Andre-Gustave Citroen

(1878 - 1935) Paris, 1930 May 30. To the firm of R.S. Stovis & Fils, Paris in French. The French engineer and industrialist, who introduced Henry Ford's principles of mass production to the Europe. His first car came "off the line" in 1919. RARE. Andra-Gustave was the 5th and last child of a Jewish diamond merchant Levie Citroen from the Netherlands and Mazra Kleinmann (of Warsaw, Poland). He was related to the famous British philosopher A. J. Ayer. The Citroen family moved to Paris from Amsterdam in 1873. Upon arrival, the diaeresis was added to the name, changing Citroen to Citroan (a grandfather had sold lemons, and had changed the consequent name Limoenman "lime man" to Citroen ("lemon" in Dutch). His father committed suicide when Andra was only six years old. Andra was a graduate of the Acole Polytechnique in 1900. During World War I, he was responsible for mass production of armaments. Andra founded the Citroan automobile company in 1919, leading it to become the fourth-largest automobile manufacturer in the world by the early 1930s. He died in Paris, France, of stomach cancer in 1935 and was interred in the Cimetiare du Montparnasse, the funeral being led by the Chief Rabbi of Paris. In 1992, the Parc Andra Citroan public garden in Paris was named after him. In 1998 he was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan. COMES WITH ADDITIONAL GALLERY OF HISTORY COA