Reinhard Mohn, the great-great grandson of company founder Carl Bertelsmann, died over the weekend. He was born in 1921 in the small German town of Guetersloh in North Rhine-Westphalia, where the Bertelsmann corporation is still based.

In 1939, at the age of 18, he was drafted into the German army. He eventually became a lieutenant in the Africa Corps. Eventually captured by the Americans, he spent the rest of the war in a prison camp in Kansas.

On his return to Germany in 1946, he found a town and company in ruins. His father was bedridden, and although Mohn had no plans to go into the publishing business, he acquiesced to his father's wishes and took over the company. Initially, he and nearly a hundred employees worked to clean up the debris from the allied bombings to get the company up and running again.

Humble beginnings

The firm was originally a small publishing house that was founded by a printer named Carl Bertelsmann in 1835. It had its own printing plant and was mainly known for producing Christian song books. Around the turn of the century, Johannes Mohn, Reinhard's grandfather married into the Bertelsmann family and took over the running of the business.

In 1950, Mohn started the Bertelsmann book club. The idea was very simple. By joining the book club, customers could buy books at a discount but, they had to agree to buy books on a regular basis. At its height, the book club had 20 million members around the world. The steady stream of income generated by the book club sales allowed Mohn to expand the company and to acquire other media properties.

These media companies include the US book publisher Random House, the German TV broadcaster RTL, magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr and the Direct Group book and media clubs. At one point it also owned 50 percent of the music company Sony BMG.

The company has over 100,000 employees in more than 60 countries and revenues of approximately 16 billion euros ($24.7 billion).

Philanthropy

In 1971 Mohn converted the family business into a stock corporation and he became its Chairman and CEO. When there was a danger of the company going public, the family stopped it by buying back a 25 percent stake owned by a Belgian holding company for $6.5 billion in 2006.

The company is now privately held, with the Mohn family owning 23.1 percent and the rest being owned by the Bertelsmann Foundation. Mohn retired in 1981 at the age of 60 but became the honorary chairman of the Supervisory Board. He was also on the Board of Trustees of the Bertelsmann Foundation.

Private life

Mohn was married twice and fathered three children with his first wife whom he married in 1949. He met his second wife Liz Mohn at a company function when she was just 17 and he was 38. He had three children with her and finally married her in 1982.

Mohn was recognized internationally for his good works and was given numerous awards including the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1994, the Order of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1998 and he was also named an honorary member of the Club of Rome in April 1996. In 2001 he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Muenster.


av/dpa/Reuters/AP
Editor: Andreas Illmer