Andre citroen
André-Gustave Citroën (Paris, February 5, 1878-Paris, July 3, 1935) was a French engineer, founder of the Citroën automobile brand in 1919. He was the first in Europe in employing methods of chain work. Some of his innovations were electric ignition and front-wheel drive.
Biography
André Citroën was born in Paris on February 5, 1878, the son of Lévie Citroën (originally Citroen), a Dutch Jewish diamond cutter who emigrated to Paris in 1873, and Masza Amelia Kleinman, a Polish Jew originally from Warsaw.
After emigrating, Lévie Citroen changed the spelling of his name to Citroën, adding an umlaut.
On September 14, 1884, when he was only five years old, his father committed suicide. He then is requested by her mother who resumes the business of diamonds and fine pearls from her husband.
At age 10, he discovers the avant-garde visionary work of Jules Verne that will inspire him throughout his life. The construction of the Eiffel Tower for the Universal Exhibition in Paris (1889) prompted him to become an engineer and industrialist and to participate in the future great industrial challenges of the twentieth century.
At the age of twenty-two (1900), he graduated from l'École Polytechnique, the most prestigious French engineering school. His first job was at a wheel manufacturing company owned by family friends, where he saw the gear system that would serve as the inspiration for the double arrow or chevron that he used as the logo on his cars..
Double Helical Gears
In 1900, while on a family trip to Poland, André reunited with a relative who perfected a procedure for carving "double V-spiked gears" of wood at a lower cost used to press the wheat through mills to make flour. This geometric figure will become the symbol and logo of the future Citroën brand. Back in France, he took the idea with steel spikes with him and patented it.
Managing Director of Mors Automobiles
From 1906 to 1914, he was appointed managing director at home of the automobile manufacturer Mors, by the brothers Émile and Luis Mors, the company was in a delicate situation. He reorganizes the study of customer needs, modernizes management, creates new models and doubles the brand's production in 10 years.
André Citroën is a talent discoverer and an organizing genius. He is not an inventor, nor a technician. But he is passionate about "large-scale manufacturing and distribution".
In 1912 André Citroën visited Henry Ford's new Ford factory in Detroit that applied Taylorism, which would develop into: Fordism. He observed the production chain methods used in the production of the Model T, which allowed for greater efficiency in the manufacture of automobiles. Indeed, in 1913 he founded the Citroën Gear Society. The teeth of the gears in the form of chevrons that he devised, smooth, silent and efficient, became the emblem of the brand from the beginning. During the First World War Citroën manufactured weapons and at the end of it he founded the "Société Anonyme André Citroën" dedicated to the manufacture of automobiles. The year after its inauguration, it manufactured 20,000 cars.
Foundation of the society "Citroën, Hinata and Cien#34;
In 1912, at the age of 35, he associated with Jacques and Paul Hinstin with whom he invested a large part of his parents' inheritance to found the company "Citroën, Hinstin et Cie&# 34;, created to manufacture gears, particularly those with V-shaped pins, with a dozen workers in the suburb of Saint-Denis in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. Quickly moved to 31 rue de Grenelle in the 15th arrondissement of Paris next to the Mors brothers' factory, near rue de Javel (today rue André Citroën) and renamed the "Société Anonyme of the Citroën Gear". He also manages to be President of the Automobile Union Chamber.
On May 27, 1914, two months before the declaration of the First World War, he married Georgina Bingen, daughter of a Genoese banker, with whom he went on to form a large family.
World War I
In 1914, André was mobilized in August first as a lieutenant and then as a captain in the 2nd Metz artillery regiment.
In January 1915, he proposed to General Luis Baquet, director of the artillery of the Ministry of War, who cruelly lacked ammunition, that if he applied Fordism in a factory built in 3 months, he would be able to produce 5,000 to 10,000 Shrapnel-type howitzers in 75 days. He built a huge ultra-modern factory on 15 hectares of land and orchard gardens on rue Javel (now André-Citroën rue and park) and, with 13,000 workers, produced 23 million shells at a rate of 10,000 per day, unprecedented figures for The time.
In 1917 and 1918, the government also commissioned him to reorganize the supply of the arms industry, the military postal services, and the distribution of bread ration tickets in the Parisian region.
Citroën founded in 1919
In 1919, the year after the end of the war, after having prepared for a long time beforehand, André Citroën converted his armaments factory into the automobile industry in four months, absorbing the automobile manufacturer Mors. He founded Citroën with the historical emblem of its double V herringbone.
Assisted by his right arm Georges-Marie Haardt for marketing, he manufactured the brand's first model that same year: the Citroën Type A for which he recruited the engineer Jules Salomon in 1916 for its conception. "The first mass-produced European car" at the rate of 30 a day and 20,000 a year since 1920 (greater than all Peugeot and Renault production combined). The launch price of 7,950 francs is exceptionally low for the time (to the detriment of its benefits to repay its important investment loans).
 Première Citroën Type A (1919-1921) |  Citroën B2 Sport Caddy (1921-1926). |  Citroën Type C 5HP Torpedo (1921-1926) |
Innovate advertising and marketing at scale with:
- The crossing of the Sahara with the press in a (author) Citroën all unmoved land from December 1922 to February 1923 and the epics Black cruise by Africa in 1924, Yellow cruise by Asia in 1931 and White cruise by Alaska in 1934.
- A spectacular advertising illuminating the Eiffel Tower with 250,000 light bulbs forming its name in 1924.
- A network of dealerships and after-sales service with stocks of large-scale spare parts.
- Very advantageous innovative solutions of credit.
Models follow: Citroën B2 (1921 to 1926), Type C (1921 to 1926), B10 (1924 to 1925) and B12 (1926 to 1927).
In 1926, thanks to the help of the American engineer Edward Gowan Budd, he conceived the Citroën B14 (1926 to 1928), the first car "made entirely of steel" that allows to conceive the first completely closed solid bodies in Europe.
From 1928 to 1932 the Citroën C4 and Citroën C6 followed. In 1929 Citroën took second place in the "List of car manufacturers" in the world with 400 vehicles produced per day (a third of French production) to the detriment of problems very serious problems of financing accentuated by the Great Depression of 1929.
From 1932 to 1938: Citroën Rosalie 8, 10, 15
Problem of chronic over-indebtedness
In 1933 André Citroën is invited by his competitor Louis Renault to visit a new Renault factory. Then the company's over-indebtedness is seriously accentuated and it must perform multiple management stunts, which earns it much criticism for building the building with the most modern mechanics in Europe at the time in 6 months in Brussels, Belgium, equipped with a "cathedral of cast steel"; capable of producing 1000 cars a day.([1])
 Citroën C4 (1928-1932) |  Citroën Rosalie 8, 10, 15 (1932-1938) |  Citroën Traction Avant (1934 and 1957) |
In the early 1930s Citroën was the fourth largest car manufacturer in the world, but a few years later it suffered a serious crisis. The banks lose confidence, reaching the point of chronic over-indebtedness and they entrust Pierre Michelin of the Michelin group (second son of Édouard Michelin, co-founder of said group) with the task of being the main creditor of Citroën's management with the very difficult mission to avoid bankruptcy.
In 1934 André Citroën created the world's first production car with front-wheel drive: "Citroën Traction Avant" (formerly 7, 11 and 15) (1934 to 1957), but the success and difficult technical principles of this revolutionary model fail to save the group from bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy and judicial liquidation
On December 21, 1934, Citroën was put into legal liquidation. The government proposes to the main creditor Michelin to repeat the brand and save 250,000 jobs, calm 1500 creditors and thousands of small suppliers.
Death
In 1935, at the age of 57, André Citroën transferred his shares to Michelin and retired in January, being replaced in July by Pierre Michelin. He died on July 3 of the same year of stomach cancer after 15 years of industrial activity at the top. His remains lie in the Montparnasse cemetery.
Post-André Citroën era
In 1976, Peugeot acquired 90% of Citroën's capital from Michelin, since then becoming part of the newly created PSA Peugeot Citroën group, a management company and Board of Directors owned by the Peugeot Family.
Rue de Javel was renamed Rue André Citroën and its historic factory was transformed into a park that was also named after André Citroën, as a tribute.
Kinship ties
For his sister Fernanda Citroën, André Citroën is:
- Uncle Raymond Lindon, famous lawyer and prosecutor of the Republic of France required in proceedings such as the Liberation of France.
- Uncle-grandfather of Jérôme Lindon (1925-2001), director of "Éditions de Minuit" from 1948 to 2001.
- Vincent Lindon's distant uncle-grandfather (born in 1959), actor, filmmaker and screenwriter.
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