Wilhelm von Opel

Wilhelm Albert von Opel (1871 to 1948) was a German industrialist and a majority shareholder of the Opel automobile company, founded by his father Adam Opel. He was the second of five children, studied engineering at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt and took a doctorate there in 1912. After his father died in 1895 the business passed to his mother and five sons, and in 1898 Wilhelm and his brother Fritz took Opel into car manufacturing by buying the small Lutzmann automobile factory at Dessau. He is chiefly remembered for introducing the assembly line to the German automobile industry. He and his brother Heinrich were ennobled in Hesse in 1917, which is why the von prefix attaches to their lines of the family. He was born in Rüsselsheim. Wilhelm joined the Nazi Party in 1933, financially supported the SS, and was fined by a denazification court in 1947; he died in 1948.