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Reinhard Mohn obituary

Source: The Guardian

Oct 21, 2009

Summary

Reinhard Mohn, who has died at the age of 88, turned a small-town German printer and publisher into one of the world's largest media conglomerates under his great-great-grandfather's name of Bertelsmann, while studiously preserving his own and his company's private status. There could have been no greater contrast than that between Mohn and that other German media mogul, the flamboyantly political Axel Springer.

Mohn was born in Gütersloh, which lies north-east of the Ruhr industrial region and remains the headquarters of Bertelsmann. He was the fifth of six children in a strict, Protestant family living in a predominantly Catholic area of western Germany. His father was descended from Carl Bertelsmann, who founded the family firm in the town in 1835, specialising in printing religious works.

The company almost closed in the great inflation after the first world war. A staff of 84 was slashed to six, but the firm survived the slump and built up to a personnel of 440 by 1939. The 18-year-old Reinhard went into the Luftwaffe while the family firm prospered under

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