Germany's Schaeffler picks Bayer manager as CFO

* Bayer's Hauck to become CFO on April 1, 2015

* Hauck will free CEO Rosenfeld of CFO duties

* Move ends week of shake-ups in German auto industry

BERLIN, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Germany's Schaeffler has hired a manager from drugmaker Bayer as finance chief, freeing up Chief Executive Klaus Rosenfeld who has held both top jobs at the indebted engineering firm for more than a year.

Schaeffler, the biggest shareholder in German auto parts and tyre maker Continental, said on Friday that Ulrich Hauck, head of global accounting and group controlling at Bayer, will take up the position on April 1, 2015.

Rosenfeld was CFO at Schaeffler when the company also appointed him as CEO in October 2013 after ousting long-time boss Juergen Geissinger.

Hauck's appointment rounds off a week of management shake-ups in Germany's automotive industry.

On Thursday, carmaker Daimler promoted sales chief Ola Kaellenius to the group's management board, making him a potential candidate to succeed CEO Dieter Zetsche.

On Tuesday, rival BMW appointed production chief Harald Krueger to succeed Norbert Reithofer as CEO next May. The same day, Volkswagen hired BMW development chief Herbert Diess to run the VW brand, making him a candidate to succeed CEO Martin Winterkorn.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; editing by David Clarke)