Ferdinand Piëch and his wife from the supervisory board. Ferdinand Piëch Ferdinand Karl Piëch (born 17 April 1937) is an Austrian business magnate, engineer and executive who was the chairman of the executive board ("Vorstandsvorsitzender") of Volkswagen Group in 1993-2002 and the chairman of the supervisory board ("Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender") of Volkswagen Group in 2002-2015. A grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, Piëch started his career at Porsche, before leaving for Audi after an agreement that no member of the Porsche or Piëch families should be involved in the day-to-day operations of the Porsche company. Piëch eventually became the head of Audi, where he is credited
1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler of 1942 refitting as a "panzergrenadier" division. Thanks to the efforts of "Reichsführer-SS" Heinrich Himmler, along with SS-"Obergruppenführer" Paul Hausser, the SS Panzer Corps commander, the three "SS Panzergrenadier" divisions (LSSAH), "Das Reich" and "Totenkopf" were to be formed with a full regiment of tanks rather than only a Battalion. This meant that the "SS Panzergrenadier" divisions were full-strength Panzer divisions in all but name. The division also received nine Tiger 1 tanks, and these were formed into the 13th ("schwere") Company/1st "SS Panzer Regiment". The collapse of the front around Stalingrad and the encirclement of the German Sixth Army