Former Daimler CEO Edzard Reuter is dead

The Helga and Edzard Reuter Foundation has announced the death of Edzard Reuter, founder of the foundation and former CEO of Daimler. He died in Stuttgart on October 27 at the age of 96.

After studying mathematics, physics and law in Berlin and Göttingen, Edzard Reuter became an assistant to the Chair of Public Law at the Free University of Berlin in 1953. He later took on management positions at Universum Film AG and the Bertelsmann Group.

In 1964, Reuter joined Daimler-Benz AG. After becoming a deputy member of the Board of Management in 1973, he was given a full seat on the Board of Management in 1976. From 1987, he was Deputy Chairman of the Board of Management, and in September of the same year he became Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler-Benz AG until May 1995.

Under Reuter, Daimler-Benz was to become an "integrated technology group". To this end, shares in Motoren- und Turbinen-Union (MTU) and the aerospace company Dornier were acquired in 1985. Daimler also secured the ailing electrical engineering group AEG and a majority shareholding in Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm. Together with other holdings, this became the aviation and aerospace company DASA. In 1992, Daimler acquired a stake in the aircraft manufacturer Fokker.

At the end of the 1980s, Reuter had a new corporate headquarters built, which was never really accepted by most employees and managers.

(fpi)