Papal Visit Set Zetsche On His Road To Damascus
If it weren’t for a Papal visit, Dr. Z may never have come to know Mercedes-Benz.
A brief article in Automotive New s mentions M-B boss Dieter Zetsche’s first encounter with a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which ultimately led him to the company that he is now CEO of
During the launch of the new S class in Hamburg last night, Zetsche said what he remembers most from a pastoral visit that Pope Paul VI made to the area where he was living as a young man was the Mercedes that his holiness was being driven in.
Mercedes’ top-of-the-line model wasn’t known as the S class at that time, which didn’t matter to Zetsche. He said he knew right then and there that he had to figure out a way to someday get behind the wheel of a car like that, “without having to become pope.”
As far as Popes go, Paul VI is a fairly controversial figure for some Catholics. I always thought the faux-Idi Amin S-Class used for the Entebee raid was the world’s coolest S-Class but that’s just me.
More by Derek Kreindler
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Interesting factoid. The more business leaders I meet, the more I realize that being in the right place at the right time matters a lot. Don't get me wrong - these people are also smart, qualified, and competitive. But I've spent most of my career at a universities where most people are just as smart, qualified, and competitive. I'm also posting because I like factoids much better than the deliberately controversial slugfests that have been posted over the last few days. Yeah, yeah, you guys keep score in the comments. Got it.
As the Pope who implemented all the liturgical changes devised by the second Vatican Council, he certainly was responsible for a lot of controversy within the Church. To this day there is a group of holdouts that want to go back to the Latin Mass.