Publisher, investor, multimillionaire:In 1965, Richard Gruner co-founded the Hamburg publishing house, which still bears his name as Gruner + Jahr GmbH. Gruner was born 95 years ago.
by Irene Altenmüller, NDR.de
One of today's largest European publishing houses was created quite unspectacularly on a beautiful early summer's day in 1965 with strawberry cake and cream. In the shade of an apple tree, Richard Gruner, John Jahr and Gerd Bucerius meet in the Jahr family's garden on Hamburg's Alsterkrugchaussee and sign the contract with which the Gruner + Jahr publishing house is founded. Although all three are managing partners, only two of the surnames are included in the publisher's title:It was agreed that three names simply did not sound good, and so Bucerius refrained from naming them, recalled Jahr's son John in an interview in 2005 .
Competition for Springer-Verlag
The management trio (from left):Gerd Bucerius, Richard Gruner and John Jahr found one of the largest German publishing houses in 1969.The contract is intended to create a company that forms a counterweight to the dominant Axel Spinger publishing house. And so one of the largest publishing houses in the country came into being with 4,100 employees at the time. In addition to the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit", Gruner + Jahr mainly publishes magazines, including "Brigitte", "Schöner Wohnen" and above all the highly successful magazine "Stern" with a circulation of almost two million.
The beginnings:Gruner prints the "star"
Richard Gruner's own entrepreneurial success was linked to the "Stern" from an early stage:the publicist and publisher Henri Nannen had his magazine printed by Gruner since 1948. Richard Gruner, who was born in Hamburg on December 25, 1925, had already taken over his father's printing shop in Itzehoe at the age of 21, after he had died in an accident in 1946.
In 1950 Richard Gruner took over a 12.5 percent share in Nannens Verlag. The publicist and "Zeit" founder Gerd Bucerius, who buys more shares, becomes his business partner, while Henri Nannen remains editor-in-chief of the magazine. Later, John Jahr, who launched the first women's magazine in the young Federal Republic of Germany with the magazine "Constanze" and another popular consumer magazine with "Schöner Wohnen", also joined the company as a customer. Gruner consistently expands his company into one of the leading German printing companies in the years that follow.
Disputes with Rudolf Augstein
In 1961 Gruner became a partner with a 25 percent share in the "Spiegel" publishing house and became managing director. After the Gruner + Jahr publishing house was founded in 1965, Spiegel boss Rudolf Augstein wanted to have him recalled from this post - he feared that the interests of both publishers would collide. The matter ended up in court, and Gruner finally sold his "Spiegel" shares to Augstein for 42 million Deutschmarks in February 1969.
At the same time, Gruner struggles with both the strategic and political orientation of his own publishing house. He is against the purchase of the Munich publishing house Kindler &Schiermeyer, but cannot get his point across. In addition, some of the company's own magazines are too much for the entrepreneur. For example, the "Stern" was well on the way to "becoming the first West German editorial community," he grumbled in 1969. There was a crisis within the management trio of Gruner - Jahr - Bucerius.
Leaving my own publishing house
The political developments in the Federal Republic, such as the 1968 movement and the new social-liberal government under Willy Brandt, cause him deep unease. Gruner draws the conclusion for himself:A few weeks after the sale of his "Spiegel" shares, Gruner also sells his G + J shares for an estimated around 180 million Deutschmarks. They are taken over by the Gütersloh media group Bertelsmann. This seals Bertelsmann's entry into Gruner + Jahr. In 1973 Bucerius also sold its publishing shares to the Güterloher group.
Return to Liechtenstein
In 2006, Gruner was in Hamburg again when the Henri Nannen Prize was awarded there.Gruner is withdrawing from the Federal Republic not only professionally but also privately. After moving to Switzerland in 1968, he moved to Liechtenstein in 1969 with his wife Flora Freiin von Langen, whom he married in 1959. He also tried several times to remove his name from the publisher's title. From now on he works as an investor from Liechtenstein - and again shows a good sense for lucrative business. In the 1970s, for example, Gruner, who is an enthusiastic hobby pilot himself, bought into a US airline. His fortune, which is already considerable, continues to increase, in 2002 it is estimated at around one billion Deutschmarks.
Hardly anything is known in the media about the man, who until his death was one of the richest citizens in Liechtenstein and Switzerland. He returned to Hamburg in 2006 - for the presentation of the Henri Nannen Prize. Richard Gruner, born on December 25, 1925, died on January 13, 2010 at the age of 84 in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. But his name is still present:as the capital G in the Gruner + Jahr publishing house.