Herbert Diess worked for the automotive supplier Bosch in Spain for a while in the 1990s.
Since then he has been drawn there again and again, for example to Cantabria on the Atlantic coast, where ten years ago he bought a larger property including a dilapidated 17th-century villa.
He had the walls - once the seat of the noble Marquis of Pico Velasco - restored, and it is now leased out as a hotel.
On the specially created Instagram profile "picovelasco9" you can see Diess with a hat on an orchard on the property, courageously biting into a pear.
Christian Muessgens
Business correspondent in Hamburg.
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Gustave parts
Business correspondent in Stuttgart.
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In the future, the 63-year-old manager will have more time for projects like the hotel in Spain – and also the wherewithal.
His contract was only extended to 2025 last year.
Now that everything is being unwound early, he is entitled to further compensation which some observers estimate could total up to €30m over the years.
Such “golden handshakes” with fired managers are nothing unusual in the VW Group.
This has upset a lot
Most people there are happy to be rid of the erratic and unpredictable Diess, even if he is supposed to continue to work for the company as a "consultant".
If the usual blocking clauses apply, which is to be assumed, he will not be able to work for rivals in the industry for at least a year.
Just over four years ago, the qualified vehicle technician and former BMW manager in Wolfsburg moved to the top of the VW Group board.
Since then, he has given the company a great stir, and rightly so, as even critics from the union camp admit.
After the diesel scandal, the group, which was considered sluggish, needed new guidelines, which Diess gave it with a focus on electromobility and digital technology.
However, conflicts broke out early on, around 2020, when Diess accused members of the supervisory board of indiscretions and criminal behavior.
Last year, he narrowly avoided being kicked out after having had scenarios calculated for cutting up to 30,000 jobs in Wolfsburg, half of the workforce.
"This is one last attempt at cooperation," Jörg Hofmann, head of IG Metall and deputy VW supervisory board chairman, warned in the FAZ when those involved had pulled themselves together after a long conflict.
Cultural renewal by Oliver Blume
After a dispute about software problems raged for months, the shareholder families Porsche and Piëch - previously supporters of Diess - also lost confidence.
They persuaded Oliver Blume to take on the post, thereby enthroning a confidante who cultivates a completely different style.
He is not a poltergeist like Diess, but a diplomat.
He's seen as a nice guy who doesn't take himself too seriously, a team player who gives his people the limelight instead of alienating them.
As a player-coach, too, who says what's going on, but is still part of the team and involved in the moves.
This is how the hobby soccer player once described himself in an interview with the FAS.
For a long time, this communicative, cooperative style in the Volkswagen shark tank was seen as a weakness and a lack of assertiveness.
But Blume prevailed, for example shortly after taking office as CEO of Porsche in 2015. At that time, the company decided to build its first electric sports car.
The Taycan became a success, Porsche was ahead of its time, and Blume achieved one of his greatest successes as a manager.
The Porsche and Piëch families, as well as the employee representatives, hope that Blume's understanding of leadership fits the new world of work much better than the old VW hierarchies.
Diess has strategically modernized Wolfsburg, Blume could culturally renew the corporate headquarters.
Silent doer
Under Blume, however, the very offensive communication from Wolfsburg should also be a thing of the past for the time being.
Diess recently broadcast on all channels and was particularly active on the LinkedIn career network, where he continued to post diligently shortly before he left office.
So far you have looked in vain for flowers there.
His predecessor liked to provoke the works council publicly and often overshot the mark.
When Blume speaks publicly or gives interviews, he is meticulously prepared, and he repeats some of the answers almost verbatim.
The boast that has become public about his SMS exchange with FDP leader Christian Lindner should remain an exception and further sharpen his senses.
The fact that he took responsibility for the mistake suits him better.
Another case is more typical for Blume: While Audi pushed ahead and announced its entry into Formula 1 without having a partner, Porsche waited until everything was really wrapped up.
That would be his next biggest success.
The biggest, however, is likely to be the IPO of the sports car manufacturer.
The preparations are going well.
So far he has once again shown the powerful Porsche and Piëch families that he delivers.
Unlike Diess, Blume is a VW homegrown product.
He comes from Braunschweig, which is 25 kilometers from Wolfsburg as the crow flies.
His father worked in a supermarket, his mother in a bank, he once said.
He first joined Audi as a trainee.
He climbed the ranks step by step, became production manager, then assistant to the production manager, while doing his doctorate in automotive engineering in Shanghai.
But he shares his proximity to Spain with his predecessor, who in so many ways is his antipode.
Before Blume switched to Porsche, he worked for the VW brand Seat in Barcelona for five years.
He still has an apartment there.