1945 - M.A.N. During the Cold War
The end of the war brought lasting changes to the foundations of Germany’s coal and steel industry. The Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH), as parent of M.A.N., was particularly hard-hit by these. The motto of the Allies in the so-called “Stunde Null” – the zero hour; the point of German capitulation – was demerger, i.e. trust-busting. With this goal in mind, they completely restructured the GHH. The company’s coal and steel-making sectors were hived off, the steel-processing activities renamed the “Gutehoffnungshütte Aktienverein”.
In July 1946, after spending five months in internment, the US military government reappointed Otto Meyer as CEO and General Director of M.A.N. He brought the company on a successful course again. Meyer also managed to achieve a loosening up of the export restrictions with the American occupation powers, additionally negotiating a contract for the export of over 460 trucks valued at 1.8 million US dollars. He thus created a good start for M.A.N. in the following period called the “economic miracle” era. By 1953, the M.A.N. commercial vehicle sector sold 1,489 vehicles and earned sales of 70 million deutschmarks – its best results since after the war.
Demand was so great that in 1954, the Nuremberg factory had reached the limits of its capacity. In 1955, another large truck manufacturing plant was built in Munich. Only one year later, 3,000 vehicles had already been produced there. In 1960, M.A.N. in Munich celebrated the final assembly of its 30,000th truck. Otto Meyer transferred into the Supervisory Board from 1955 to 1964. When he retired afterwards, he went into German economic history books as one of the country’s great men.
MAN’s history is characterized by farsighted cooperation and strategic takeovers. This is how companions in technology and corporate history became partners for the future. Common goals drove these developments. Mobility for all: this was the automotive dream of the early 20th century. With the first Büssing bus from Heinrich Büssing’s (1843-1929) “Spezialfabrik für Motorwagen- und Omnibusse” in 1904, this dream began to come true.
After World War II, the 10,000th truck to be built after the war left the assembly line of the Braunschweig company in September 1950. Simultaneously, the legendary Büssing 8000 S flat-bed truck went to market. Above all, however, the first series-ready underfloor engine, first installed in a truck in 1949, caused a sensation and became a particular specialty on the bus market. With takeover of the Büssing-Automobilwerke in Salzgitter in 1971, MAN could especially pursue activities in bus production. And because the mountain lion Büssing had roared so well on the market, it has been immortalized as a trademark in the logo of MAN trucks and buses.
Like Büssing, Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG in Austria was also a historical companion of MAN. In 1991, MAN took over its truck sector. In 1922, Steyr had built its first truck, the Steyr Typ III; in 1941 its first four-wheel drive truck left the plant, resulting in worldwide recognition of Steyr’s competence in four-wheel drive technology. After World War II, the first Steyr Diesel truck also had a respectable success story. Some 36,000 trucks of this type were built by 1964. But also the new middle class series launched in 1986 – Europe’s first low-noise truck, with an environmentally friendly engine series as well – excited the automotive world. With this background of innovation, Steyr’s truck sector was the ideal match for the MAN family.
After a capricious history of takeovers and restructurings, in 1986 M.A.N. and the Gutehoffnungshütte Aktienverein united to form MAN AG, which established itself as a modern “contractual group” with headquarters in Munich. The core of this conversion involved spinning off the corporate areas and transforming them into individual stock corporations. These companies were then responsible for their own results and balance sheets.
The antecedent for the conversion was the GHH owning family Haniel’s sell-off of its shares in the mid-1980s. Due to the growing capital requirements, the company had to look for new major stockholders. Although the official version was that MAN had merged with the coal and steel company in the Ruhr region, for all intents and purposes it was the Southern German subsidiary that took over the former parent company in the North. This was the reverse of what had happened in 1921, when MAN had been taken over by the Gutehoffnungshütte. Of the former coal and steel producer, only MAN Turbo in Oberhausen remained a part of MAN AG.
But as in 1921, the company in its entirety would profit again from the restructuring measures. The course for a future in increasingly globalized markets was set. The new organization was reflected by a new logo from 1986, in which a blue arch embraced the Group’s individual companies like a visual bracket. This image lasts until today – with the only difference being that now, a silver arch stands for the companies of the MAN Group.
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