Hahn remains a prominent figure who represents courage, resolve and economic rebirth – and not only in this region. But what ties Carl Hahn to Saxony? “I was born in Chemnitz in 1926. It would be terrible if you didn’t remember your roots – regardless of where in the world you are,” says Hahn, who first came into contact with car manufacturing as a child. Before World War II, his father had a leadership position at DKW in Zschopau, near Zwickau, and later at the newly-founded Auto Union in Chemnitz.
Historically important automotive hub Saxony However, Carl Hahn’s attachment to his homeland is, of course, not the only reason why three Volkswagen plants are located in Saxony today. “Already as a schoolboy, in my childhood, I got to know the Saxon industrial workers and their camaraderie, their sense of duty and attention to quality. Since industrialization, the Saxons have always been people with an entrepreneurial mentality who work creatively. Saxony was one of the wellsprings of the automobile, but also of creativity in many areas, such as mechanical engineering,” Carl H. Hahn explains.
That’s another reason CEO Carl H. Hahn strongly supported maintaining contacts with East Germany long before the fall of the Wall. Volkswagen had already had compensatory transactions with the GDR – 10,000 Volkswagen Golfs were exported, and in return Volkswagen received large ERFURT presses and optical-technical projection equipment from Carl Zeiss in Jena for the planetarium in Wolfsburg, for example. These relationships were intensified in the 1980s under Carl H. Hahn. As Hahn says, “We always tried to make purchases in Saxony as well. Not only the fantastic large presses from Erfurt, which we sent worldwide throughout the Group, but also components like headlights from Ruhla for the Volkswagen Golf. Those were largely manufactured in Saxony.” However, it was not only a matter of business to Hahn: “We also simply wanted to help.