Heinrich Mohn: Corporate Welfare Policy in the Era of the "Works Community"

Heinrich Mohn was born in Gütersloh on 23 March 1885, the only son of Johannes and Friederike Mohn. His severe asthma forced him to break off his education at the Evangelisch-Stiftisches Gymnasium (Protestant Secondary School), the customary path for his family, and he instead began an apprenticeship in his family’s publishing business. On 6 June 1912, Heinrich Mohn married his sister’s friend Agnes Seippel (1889-1978), whose family was closely connected with the Mohns.

Heinrich Mohn was born in Gütersloh on 23 March 1885, the only son of Johannes and Friederike Mohn. His severe asthma forced him to break off his education at the Evangelisch-Stiftisches Gymnasium (Protestant Secondary School), the customary path for his family, and he instead began an apprenticeship in his family’s publishing business. On 6 June 1912, Heinrich Mohn married his sister’s friend Agnes Seippel (1889-1978), whose family was closely connected with the Mohns.

Heinrich Mohn was a member of the German National People's Party (DNVP) until at least 1924, but did not go on to join the Nazi party. He did, however, strongly identify with the National Socialist concept of a Betriebsgemeinschaft (works community) and the social policy objectives of the Nazi German Labor Front (DAF), because he felt these corresponded with an entrepreneur’s duty of care (for his employees’ wellbeing). Yet his religious convictions did not stop him from publishing war books and paperbacks for troops in the field.

Because of his poor health Heinrich Mohn had to temporarily run the company from Braunlage in the Harz Mountains and was unable to take on numerous public offices like his father. He agreed only to be elected as chairman of the “Barthsche Stiftung” charitable trust and to the board of friends of his former grammar school.

While Heinrich Mohn considered himself a modernizer of the publishing house, he simultaneously aligned himself with the traditions of his predecessors, as in the commemorative book “Carl Bertelsmann” marking the company’s centenary in 1935: “The will to continue running the publishing house in the spirit of the fathers is there. Its success lies in God's hands." In the spirit of this tradition, in 1926 he reinstated the company’s disability fund, which had collapsed during the turmoil of the inflation, and added a widows and orphans insurance scheme. Heinrich Mohn doubled his contributions to this fund during the centenary year. When it had to be dissolved in December 1938 because the company could not accept the hypothecary security on future claims demanded by the government, the publisher guaranteed that benefits would be paid, to a limited extent, from company funds.

Heinrich Mohn thus consciously pursued the corporate welfare policy line taken by his predecessors. These largely corresponded with Nazi ideas and ideals.

In 1937 Heinrich Mohn enrolled C. Bertelsmann Verlag for the first time in the “Leistungskampf der deutschen Betriebe” (Program to Improve the Performance of German Companies) organized annually by the German Labor Front (DAF) to honor companies for their social and productive performance. The publisher also significantly expanded its company welfare benefits. Heinrich Mohn strove to create a “works community,” for example by initiating company-run groups such as a company sports society and a women's social group. Employees could spend paid breaks in the smoking room, the works library and the common room, which was established in 1939. As a symbol of the "works family", Heinrich Mohn made his mother’s garden available to the staff. The company ran a 300 RM (Reichsmarks) raffle for people who went on “Kraft durch Freude” (Strength through Joy) trips, and regularly organized its own company outings and social occasions in Mohn Park, to which employees and their families were invited.

Bertelsmann also increased its benefits to individual employees. In addition to Bertelsmann’s customary marriage gift of 50 RM, in 1937 Heinrich Mohn introduced a birth allowance of 20 RM, which was increased to 80 RM in 1938 for mothers employed at the company. At the start of the war, when leave entitlements and wage increases were restricted in Germany and working hours increased from 48 to 54 hours a week, Bertelsmann and other companies offered their employees additional incentives such as bonuses for outstanding work and suggestions for improvement.

The company regularly sent packages to employees at the front. Furthermore, Heinrich Mohn gave the families of married employees an additional weekly allowance of up to 10 RM, and if the employee was killed in battle supported them with a widows and orphans pension, even if the length of time the employee had been with the company did not officially make them eligible. Bertelsmann paid conscripts who were not married up to 3 RM daily during home leave.

The following poem, written by apprentices about Heinrich Mohn in the centenary year of 1935, shows the close relationship between him and his employees:

And all this time
You never forgot the individual.
Anniversaries, birthdays, on all occasions,
And even the sick ones,
You thought of them all!

Bertelsmann received recognition from many quarters for Mohn’s efforts in sharpening the company’s social profile. After the leadership of Bertelsmann passed to Heinrich Mohn’s son Reinhard for political reasons in autumn 1947, he continued to be committed to its employees, for whom he still felt an attachment. His presence was visible until the last, as reflected in a paragraph published in the company newsletter on 26 April 1955, just a few weeks before his death:

“When Heinrich Mohn still goes through the plant every day, asking how individual employees are and helping them out, this is a visible expression of the attitude that has ultimately been behind all his actions.”

For more information on the history of Bertelsmann please visit the corporate website.