Generation change in Gütersloh Liz Mohn hands over power to Bertelsmann

As of: June 21, 2021 1:48 p.m.

An era ends at the Bertelsmann media group: On her 80th birthday, Liz Mohn officially hands over responsibility for the clan empire to her son Christoph.

By Thomas Spinnler, tagesschau.de

It’s an exciting year for the Mohn family and thus also for Europe’s largest media group Bertelsmann from Gütersloh, which has been under the family’s control for almost 200 years. A few days ago, Liz Mohn announced that she would be handing the fate of Bertelsmann in the hands of her son Christoph on her 80th birthday today. Liz Mohn has been the spokesperson for the Mohn family since 2002, which directly holds around 20 percent of the company. This position is now taken over by Christoph Mohn – as well as the chairmanship of the steering committee of Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft (BVG), in which the family’s voting rights are bundled. This guarantees him control of the entire group via a right of veto and allows him to determine the strategic direction to a large extent. The remaining 80 percent or so of the capital shares in Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA are held by foundations such as the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Reinhard Mohn Foundation and the BVG Foundation. Liz Mohn is now also stepping down from the board of the influential Bertelsmann Stiftung.

“My husband was my teacher”

Liz Mohn determined the fortunes of the media empire for a long time. She originally started at Bertelsmann as a secretary. At the age of 17 she met the then company patriarch Reinhard Mohn at a company party and finally married him in 1982.

Then she began to take on tasks in the group with his support. “My husband was my teacher,” wrote the jubilee. Reinhard Mohn took over C. Bertelsmann Verlag in 1947 in the fifth generation and expanded it into a media group. He died in 2009. It was up to Liz Mohn to help shape the change to a digital media company and to determine it in a responsible position.

Largest book publishing group in the world

What kind of company is it that the 80-year-old is now handing over to her son Christoph? The business of the media group already starts with the children. It is active on the education market with the Bertelsmann Education Group. Bertelsmann expects a lot from the growing demand for e-learning.

The group also includes Penguin Random House, the world’s largest consumer publishing group with more than 300 independent book publishers, and the magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr, which is responsible for titles such as “Stern”, “Geo”, “Brigitte”, “Essen & Trinken” or ” Beautiful living “is known.

TV group as a source of revenue

The RTL Group, in which Bertelsmann holds a majority stake of 75 percent, with the channels RTL, RTL 2, Vox and NTV, provides the largest share of group sales. Then there is BMG, the fourth largest music publisher in the world. The second largest group division – measured in terms of sales – is the service company Arvato, which operates call centers and organizes financial services, IT services and logistics for its customers. A total of around 130,000 employees work for the media group worldwide. In the past 2020 financial year, it generated sales of 17.3 billion euros. The “Billionaires-Index” of the news service Bloomberg estimates the current fortune of Liz Mohn at 7.5 billion dollars.

In the sixth generation

Liz Mohn was honored with the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2010 for her social commitment. Mohn donated, among other things, a singing competition and campaigns for stroke victims. The Bertelsmann Foundation is one of the largest foundations in Germany and, according to its own statements, invested 74 million euros in charitable projects last year. It was founded in 1977 by the corporate patriarch Reinhard Mohn. Critics accuse her of pursuing the interests of the group with her influence.

The new family spokesman Christoph Mohn takes over the reins of the Gütersloh group, which has its roots in the printing of religious works, in the sixth generation. In addition to the 55-year-old and Liz Mohn, their daughter Brigitte is also represented on the steering committee of the Bertelsmann management company

The Hre have lived for a long time, mainly in the districts of Ba To, Son Ha, Minh Long, a few in the districts of Tu Nghia, Nghia Hanh, Tra Bong, Son Tay and Mo Duc district (Quang Ngai); An Lao district (Binh Dinh); Kon Plong district (Kon Tum). Currently, there are a very few working, living and living in most districts, towns and cities in Quang Ngai province and some provinces and cities such as: Thua Thien – Hue province, Ho Chi Minh City. Da Nang, Quang Nam province, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Lam Dong, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Ho Chi Minh City… The Hre river is a tributary river of Tra Khuc river, flowing through Ba To and Son Ha districts, upstream from Ba Xa commune through Ba Vi, Ba Tieu and Ba Ngac communes (Ba To). , through the territory of the communes of Son Ba, Son Ky, Son Thuy, Son Hai, Son Cao, Son Linh, Son Giang, Son Thanh, Son Ha, Son Nham (Son Ha). The section from Son Cao commune to Son Nham commune (Son Ha) is called “Cai” river (Cai river), in Hre it is called krong dieu Kreq. Kroang/krong means stream (river, stream). Dheac/dhia means water. Kreq River is the name of the river Kreq. The Hre River is the largest river in the four tributary rivers of the Tra Khuc River, which are: Re/Rhe (dheac Hre), Rinh (Hjinh), Xa Lo (hlo), and Tang (Htong). ) and other small streams… The downstream section of Tu Nghia and Son Tinh districts to Cua Dai Co Luy (Quang Ngai city) is called Tra Khuc river. In the past, the Hre people were named after different regions. For example, the communes of Ba To district and Son Ba, Son Ky, Son Thuy, Son Hai (Son Ha) are called “Hre” (probably named after the Hre river). The remaining communes of Son Ha district are called “Krêq” (probably named after the river Krêq, ie Cai river). Minh Long district called it “Hre Ravăh” (probably named after the Ravăh river, ie Phuoc Giang river). An Lao district (Binh Dinh province) is called “Hre Hdinh” (the people of Dinh). Kon Plong district (Kon Tum province) is called “Hre Wi Hlac – Vah E” (ie Vi Olak – Bo E). In which, “Hre” accounts for the largest proportion, followed by “Kreq”, “Hre Ravăh”, “Hre Hdinh”, “Hre Wi Hlac – Văh E”. However, nowadays, people no longer call the names according to the region as in the past, but unified as mangai Hre or contamoi Hre. Mangai means person. Contamoi or gong/gung means ethnic minority. The sound of reading (saying) the word “Hre” (Hre river, Hre people) is the correct and standard pronunciation, the vast majority of Hre people in the past still speak. However, nowadays, some Hre people are still used to calling their clan name Re, or Hre. As for the Hre River, if you speak Kinh (Vietnamese), it is the Re river. But when they speak the Hre ethnic language, it is dheac/dhie Hre (ie the word Hre, not the word Re).

The graves story has long been highly valued by Vietnamese people, especially when the society is growing, the spiritual needs, towards the roots, have become more and more practical in everyday life.

Therefore, the graves have the shape of the family garden house, the lineage has appeared, they are decorated quite wonders. Recognized in Lac Hong Vien cemetery park (Hoa Binh), dozens of billion-dollar tombs are lying close together on the spacious and airy hills.

From the end of the second month of the lunar calendar to the beginning of the third lunar month, especially on March 3, people come to the cemetery to celebrate the ceremony to pay homage to their ancestors.

According to Mr. Su Truong Son (65 years old, in Tay Ho – Hanoi), his family decided to buy a billion-dollar land in the cemetery for the deceased later to have a beautiful resting place. The third lunar month is Thanh Minh Tet, so he and his family come to burn incense and celebrate ceremonies.

The graves in this cemetery are likened to villas for the dead. Because the money to buy land is also billions of dollars, plus the money to build the campus, the church is worth up to tens of billion / grave.

According to a person who takes care of the graves here, the average price for each square meter of land here is about VND 15 million, with a family buying a hundred square meter of land.

Representatives of the management board here said that most of the prime locations with prices of many billion VND have been booked in advance to prevent the “fever” of the burial place later.

He also added: “Usually the graves of the family are about 100 – 1,000 square meters, the price of each tomb ranges from over 1 billion to tens of billion VND, depending on the area and design requirements. , construction of the people. The construction of the tomb must also comply with the regulations on height, environmental factors … for harmony ”.

Watch more video: Ancient tomb discovery more than 1,400 years old. Source: Ha Tinh Television.

Presumably all people who have been to Lugu Lake have heard of the Marriage Clan and the Mosuo people. They are known as the “last matrilineal clan in the world”, and some people compare them to the “daughter country.”

For a long time, the female culture has been washing away the threat of cultural erosion with a wise mind and a powerful body. Under the impact of this modern civilization, there is also such a mystery that makes the beauty of Lugu Lake exude a unique charm. The marriage bridge with a vicissitudes of history has attracted countless tourists to this day.

I have been here twice, once in late autumn and once in early autumn. I have a good relationship with the autumn of Lugu Lake. When the mountains and rivers merge, the ancient humanities naturally derive. The arrival of autumn symbolizes the maturity of fruits, the harvest of farmland, and the cohesion of culture.

Lugu Lake was called “Lukuhaizi” in ancient times. The magical Mosuo language of Naxi people always makes people curious. In their language, “Lugu Lake” means the lake in the ravine, and is their “mother lake”. Known as the “Penglai Wonderland”, it also has such nicknames as “the pearl of the plateau”, “a pure land in northwestern Yunnan”, and “the first wonderland in the East”.

This ravine lake connects Yunnan and Sichuan, but the culture of the mysterious daughter country does not divide the monument boundary, and the traditional life of the Mosuo people is still a place that travelers and explorers yearn for.

Even if today’s Lugu Lake has become a very mature and commercial tourist attraction, people’s curiosity about that culture is still full of freshness.

On the shore of Lugu Lake, there are not only Mosuo people, but also 7 ethnic groups including Yi, Pumi, and Mongolian. Among them, only the Mosuo people make Lugu Lake more and more magical.

The sun and the moon rotate, and everything is broken into three thousand dusts in the sky and earth, and the most pure touch falls into a bay of blue lake. When the dust settles, that bay of lake is the Lugu Lake that the world yearns for.

Lugu Lake stretches from north to west to southeast. It is 9.5 kilometers long from north to south, 5.2 kilometers wide from east to west, and its shoreline is about 44 kilometers long. It was selected as the best leisure tourism destination in China National Tourism in 2018.

In autumn, Lugu Lake is more charming. Just like the Mosuo people who have no words and take Daba culture as their culture, the beautiful scenery and rich legendary style are full of mystery. Locke, the captain of the American expedition, once expressed his heartfelt admiration, saying, “This is a place suitable for gods to live.”

Standing on the mountainside, the jewel-like Lugu Lake gradually deepens in the autumn colors, integrating the landscape culture of “one lake and two provinces” with a calm oil painting tone. If I have the opportunity, I will choose to come again in the fall.

I remember when I came to Lugu Lake for the first time, the mountain mist enveloped the lake in the morning, and the small island was floating on the calm lake like a boat. At that time, there were no particularly noisy people. The quietness and simplicity of the surroundings made me unable to believe Yunnan There is such a wonderland.

If only the scenery is used to describe Lugu Lake, it is more beautiful than it, but no other lake has the ancient and mysterious Mosuo culture like it.

Although the Mosuo people have no words, their traditional life is a cultural history. Because of their cultural multiplication, the mountains and rivers are more beautiful and full of vitality, making Lugu Lake so unique. When people use Sichuan and Yunnan to distinguish a bay of lake water, in fact, the flow of culture and water is closer than that of humans.

Immersive, the water and the sky are the same color, the pig trough boats slowly gliding on the blue waves and the Mosuo folk songs slowly floating between the water and the sky make it more simple and quiet.

In Lugu Lake quietly changing their colors with the changing of the seasons, people look forward to the forests of the mountain lakes, while the Mosuo marriage customs and ancient civilization are silently integrated into this landscape.

There are many ancient myths, long historical monuments and mysterious humanities hidden on the shores of Lugu Lake and on various small islands, such as Liwubi Island, Rock Island (Snake Island, because the American botanist Dr. Locke once lived here In 8 years, the relationship with the Mosuo people was very good. Later, people called Snake Island “Rock Island”);

Luoshui Temple, Daluoshui Village (one of the must-visit places for most tourists), Lige Village, Lige Peninsula, Zuoming Bridge (the only bridge on Lugu Lake), Xiaoluoshui Village (the last place beside Lugu Lake in Yunnan) A village), Goddess Gem Mountain and so on.

These places not only have profound history and culture, ancient magical folk customs, but also beautiful scenery of mountains and lakes, attracting a large number of tourists, and they have become the first choice for many variety shows.