Press Release

Press Release | Gütersloh, 06/24/2021

Bertelsmann Hosts “Virtual Tribute” to Reinhard Mohn

  • Freely accessible online event to mark the 100th birthday of Bertelsmann’s post-war founder on June 29, 2021 from 5:00 p.m.
Gütersloh, June 24, 2021 – Starting at 5:00 pm on June 29, 2021, Bertelsmann is hosting a “Virtual Tribute” to mark the 100th birthday of its post-war founder Reinhard Mohn, who died in 2009. The online event, which will last approximately one and a half hours, is aimed at employees and interested parties outside the Group. The stream (German only) is freely accessible at www.bertelsmann.de/Erinnerung-an-ReinhardMohn  and on Bertelsmann’s Facebook channel.

During the “Virtual Tribute,” Bertelsmann Supervisory Board Chairman and Speaker of the Family in the BVG Christoph Mohn will give a personal account of his father’s life’s work and character. Numerous contemporaries and current dignitaries pay tribute to Reinhard Mohn in short messages, including Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier, former German President Joachim Gauck, Chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Martin Schwab, NRW State Parliament President André Kuper, Chairman of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group Ralph Brinkhaus, and former President of the German Bundestag Rita Süssmuth. Members of the Bertelsmann Executive Board chaired by CEO Thomas Rabe as well as apprentices and students at Bertelsmann also contribute statements of remembrance.

Reinhard Mohn was born in Gütersloh on June 29, 1921. He represents the fifth generation of the Bertelsmann/Mohn owner family. After returning from being a prisoner of war in the U.S., he took over the management of C. Bertelsmann, at that time a medium-sized printing and publishing house, from his father Heinrich Mohn in 1947. In the decades that followed, he laid the foundations for Bertelsmann’s rise to become a global corporation, which today has about 130,000 employees in 50 countries. Reinhard Mohn is considered one of the foremost German entrepreneurs of the 20th century. He passed away on October 3, 2009, at the age of 88, but continues to shape Bertelsmann’s corporate values, governance philosophy and entrepreneurial activities to this day.

Just a few weeks ago, the C. Bertelsmann imprint published the book “Reinhard Mohn – Ein Jahrhundertunternehmer” (Reinhard Mohn – Entrepreneur, Leader, Visionary), written by the renowned Bonn-based corporate historian Joachim Scholtyseck.
Further information about Reinhard Mohn: www.bertelsmann.com/reinhardmohn 

About Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann is a media, services and education company that operates in about 50 countries around the world. It includes the broadcaster RTL Group, the trade book publisher Penguin Random House, the magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr, the music company BMG, the service provider Arvato, the Bertelsmann Printing Group, the Bertelsmann Education Group and Bertelsmann Investments, an international network of funds. The company has around 130,000 employees and generated revenues of €17.3 billion in the 2020 financial year. Bertelsmann stands for creativity and entrepreneurship. This combination promotes first-class media content and innovative service solutions that inspire customers around the world. Bertelsmann aspires to achieve climate neutrality by 2030. In 2021, Bertelsmann commemorates the 100th birthday of Reinhard Mohn, the Group's late post-war founder and longtime Chairman and CEO.