Carl's parents are
Adam and
Sophie Opel. His father had founded the family firm in 1862 in
Rüsselsheim as a manufacturer of sewing machines, and later diversified into bicycle manufacturing. After Adam's death in 1895, control of the company passed to his wife and two of his sons. In 1898, Carl and his brothers Wilhelm and Fritz brought Opel into the automobile industry with the purchase of the small Lutzmann automobile factory at
Dessau. On 30 May 1895 he married Helena Wilhelmine Mouson, daughter of Johann Jacob Mouson and of Eleonore Dorothea Hock. He had two sons and two daughters, Johann Jacques, Georg, Sophie and Eleonore. On 17 January 1918 in
Darmstadt, Carl was raised to the nobility of the
Grand Duchy of Hesse, one year later than his brothers Wilhelm and Heinrich. In the same year he was appointed as
privy councillor. Carl von Opel was a member of the
Corps Franconia Darmstadt. The name the '
Opel Karl' small car built in 2015 is an homage to this Opel ancestry. ==See also==