Tognum remembers Jean Raebel

• 25^th anniversary of the death of former Chairman of the Board of Management of Maybach-Motorenbau and mtu Supervisory Board Chairman
• Foundation begun by Jean Raebel has now supported more than 1,450 students with scholarships

Friedrichshafen, 3. August 2010. Tognum, the specialist for propulsion and power solutions today remembers Jean Raebel (1900-1985), one of the most outstanding personalities associated with its subsidiary mtu  Friedrichshafen and its predecessor Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH. Along with Karl Maybach, Raebel made a significant contribution to the company’s success during the last century. To mark the 25^th anniversary of his death, members of the Advisory Board of the Jean Raebel Foundation will lay a wreath at his grave in Friedrichshafen.
Jean Raebel was born on 17. January 1900 in Altdorf near Nuremberg and joined mtu’s predecessor Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH in Friedrichshafen as a field salesman in 1930. One year later, Karl Maybach made him head of sales. In 1935 he took over as the company’s commercial general manager.
From 1935 to 1967, Jean Raebel was a member of the Board of Management of Maybach-Motorenbau and when Karl Maybach left company management in 1953, Jean Raebel was appointed chairman. In this capacity he played a major role in the successful development of the company. In 1960, Daimler-Benz AG acquired an interest in Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH and over subsequent years its large engines division was relocated to Friedrichshafen. Raebel became managing director of the jointly-founded Maybach Mercedes-Benz GmbH which gave rise to MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH in 1969. In 1968, he left the Board of Management to join the Supervisory Board (from 1969: mtu Supervisory Board) where he remained until 1984, continuing to take an active interest in the further development of MTU Friedrichshafen. Jean Raebel died on 3. August 1985 in Friedrichshafen.
In November 1982 Raebel founded the ’Jean-Raebel-Stiftung’, a charitable foundation which has provided support in the form of scholarships to more than 1,450 young people to date in order to help them study. Raebel’s own youth had not been easy and he knew just how important this support could be to those starting out. On founding the organization he said: “I owe the wealth I have obtained over five decades to Maybach-Motorenbau. I wish to return it to its source so that it will benefit engineering directly by providing support for young people in the form of grants from a charitable foundation”. 110 students are currently receiving grants from the foundation.
In 1993, the Tognum subsidiary MTU Friedrichshafen honored the commercial and social achievements of Jean Raebel by naming its new Sales Building at Plant 1 of its Friedrichshafen location after him. During his lifetime, Raebel received many high honors, including the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Order of Merit, the Medal of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg and the Medal of Honor of the Town of Friedrichshafen.