Opel, Wilhelm Albert von (ennobled 1917)

Engineer, entrepreneur

born: 15.05.1871 in Rüsselsheim

died: 02.05.1948 in Wiesbaden

Opel, the second son of manufacturer Adam Opel. After attending elementary school in Rüsselsheim and secondary schools in Offenbach and Mainz, Opel began an apprenticeship at the School of Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt. He dropped out of the program in 1890. Opel joined his father’s business. At that time, Opel’s core business focused on the manufacture of sewing machines. At the urging of Wilhelm von Opel and his brothers, the company initially expanded its product range to include bicycles.

In 1893, Wilhelm von Opel represented his company at the World’s Fair in Chicago, where he first encountered newly developed motor cars. After bicycle production fell into crisis in 1897, Wilhelm von Opel proposed shifting to the production of motor cars. The company acquired the necessary patents and explored potential acquisitions. In 1898, Opel finally purchased the Anhaltinische Motorwagenfabrik Dessau and began producing motor cars in Rüsselsheim based on the Dessau model. In the years that followed, Opel continued to refine its vehicles.

With the outbreak of World War I, demand for vehicles and engines skyrocketed due to military contracts. In Rüsselsheim, the company now primarily produced trucks, ambulances, and reconnaissance and patrol vehicles. By 1914, Opel was Germany’s largest automobile manufacturer. Opel played a decisive role in this achievement by introducing to the company the innovative production techniques he had learned in the United States, primarily at Ford.

Wilhelm von Opel was ennobled in 1917. Prior to that, he had already been appointed Grand Ducal Hessian Commercial Councilor in 1908 and Privy Commercial Councilor in 1916.

After World War I, Opel switched to mass production in the modern sense. This transition lowered manufacturing costs and retail prices, and Opel grew to become the largest vehicle manufacturer in the German Empire. In 1928, the company was converted into a stock corporation and, in March 1929, was acquired by the American conglomerate General Motors for 154 million RM. As part of this acquisition, Wilhelm von Opel moved from operational management to the position of Chairman of the Supervisory Board; management was now in American hands.

In 1928, Wilhelm von Opel settled in Wiesbaden. There, he also served as a patron of the arts. During the Great Depression, the city of Wiesbaden was struggling with a difficult financial situation. Opel granted the city generous loans to fund beautification and construction projects, through which the city sought to revive its pre-World War I spa tradition and position itself as a modern spa and resort town.

Plans for a modern outdoor swimming pool on Wiesbaden’s Neroberg were also part of this effort. To help realize the new facility—which had been in the planning stages for some time—Opel donated 100,000 RM to the city and provided an additional 150,000 RM as an interest-free loan. The swimming pool, named after Wilhelm von Opel, opened in 1934 and was considered one of the most modern and beautiful outdoor pools in Germany.

In 1938, Opel donated funds for the construction of a shelter in Wiesbaden’s city forest, which the Wiesbaden Beautification Association named the Wilhelm-von-Opel-Hütte. Opel’s other donations went toward the construction of hockey, tennis, and golf facilities for Wiesbaden clubs. The Goethe Stone (opens in a new tab) in Frauenstein, the Goethe Lookout on the Geisberg, (opens in a new tab) and the Wilhelm-von-Opel Tower (opens in a new tab) on the Kellerskopf (opens in a new tab) also bear witness to his generosity as a benefactor.

After the National Socialists “seized power,” Wilhelm von Opel joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933. During the Weimar Republic, he had been a member of the German People’s Party (DVP) until 1930. Between 1930 and 1933, he was closely associated with the German Center Party. After the National Socialists “seized power,” Opel also became a member of the German Labor Front, the National Socialist People’s Welfare Organization, the Reich Association of German Hunters, and the Academy for German Law. As a member of the “Stahlhelm—League of Front-Line Soldiers,” Opel was transferred to the SA in 1934. He was also a supporting member of the SS, contributing an annual donation of 1,200 RM. The supporting members of the SS formed a sub-organization of the SS that was open to non-NSDAP members and served to raise funds for the establishment and expansion of the SS. These financial contributions, which were generally paid monthly, did not entail any formal service in the SS. Wilhelm von Opel was also a patron of the House of German Art in Munich, commissioned by Adolf Hitler in 1933. Wilhelm von Opel provided the NSDAP with 21,000 RM for additional construction projects.

As chairman of the supervisory board, Wilhelm von Opel fully supported the organizational adaptation of Adam Opel AG to the National Socialist corporate structure. Thus, beginning in 1933, the works council was transferred to the German Labor Front, the plants were organized according to the “Führer principle,” and Jewish owners of Opel branches were forced out of the corporate group. As chairman of the supervisory board and son of the company’s founder, Opel was the company’s highest-ranking representative during the Nazi era, while the members of the American executive board took a back seat in public. In his professional capacity, Opel thus maintained close ties with the Nazi leadership and, for example, welcomed Hitler on behalf of the company at automobile trade shows. When Wilhelm von Opel came under investigation in 1936 for a tax offense, Hitler approved the Reich Ministry of Economics’ decision to reduce the fine from 3.5 million RM to 750,000 RM.

With the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Adam Opel AG shifted its production to the war economy, having already benefited significantly in the 1930s from orders related to the rearmament of the Wehrmacht. In Rüsselsheim, production shifted from passenger cars to aircraft components. The issue of American ownership was addressed through structural changes. A special committee of the supervisory board was formed—of which Wilhelm von Opel was a member—to comply with the Nazis’ requirement that the company have a German management team. This allowed the Americans’ influence to be maintained.

During World War II, Opel employed several thousand forced laborers. As chairman of the supervisory board, Wilhelm von Opel was aware of the largely deplorable treatment and living conditions of these workers. The extent to which Opel had any influence over their living conditions remains unclear.

During World War II, Wilhelm von Opel was honored several times by the Nazi regime. In October 1939, Opel received the War Merit Cross, First Class, from Adolf Hitler for his services to the German war economy.

On August 8, 1941, Opel was awarded honorary citizenship of the city of Wiesbaden in the ballroom of Wiesbaden City Hall. In his acceptance speech, Wilhelm von Opel referred to Hitler’s achievements in rebuilding the nation, particularly with regard to the Wehrmacht.

In addition to his good relations with the Nazi regime, there are indications that Wilhelm von Opel also held critical views on a few specific points. For example, he reportedly made efforts to protect high-ranking company officials—who were either not “fully Aryan” themselves or had Jewish wives—from being dismissed.

During his denazification proceedings after the war, Wilhelm von Opel claimed that, together with Christian Bucher, the head of the Wiesbaden waterworks, he had advocated for the surrender of Wiesbaden without a fight during the final days of the war in 1945. Both appealed to Colonel von Zierenberg, the commander in charge of Wiesbaden, who ultimately oversaw the city’s surrender without a fight to the U.S. Army.

The extent to which Opel actually influenced the combat commander von Zierenberg remains unclear in Bucher’s report. It also remains unmentioned whether von Zierenberg—who had absolutely no combat experience and was, moreover, equipped with completely inadequate forces—was even seriously preparing a military defense of Wiesbaden on his part. In any case, no fighting took place, and the Americans were able to occupy Wiesbaden on March 28, 1945.

After the end of World War II, Opel was therefore required to undergo denazification. The denazification proceedings against Opel concluded on January 8, 1947, with his classification as a “follower.” As “reparations,” Opel was ordered to pay a fine of 2,000 RM and to bear the costs of the proceedings. Prior to the hearing, Opel and his attorney attempted to justify the industrialist’s memberships in Nazi organizations. The chamber accepted the argument put forward by Opel’s attorneys that his membership in the NSDAP had not been out of conviction but rather for economic reasons, and that his membership in the SS and the SA had stemmed from earlier affiliations. The court also downplayed Opel’s role in the rearmament and war economy of Nazi Germany, in line with the defense’s arguments. With regard to foreign workers and prisoners of war, the chamber argued that, as chairman of the supervisory board, Opel was not responsible for the welfare of the workers at the plant, but rather for its management.

Not only did the public prosecutor file an objection to the Chamber’s ruling—and thus to Opel’s classification as a “follower”—but so did the works council of Adam Opel AG. A retrial before the Denazification Chamber did not take place. Among others, the works council had withdrawn its appeal, whereupon an order was issued on April 26, 1948, to discontinue the appeal proceedings.

Wilhelm von Opel had suffered a stroke shortly before the proceedings were discontinued. A few days later, on May 2, 1948, Wilhelm von Opel died in Wiesbaden. He was buried in Rüsselsheim.

The Historical Expert Commission, appointed in 2020 by resolution of the City Council to review traffic areas, buildings, and facilities in the state capital of Wiesbaden named after individuals, recommended removing the name “Opelbad” and renaming the “Wilhelm-von-Opel-Hütte.” In addition, it was recommended that the honorary citizenship awarded in 1941 be revoked, as Wilhelm von Opel had been a member of various National Socialist organizations (NSDAP, DAF, NSV, SA, a supporting member of the SS, the Reich Association of German Hunters, and the Academy for German Law). Even before 1933, he was active in a völkisch-nationalist group through his membership in the “Stahlhelm – Federation of Frontline Soldiers.” Through substantial donations to the NSDAP, the SS, and other Nazi organizations, he effectively provided material support to the Nazi movement. During public events—including those with Adolf Hitler—and in his speech on the occasion of his appointment as an honorary citizen of Wiesbaden in 1941, he made a clear commitment to National Socialism as a political movement and to the Nazi regime.

On September 4, 2024, the Wiesbaden-Nordost Local Council resolved to deconsecrate the Opelbad while retaining the name of its founder, Wilhelm von Opel. At the same time, the mountain shelter named after Wilhelm von Opel was renamed “Schutzhütte Teufelsgraben.” The municipal government of the state capital of Wiesbaden implemented these decisions by resolution dated March 24, 2026. In the same resolution, the municipal government of the state capital of Wiesbaden revoked Wilhelm von Opel’s honorary citizenship.

[This text was written by Kurz Buchholz for the 2017 printed edition of the Wiesbaden City Encyclopedia, revised and expanded by Dr. Brigitte Streich, and further revised and expanded by Dr. Katherine Lukat in 2024.]