Citroën: an exceptional man and a century-old brand

From the alleys of Paris to the jungles of Jakarta, passing through the canals of Amsterdam, one name is known to all: Citroën. From his childhood in a Parisian Jewish family to the universal recognition of his brand, a look back at an exceptional career.

Genealogy and childhood

In the beginning there was Moses, in reality it was Mozes Limoenen born around 1680 in Amsterdam.
In 1811 Barend, André’s grandfather, saw his name change during the census in Amsterdam. But at the time Citroen did not have an umlaut. André’s family added it in 1885.
Barend Baruch Citroen (1808-1895) had a son, Lévie, also born in 1842 in North Holland and emigrated to Paris in 1873.
From his marriage to Mazda Amalia Kleinmann (born in Warsaw in 1853 and died in Paris in 1899) there were several children, Jeanne, Hugues, Fernande, Bernard and finally André Gustave born February 5, 1878 at 44 rue Laffitte in the 9th arrondissement from Paris.
André Citroën’s parents were dealers in precious stones, alas, a risky speculation on a diamond mining business in South Africa, if it did not ruin the family, psychologically destabilized Lévie. His depression will lead him to end his life on September 14, 1884.
The education of young André in Paris, notably at the Lycée Condorcet and then at the Ecole Polytechnique in 1898, made him an educated young man accustomed to the codes of a cosmopolitan life.
His favorite authors are Walter Scott (Ivanhoé), Gustave Aimard (Arkansas Trappers) but especially Jules Verne and his inventions.
He takes as a model Gustave Eiffel whose monumental work, the Tower that bears his name, is being built under his eyes as a 10-year-old child. Every Thursday he attends the spectacle of the “squirrels” on the beams. The inauguration of the Universal Exhibition in 1889 leaves him with an imperishable memory and the certainty that the future lies in technology.

The 1900s: the beginnings of success

In 1900 André Citroën graduated from Polytechnique, his exit rank (162^nd) did not allow him to envisage a career in the service of the State or of a great corps, but that would not be a brake on his ascent. During a stay with his sister Jeanne in Poland, he discovered a process for cutting gears with inclined and symmetrical teeth called “herringbone”. He buys this patent, the founding act if ever there was one, of his industrial empire.
He did his military service as a second lieutenant in the artillery at Le Mans.
As soon as he returned to civilian life, he hired Koechlin, draftsman and designer, and Jacques Hinstin (1873-1937), a friend who made parts for locomotives in Corbeil. In 1905, thanks to the financing of his brother Hugues (1873-1953, president of the trade union chamber of diamond traders) they founded the limited partnership Hinstin Citroën et Cie becomes the company “André Citroën et Cie” on November 21, 1906 which took a 50% stake in SA des Engrenages CItroën in 1913.

In 1905 he founded overseas subsidiaries for his gear company in Moscow and Austria-Hungary (on behalf of Skoda).
He filed various patents, in 1910 a speed reducer or an improved control of the rudders of warships and submarines in 1913.
In 1908, the Automobiles Mors company called on him as managing director to reorganize the manufacture of these powerful and luxurious automobiles.
Useful clarification, one of the main shareholders of Mors, André Haarbleicher is the brother-in-law of Hugues Citroën.
He achieved this masterfully with an annual production increasing from 120 units in 1907 to 647 in 1910. During this experience he met an eminent investor, Atanik Eknayan, an Armenian lapidary residing in Paris.
To carry out the recovery of Automobiles Mors, he traveled to Michigan in 1912 to visit the factories founded by Henry Ford. He returns convinced of the future of these production methods. The last Mors, a 12/16 HP Sport will be produced in 1925, the company having been absorbed by the Citroën company in 1919.

1914-1918: triumph in the face of adversity

On May 28, 1914, at age 36, he married Giorgina Bingen, daughter of an Italian financier.
Shortly after, he was mobilized to the 82^nd heavy artillery regiment as a lieutenant.
He is traumatized by the death in combat of his brother Bernard and his brother-in-law Max Bingen, in the early days of the conflict. It is true that the supply of ammunition was a logistical problem with dramatic human consequences.
On the strength of this observation, he convinced the general staff to produce shells en masse. To achieve this, he called on Louis Loucheur, Under-Secretary of State for Artillery and Munitions, and General Louis Baquet, Director of Artillery at the Minister of War. All three are from the Ecole Polytechnique.
His proposal to produce 20,000 shells a day was accepted, in six weeks he had a modern factory built with machinery and steel from the United States, all located at Quai de Javel, on agricultural land bought by André Citroën. and converted for the war effort. Production began in the summer of 1915 with a total of 26 million shells produced.
The Citroën company is one of the 15,500 companies working for National Defense during the conflict.
André Citroën was involved in various fields at this time, such as the creation of a system of postal sectors and colored envelopes, the establishment of a supply card, the start-up of the Roanne arsenal or even the reorganization of the Monopoly of tobacco and matches.
From 1917 he launched the first studies of a vehicle, he hesitated between a large displacement (the project given to Voisin who would produce it under the name of Grand Sport) or a more popular vehicle (project of Jules Salomon, creator of the car Le Zebra).

1919: André Citroën engineer-builder

After the armistice, his project to manufacture a mass-produced popular car could take shape.
The Javel factory was therefore transformed to produce according to Ford’s methods and on June 4, 1919, the Citroën Type A was unveiled in Fernand Charron’s concession on the Champs-Elysées, and the first copy was delivered to the first customer, Mr. Testemolle, July 7.
Delivered with bodywork, equipped with a starter and electric headlights, with a dozen bodies (Tourism and Utility), it stands out among the cars then in circulation: limousines dressed by the most famous coachbuilders like Kellner, and military vehiclesthat have survived to this terrible war.
To mass produce and control quality, from the manufacture of steel to the machining of the smallest part, he had factories built around Paris, in Clichy (forges, 1925), Saint-Ouen (cutting and stamping, 1924) or even Levallois (1922). Similarly, the Mors premises were transformed into a Design Office to design the new models of the chevron brand in 1925.

Conquering minds and the world

The 1920s were marked by the development of a network of dealers and stockists, a propaganda service (the term of the time to designate advertising) and a range of toys.
The illumination of the Eiffel Tower in 1925 is still present in the collective imagination, as are the road signs with the double chevron logo.
The know-how and know-how of Mr. Citroën are no strangers to this dynamic.
In 1921, always on the lookout for “useful” innovations, here is the beginning of the epic of half-tracks for agricultural, postal, military and of course advertising use thanks to the famous “Croisières Citroën”.
Adolphe Kégresse partnered with André Citroën (among others) to produce and promote this type of transmission, making “civilian” vehicles able to move differently, thanks to the technology he created when he was responsible for Garages Imperials in Russia.
The same year, the 5 CV was launched and triumphed from 1923, with more than 80,000 vehicles in total.
In 1926 here is the internationalization with the subsidiaries and the assembly factories, in Belgium, United Kingdom, Italy or Japan. Citroën is everywhere.

A network of friends

Having woven a social network since childhood, and thanks to his family and connections scattered around the world, this captain of industry is well surrounded. Business relations of course, but also very estimable friends.
Several circles are around him, that of bankers and diamond dealers through his family and in-laws. Then that of Polytechnicians like him, that of social circles of course and belonging to certain antechambers of power is an asset (Automobile Club de France, Syndicate Chamber of Builders, the Positive Philosophy Lodge of the Grand Orient where he entered in 1904).
Among the faithful among the faithful, let us mention some outstanding characters.
Atanik Eknayan (1847-1926) supported him in the recovery of the Mors company by reimbursing the sums due to Théodore Schneider and his heavy vehicle production company in Lyon. A very well-known and wealthy lapidary, his stable of thoroughbreds is the talk of the town at Longchamp. He is, like André Citroën, a member of the Automobile Club de France. Their collaboration continues in all automotive companies.
Georges-Marie Haardt (1884-1932), his assistant at Mors is also a friend on whom he can count, in his business as in private. He will assist him in his undertakings until his death in Hong Kong, while he is taking part in the famous Yellow Cruise.
Ernest Mattern (1897-1952) engineer from the School of Arts and Crafts of Châlons-sur-Marne, after a solid experience with manufacturers such as Turgan-Foy, Westinghouse in Le Havre and especially at Peugeot, ends up joining, on the recommendation of Louis Delâge, the bleach firm. Convinced by mass production, he was hired as deputy director of manufacturing and supervised the forges and foundries, notably from 1917 to 1928, then he returned to work at Peugeot.
Pierre Louÿs (1894-1976), draftsman and painter joined Citroën in 1920 in the propaganda service. Having one day the idea of drawing a female silhouette near a car, his table neighbor advises him to show his work to the boss, who applauds and immediately appoints him artistic director. We owe him an elegant and luminous advertising style.

To be seen was the goal to be achieved in the Roaring Twenties for a certain segment of the population, in terms of clothing fashion, adequate music to wiggle your hips, even if it means being provocative or of course showing off your car during competitions. ‘elegance.
André Citroën participates in it with frenzy, frequenting, as in his youth, the cabarets, the theaters, the mansions of his friends where piano or jazz concerts are held.
He likes to invite Maurice Chevallier, Mistinguett or the violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin, without forgetting the dazzling Josephine Baker.
The visit of its factories, mainly that of Javel, is an honor for the guest and a pleasure for this born orator.
Thus, monarchs (The Negus or even the King of Romania), airmen (Coste and Bellonte and of course Lindbergh in 1927), and politicians flock to admire the modern assembly lines, followed by a pack of photographers and journalists who relay the information through the press and Film News.
There are also places where you have to be noticed. Like Deauville, where he rents the villa Les Abeilles and where his noisy and flamboyant presence at the casino has caused a lot of ink to flow. This is an illusion fabricated from scratch, to “appear”. First of all, he does not spend his company’s money, does not play repeatedly. This has been confirmed many times in the minutes of the various trials that endorsed his fall a few years later. Above all, he takes advantage of this moment under the chandeliers and in front of an elitist audience to speak loudly, make the audience laugh, share his major projects, make people dream in reality. André Citroën is a very good actor!

The American model

The European automobile industry could not be conceived without being nourished by the progress coming from the United States. Many patents and machine tools, and sometimes steel, came from this side of the Atlantic.
Thus, to draw inspiration, but also sometimes to seduce American partners, André Citroën multiplies visits and invitations. He visited Ford in April 1923 and in October 1931 (with his memorable speech at Columbia University, in which he presented a bold plan to sell used vehicles in Africa, Asia and South America to revive the production of new vehicles despite the economic crisis).
Likewise, informed of his financial difficulties, a delegation from General Motors attends a lunch with the “French Ford” during which he shows them his skills as an impersonator and card manipulator.
The American Missions (in both directions) were established from 1923 to 1934, engineers compared and shared their production methods, preludes to the purchase of patents and machines. André Citroën says “As painters and sculptors go to Rome, the birthplace of contemporary art, engineers must go to America, the birthplace of big industry”.
Charles Bedeau, a mastermind of production and management methods, Ford adviser, is also part of André Citroën’s circle of advisers. In 1934 this billionaire bought 5 half-tracks from him, and borrowed some mechanics from him to go on a safari in the Canadian Rockies, the little-known (because it was a failure) White Cruise.

Key words for success

Sometimes the customer instantly associates a brand with a quality or a defect, a keyword in a way.
In the overall vision of the founder of this industrial and commercial empire, there cannot be a single keyword, but several.
The first must be innovation. This serving de facto the other qualities of the brand.
Safety, of course, with the All-Steel bodywork from Budd (1924) and the self-locking brakes on the B12 (1926), for example. Then, comfort: with the C6F Citroën Grand Luxe finish and the original Chrysler floating engine (1931) or the synchronized box on the Rosalie (1932).

Victim among others of the economic crisis or the fall of a man

The way in which André Citroën manages his company is very expensive, it is an established fact. A quote sums it up “as long as an idea is good, the price doesn’t matter”.
These significant expenses (modernization of the Javel factory in 1932, the financing of Cruises, the construction of the Magasins de l’Europe and Lyon among others) led the company to fear every deadline and to see bankers and creditors file past. , big or small.
These cash flow problems, common for manufacturers at the time, led a certain Lucien Rosengart (the inventor of the screw that did not rust and manufacturer of vehicles with recognized qualities), to create SADIF, the auxiliary company for the development of French industry. Thanks to it, it is possible to issue promissory notes pledged on unsold cars that this company undertakes to store. Annoyed by the omnipotence of Rosengart, André Citroën ended up, in 1923, buying the majority of the shares from the shareholders to be the sole master on board and thereby finance his own company.
In 1926, to finance the release of the B14 (and the expensive tools to equip the factories of Saint-Ouen and Clichy), he innovated by being the first industrialist to do without banks and to launch a loan of two hundred and fifty million francs in ten-year bonds with fixed interest at 7.5%.
Subsequently, Georges-Marie Haardt advised the entry on the scene of the father of his cousin’s husband, David Weill, the big boss of the powerful bank Lazard Frères with offices in Paris, London and New York. An alliance was made in 1927 and better management practices were put in place.

In 1929 Paul Frantzen of the Lazard bank was appointed managing director to replace Georges-Marie Haardt, the latter being monopolized by the organization of the upcoming Yellow Cruise.
The relations were courteous and the ideas reasonable, but the situation was too uncomfortable for André Citroën, and he prepared a coup de theater by publishing a memorandum indicating the pure and simple suppression of what the men of the Lazard Bank.
The separation was courteous and fruitful for both parties, fortunately, the price of the shares having gone from 600 to 2130 Francs, and the Lazard and Morgan banks, having bought SOVAC (credit sales company founded by Citroën in 1922), kept the exclusivity of car loans.
A rapprochement with Michelin took place in 1929 and was accentuated in 1934 with two drafts of 30,000 francs deposited at the Commercial Court by the Ostheimer company, which supplied wooden steering wheels.

And the fall begins.
On December 15, 1934 the company filed for bankruptcy, on the 21st the liquidation began and on June 21, 1935 the composition with Michelin was drafted and approved on July 31.
Pierre Michelin occupies his office, on July 3, 1935 a stomach illness which had bothered him for years finally got the better of him, his death allowed him to return one last time to his beloved bleach factory, exposed on a catafalque for two hours in the Hall, to receive the ultimate tribute from its employees, dealers and friends.

The Citroën family, with some exceptions, continued its life outside society, in the oil, precious stones or high finance industries. Some had a patriotic involvement in Free France during the war and such as André’s brother-in-law, Jacques Bingen who succeeded Jean Moulin.
There are therefore three eras for the chevron brand, the André Citroën period (1919-1934), then the Michelin period (1935-1975) and the PSA Peugeot Citroën era since 1976.
After his departure, the Michelins instilled more rigour, money too, while retaining the highly qualified personnel, to whom we owe the successes that we know (the Traction produced for 23 years, the famous 2 CV whose project began in 1936, or the DS and the Type H). Stylists and engineers hired by André Citroën, such as Flaminio Bertoni, André Lefèbvre, are supported by managers appointed by Michelin, such as Pierre Boulanger. All of them have pursued the founder’s guideline, by creating quality products for a very large clientele.