Hanns Grewenig

Hanns Grewenig
Born	30 September 1891 Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany
Died	6 April 1961 Munich, Bavaria, West Germany
Occupation	Auto executive

Hanns Grewenig (30 September 1891 - 6 April 1961) was a German engineer who pursued a successful career in the German Automobile Industry. He was the Commercial Director and a leading member of the executive board at BMW between 1948 and 1957.

Hanns Grewenig was born in Strasbourg which at that time was in Germany. In 1911 he joined the Navy as a marine engineer. In 1917 he obtained his diploma as a Ship's Engineer after which he participated in the war, serving as chief engineer on a submarine. After the war ended Grewenig's career took a change of direction, as he undertook a commercial apprenticeship and then took charge of several vehicle service/repair shops. In 1927 he joined Ford, the US automobile manufacturer which in 1925, initially rather tentatively, had opened a vehicle assembly facility in the quarter of Berlin.

A year later, in 1928, he switched to General Motors (GM) who had an assembly facility at Berlin-Borsigwalde, on the same side of the city as the Ford business but slightly further from the city centre. The | facility assembled a small number of Chevrolets and Buicks for a few years around this time. However, in 1929, the year after Grevening joined the company GM purchased Opel, already Germany's largest car producer in terms of volume, but hitherto a family owned automobile manufacturer with a modern car plant at Rüsselsheim to the west. During the next decade Opel, backed by the investment capabilities of its Detroit parent, more than quadrupled its domestic market sales in the booming German automarket, and Grewenig's career followed a similarly upward trajectory. With GM-Opel he worked successively as Customer Services Director, Director for Production and Distribution of Replacement Parts, and Sales Director for the southern part of Germany, covering Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden und Hessen.

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