Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 18 August 1940
- Chrysler’s family tree can be traced back to a German named Johann Philipp Kreissler, who was born in 1672, and left Germany for America in 1709. One of Chrysler’s greatest business undertakings was the financing of the famous Chrysler Building in New York.
Famous automobile magnate Walter Chrysler died on this day in 1940.
Of course, the Chrysler corporation was named after him and it today includes the brands Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and several others. Chrysler also used to own the brands Plymouth, DeSoto, Imperial, Simca, Sunbeam, Hudson, Nash, but they have all been extinguished in the meantime.
The founder of this great automobile empire – Walter Chrysler – was actually an American of German descent.
His family tree can be traced back to a German named Johann Philipp Kreissler, who was born in 1672, and left Germany for America in 1709. The Chrysler family allegedly originated from the Palatinate (Pfalz) region, near the river Rhine, south of the city of Mainz.
One of Chrysler’s greatest business undertakings was the financing of the famous Chrysler Building in New York. That building is 319 meters tall and was the tallest in the world at the time of its construction (taller than even the Eiffel Tower).
It is interesting that Walter Chrysler allegedly financed it from his own pocket, rather than through the Chrysler automobile company. In this way he wanted to make sure his descendants would inherit the building (however, they sold it around 13 years after his death).
