Was kidnapped by the militant Red Army Fraction in Cologne and shot dead on the way from Brussels to Mulhouse, France after 43 days as hostage (18 October 1977).
President of the Confederation of the German Employers' Associations from 6 December 1973 and the Federation of German Industries from 1 January 1977 until his death.
During World War II, he was a mid-ranking SS officer, first serving at the Western Front and later being an adviser of an economist in one of the territories occupied by Nazi Germany.
He was murdered by shot in the neck on an unknown place in Northern France, near the Belgian border. His corpse was found some 300 km south-east in Mulhouse (France).