Ferdinand Piëch, the man who led "Volkswagen" for two decades, marked by rapid international growth, but also scandals, died at the end of August in Rosenheim, a city in Bavaria, at the age of 82.
His wife, Ursula Piëch, said in a statement that he died "suddenly", but did not give a reason. German media reported that Piëch had collapsed in a restaurant.
Along with his grandfather, Ferdinand Porsche, the designer of the Volkswagen Beetle, Piëch was among the most influential officials in motoring in the last century. Under his leadership, Volkswagen became the largest automobile company in Europe by a considerable margin and rivaled Toyota for the title of the largest automobile manufacturer in the world.
Piëch was also a notorious boss who ran "Volkswagen" like a personal fiefdom. The number of sackings of senior officials who failed to meet targets and his apparent tolerance for questionable behavior led to criticism that he had created an authoritarian culture at the company, which later cost him heavily in the emissions-cheating scandal.
Piëch was born in Vienna on April 17, 1937. Both his parents were Nazis. The father, Anton, was a lawyer, while the mother, Louise, was the daughter of Ferdinand Porsche, the engineer who was hired by Adolf Hitler to create the "people's car". It was the same car that after the Second World War was known as "Beetle"... (Read more in Koha Ditore)