC, and the Quant family officially entered the heavy industry.
The accumulation of sin and blood
Coincidentally, Günter also acquired shares in Germany's largest arms production group Deutsche Arms and Ammunition Factory (DWM) through the acquisition of AFA, and became the chairman of the supervisory board of DWM, whose Mauser factory has a strong production capacity for weapons and ammunition; At this point, the Quanter family effectively controlled two military industrial enterprises, and at the same time, the ties with the Nazis were deepening, which laid the groundwork for the bloody accumulation of the Quante family in World War II.
In Adolf . A year and a half before Hitler became chancellor, Güntter's sharp eye for business caught the attention of the skinny mustache, and Hitler personally summoned Günther and asked him how to solve the economic crisis. Therefore, Günter offered Hitler economic reform proposals to "expand public investment, strengthen infrastructure construction, increase public jobs, and expand domestic demand". Based on this, Günter was cited as a confidant by Hitler, and this economic reform was deeply recognized by Hitler.
In just three years, Hitler transformed Germany from a deficit country into one of the world's leading economic powers. At the same time, Hitler blamed the suffering of the people on Germany's defeat in World War I, vowing to take back everything that was lost, the cloud of war once again hung over Europe, and the rich in Germany became the first target of Hitler's sword; The Jewish consortium, which had been in Germany for a long time, became a prisoner overnight, and even basic survival became a luxury.
So, Güntter, whom Hitler cited as a confidant, was the same as the Krupp factory of the same period. Quant's factories also began to accept large numbers of "low-cost laborers" provided by the Nazi government, namely Soviet prisoners of war and Jews. The Quanters even worked directly with the SS to build a concentration camp at the battery factory in Hanover, where laborers would die of lead poisoning within six months. Under the harsh environment and high-intensity labor, the Kuante family's factories have become "death production lines".
The BMW Group has grown from decline to prosperity
After World War II, the Kuante family, which narrowly escaped liquidation, began to keep a low profile. In December 1959, at the shareholders' meeting held by the BMW Group, the plan of being ill with Mercedes-Benz was forced to put forward, and the century-old car company was facing a situation of life and death. Quant's eldest son, Herbert. Quant stepped forward, bought a large number of shares in the BMW Group, and became the head of the BMW Group.
In order to change the decline of the BMW Group, Herbert . Quante set his sights on the middle class, changed the focus of the BMW Group, developed a large number of economical and beautiful models, and successfully brought the BMW Group back to life. The BMW Group has thus become one of the "troikas" of German cars.
Because of Günt's Nazi status, members of the Quanter family had to keep a low profile after World War II to hide their crimes, which is also why the Quanter family is not as well known as other rich people.
Bibliography:
"Germany's Most Mysterious Family Driving BMW" Zhong Jiyin
"The Inheritance Path of the Four Generations of the Kuang Family" Cai Hongqing