Business
“All of us at Bertelsmann, the entire nation, as well as our friends in Europe and the rest of the world, have lost an entrepreneur and benefactor par excellence,” Hartmut Ostrowski, Bertelsmanns Chief Executive Officer, said in an e-mailed statement.
Mohn served as chief executive officer from 1947 to 1981 and built Bertelsmann into an international enterprise, which now employs more than 100,000 people in more than 50 countries. Until the end, he served as honorary chairman of the Supervisory Board and sat on the Board of Trustees of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, which he founded.
Carl Bertelsmann, Mohns great-great-grandfather, founded the company as a publisher of hymn books and religious material in 1835. Today, Bertelsmanns assets range from broadcaster RTL Group and music label Sony BMG to publishers Random House and Gruner + Jahr.
Mohn was born on June 29, 1921, in Guetersloh, Germany, the fifth of six children. A lieutenant in Erwin Rommels “Afrika Korps,” Mohn was captured by U.S. forces in Tunisia in 1943. After returning from a prisoner of war camp in 1946, he began an apprenticeship in book retailing. The following year, Mohn took over the management of his familys printing and publishing company.
War Damage
The business was in tatters. Operations had been shut down in 1944 and the workshops and machinery were mostly destroyed, the company said on its Web site.
Unable to get enough funding from banks to rebuild the business, Mohn turned to employees to invest their labor in return for a share in profits.
“I asked myself what I needed to do in order for people to join me in rebuilding the company,” Mohn said, according to the Web site. “They all wanted a roof over their heads, and they wanted secure jobs.”
The business model earned the former Third Reich officer the moniker “Red Mohn.”
He expanded the business beyond publishing and distribution and in the early 1960s started its first overseas operation with a book club in Spain.
In 1971, he converted the family-owned company into a publicly traded corporation, of which he became chairman and CEO.
Six years later, he established the Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation to promote political and social reform. In 1993, he transferred 69 percent of his shares in Bertelsmann AG to the foundation, making it the media enterprises biggest shareholder. The transfer didnt include the voting rights, which he retained, according to the foundations Web site.
“Mohn not only was a formative figure in German business history, but also embodied the qualities associated with Bertelsmann, a cosmopolitan corporation with a strong sense of responsibility to its employees,” Ostrowski said.
Mohn, a billionaire, received numerous honors and prizes in recognition of his achievements, including the Federal Republic of Germanys Order of Merit with Star, an honorary membership in the Club of Rome, the Spanish Grand Cross, and the Prince of Asturias Award.