His mother’s father was Wilhelm von Opel, son of the Opel founder Adam Opel. His father’s father was the enemy of the fixies: He invented the freehub. His company was a major supplier of auto parts. But that’s not how the world remembers Gunther Sachs, who shot himself on Saturday in his house in Gstaad, Switzerland.
Gunther Sachs became known and notorious as Germany’s first playboy. After an affair with Persia’s ex-empress Soraya, he married Brigitte Bardot. He proposed in style: A few hours after meeting her for the first time, a helicopter showered Bardot’s villa on the French Riviera with red roses. “It’s not every day that a man drops a ton of roses in your yard,” said Brigitte, and said “Yes, I will” a few weeks later in Las Vegas. The marriage lasted three years. Sachs married the Swedish blond bombshell Mirja Larsson, who survives him. According to Swiss media, he had suffered from Alzheimer, and would “rather die than forget.” Suicide runs in the family. Sachs’ father Willy shot himself in his hunting lodge.
“His company was a major supplier of auto parts.”
Whose company? Gunther’s? It’s not clear from your blog what Gunther Sachs’s connection is to the auto industry.
Mr Sachs seems to have led an interesting life. It’s sad that he succumbed to the fear of losing control due to Alzheimer’s, a fear that many of us have, I’m sure.
Sachs, as in Fichtel & Sachs, one of the bigger german auto suppliers.
Didn’t Sachs use to (or still) supply Porsche with their Gearboxes? i remember a Porsche special Edition Bicycle with Sachs designed gears and brakes on it… was a heck of a ride…just like their cars.
Fichtel & Sachs was sold to Mannesman and is now part of ZF Friedrichshafen …
The Sachs bicycle component line was sold to SRAM.
Sounds like he had a great ride. I’d do the same thing if I got that news about Alzheimer’s. No way would I become a burden to my family, I’d take care of business deals, write letters to my daughters and then take a shit load of pills.
Same here. The first pills would be a hand full of Viagra on a beach in Thailand. The second would be a bit stronger in Amsterdam.
This gentleman certainly had style.
He also was witty. When the German tax authorities were after him they found out that he had a letter-box in Munich at his friends house. They thought they could nail him for living in Germany without paying taxes. He replied: “I can have as many letter-boxes as I want in Germany, provided that I don’t live in them.”
The man died by his own pride; this does not warrant a celebration.
I think he did the rational thing when faced with Alzheimer’s.
I’m likely to do the same thing, if I contract the illness.
There are very few things in this world I can accept as justification for suicide – but the onset of Alzheimers is one.
My best wishes to the family of a man who lived life to the fullest, and choose to go out while he was still himself.
“He invented the freehub”
Who invented it? Gunther Sachs or his father? Despite the fact that Freehub is a tradename of Shimano, Gunther would have been six when he invented it. not only that he would have been working for an English company Bayliss-Wiley when he did so. Sachs have have little or anything to do with the development of the cassette-freehub.
Sachs did however commercialise the FREEWHEEL using the patent designs of American William Van Anden. A Freewheel is a completely different animal than a freehub.
And of course you mustn’t forget the nice company Willy Sachs used to keep building a legacy for his kids:
http://forum.axishistory.com/download/file.php?id=126800&sid=8c3dbd619bacdac0e91be814cc337fc2