Harald Quandt

Harald Quandt was a German industrialist, the son of industrialist Günther Quandt and Magda Behrend Rietschel. His parents divorced and his mother was later married to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister. Harald was the only one of Magda's children to survive World War II, as his mother and stepfather killed their six children and themselves in 1945. Harald served as a lieutenant in the Luftwaffe during the war and was captured by Allied troops in Italy in 1944. He was released in 1947 and returned to Germany. He inherited a large fortune from his father, who died in 1954, and ran several companies with his older half-brother Herbert Quandt. He was mainly involved in the armament sector and held executive positions at Industriewerke Karlsruhe AG, Busch-Jaeger AG, Dürener Metallwerke AG and Mauserwerke Oberndorf am Neckar. He was also the chairman of the supervisory board of VARTA and a member of the supervisory board of Daimler-Benz AG. He married Inge Bandekow in 1951 and had five daughters with her. He died in a plane crash near Cuneo, Italy, in 1967 at the age of 45. He was buried at Waldfriedhof in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe. His widow committed suicide in 1978. His daughters inherited his shares of the Quandt Group, which owns a significant stake in BMW. Harald Quandt was regarded as a reserved and modest person who avoided publicity and preferred to focus on his business interests. He was also interested in art, music and literature and supported various cultural projects.