JURGEN Schrempp enjoyed a meteoric rise. He went from being a trainee mechanic to become head of Europe's biggest industrial conglomerate, DaimlerChrysler. His fall from grace was just as spectacular.

Even company employees were stunned last week when the group announced that 60-year-old Schrempp would be replaced next January. His successor is to be the Chrysler Group CEO, Dieter Zetsche.

The news took everyone by surprise because Schrempp had a contract that ran until 2008.

Asked about the decision during a press conference called to discuss the group's quarterly results, Schrempp said: "I'm a very happy man...but, after 45 years, you are emotional."

Schrempp, a chain-smoker known for his incredible drive who counts Nelson Mandela as a personal friend, will go down as the man who took Daimler-Benz on an unprecedented spending spree - snapping up ailing companies and turning the group into one of the most powerful on the planet.

Faced with an increasingly globalised industry, Schrempp reasoned Daimler-Benz had to compete in every market and every niche. To do that, it needed to expand - quickly.

His crowning moment came when Daimler-Benz swallowed Chrysler, America's third largest car maker in an audacious move that made it the world's fifth largest motor manufacturer.

He believed DaimlerChrysler's vast size would reap equally spectacular profits, but the promise fell short.

Assimilating Chrysler turned out to be far harder than anyone believed.

The American group bled red ink on the group's accounts in 2000 as the Germans struggled to turn the marque around in the face of a vicious US car market and a slump in sales.

No sooner had Chrysler recovered than mini-car brand Smart plunged into crisis, forcing Schrempp to order drastic action in the face of calls for the small car company to be closed.

The expansionist policy finally came off the rails earlier this year when DaimlerChrysler threw in the towel at Mitsubishi. The group preferred to relinquish its controlling interest rather than pour any more money into the Japanese company.

Although the debacle claimed the scalp of chief operating officer Wolfgang Bernard, many analysts asked how long Schrempp could hold on. The answer was not long.

Schrempp was born in the southern German town of Freiburg less than a year before Germany's defeat in the Second World War.

His father was taken prisoner by the Russians - and did not return until Jurgen was five years old.

He dropped out of school and landed a job as an apprentice mechanic at a local Mercedes dealership.

Mercedes bosses saw something in the young Schrempp and he sound found himself on the fast-track management ladder.

He was sent to South Africa in the 1970s, where he honed his management skills and became deeply attached to the country.

Having cut his teeth in Africa, he returned to Europe and once more found himself in line for rapid promotion.

Hilmar Kopper, chairman of shareholder Deutsche Bank, helped him land the top job.

But for all his hard work and determination, it seems DaimlerChrysler's shareholders weren't sorry to see Schrempp go.

DaimlerChrysler's shares have fallen 40 per cent since the German-US merger in 1998.

When news broke of his departure, they jumped by nearly ten per cent.