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Interactive Berlin Wall: 20 Years Later

BERLIN (AP) -- General Motors Co. will not move its European headquarters to Germany as previously announced, an Opel spokesman said Saturday.

Last month, GM had said it was planning to move its headquarters from Zurich to Adam Opel GmbH's Ruesselsheim headquarters in Germany.

"The old headquarters will simply cease to exist in its current ways," Opel spokesman Andreas Kroemer said.

"All relevant operations of Opel and Vauxhall will be bundled in Ruesselsheim," he added.

Kroemer confirmed a report by Automobilwoche weekly which quotes Nick Reilly, the new president of GM Europe, as saying "We will not return to the former GM Europe organization."

According to the report, most of the 150 employees who worked at GM headquarters in Zurich, have already returned to their home countries where they have found new jobs with the company's national branches.

Opel and its sister Vauxhall employ around 48,000 people in Europe, more than 24,000 of them in Germany.

GM shocked European governments and employees last month by abruptly canceling the planned sale of a majority in Opel to a consortium of Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc. and Russian lender Sberbank.

Germany now appears reluctant to offer GM the same huge loans it had promised Magna - and has yet to pledge the company any more money.

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