Press Release | Gütersloh, 10/04/2009

Bertelsmann mourns Reinhard Mohn

Bertelsmann, the international media group, is deeply sad to announce the passing of its postwar founder, Reinhard Mohn. The entrepreneur and philanthropist died yesterday at the age of 88. Together with his wife Liz Mohn, he represented the fifth generation of the Bertelsmann/Mohn shareholding families. In his over 60 years of active service, Reinhard Mohn built Bertelsmann into an international enterprise, which today employs more than 100,000 people in over 50 different countries. Until the end, he was closely involved in the development of the Bertelsmann group, serving as a member of Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft (BVG) and as honorary chairman of the Supervisory Board, and sitting on the Board of Trustees of the Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation, which he founded.

Hartmut Ostrowski, Chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann AG, commenting on the death of Reinhard Mohn, said: “Bertelsmann mourns the loss of one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our age. Our thoughts are with Reinhard Mohn’s family, especially with his widow Liz and his children. 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. Reinhard 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. He embraced his responsibility to society and developed new ideas systematically and with impressive consistency. Reinhard Mohn’s concept of leadership was based on values like liberty and humanity. We pay tribute to him and his life’s work, and see it as our mandate to express our gratitude and respect by upholding and advancing Bertelsmann and its culture of partnership, in his spirit.”

Reinhard Mohn was born on June 29, 1921 in Gütersloh, Germany. After returning from POW camp and beginning an apprenticeship in book retail, Mohn took over the management of his family’s printing and publishing business (C. Bertelsmann Verlag) in 1947. He quickly expanded the business beyond publishing and distribution into new sectors and markets, often using unconventional ideas. For instance, Mohn created one of the world’s biggest book and distribution businesses by using sales representatives and catalogs to bring books right to people’s homes. Later, industrial and service operations, the magazine business, and finally, television, were added. By the early 1960s, Mohn was already expanding into foreign markets by setting up a book club in Spain. 

Mohn put his stamp on and developed the corporate culture that exists to this day, a culture that is based on the basic principles of partnership, creativity, entrepreneurship and social responsibility or citizenship. Bertelsmann companies and divisions were given maximum entrepreneurial autonomy, and employees were included in decision-making process and given a share in the company’s success early on. Reinhard Mohn also established the principle of diversity in publishing at Bertelsmann.

In 1971 he converted the family-owned company into a stock corporation, of which he became the Chairman and CEO. This move created the structural basis for Bertelsmann’s further growth into a global media group. In 1977, he established the Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation. Upon turning 60 in 1981, Reinhard Mohn resigned from the Bertelsmann Executive Board. Ten years later in 1991, he stepped down as Chairman of the company’s Supervisory Board. In 1993, he transferred the majority of capital shares in Bertelsmann AG to the Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation, which with 76.9 percent of shares is now the media enterprise’s biggest shareholder. In 1999 he transferred the voting rights for the Annual General Meeting of Bertelsmann AG to the newly founded Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft (BVG). By separating the capital from the votes Mohn took early steps to ensure Bertelsmann’s continuity and independence as a business.

During his lifetime, Reinhard Mohn received numerous honors and prizes in recognition of his outstanding achievements as an entrepreneur and benefactor, including the Federal Republic of Germany’s Order of Merit with Star, an honorary membership in the Club of Rome, the Spanish Grand Cross, and the Prince of Asturias Award. Mohn also was a recipient of the European Founder Award, the Schumpeter Award, and the Hanns-Martin Schleyer Award. In 2007 he also received the German Founders Award (Gründerpreis) for his lifetime achievement.