Otto Beisheim Metro retail chains and their activities. A real breakthrough in German trade

More than 60 years have passed since the victorious volleys over the defeated Reichstag. The fate of most of those who formed Adolf Hitler's inner circle and were recognized as war criminals is known. However, many members of the Hitler party and its satellite structures not only managed to avoid fair retribution, but also took care in advance of placing the capital accumulated during the war in foreign banks, and subsequently turned into influential and respectable businessmen.

For example, Konrad Kaleis, who ended his life within the walls of a Latvian boarding house on the outskirts of Melbourne, whose extradition to Latvia was never achieved by the Republic's Prosecutor General's Office. According to historians, during the war he cold-bloodedly exterminated more than 30 thousand people, and often went on “business trips” - on punitive operations in Russia and Belarus. In 1944, Kaleis moved to Germany with the retreating Germans, then emigrated to Australia and, having opened his own business, became a multimillionaire. At the same time, it is not difficult to guess what sources served as the “initial capital” for doing business.

Even more interesting is the fate of the founder of the Metro retail group (it includes the supermarket chain Metro, Kaufhof, Media Markt, Saturn, Praktiker, Real, Extra) Otto Beisheim, one of the richest people in Europe.

His fate is a vivid example of the "American Dream". He was born in 1924 to the family of an estate manager, did not feel any particular desire to study, and before finishing high school, he was hired as a salesman in a store selling leather goods. At this point, a significant gap appears in his biography, and the name of Otto Beisheim emerges only in 1964, when Otto Beisheim, who returned to his homeland from the United States, founded a wholesale supermarket in West Germany based on the American model - METRO Cash & Carry. In general, everything is like in a fairy tale: a poor emigrant without even a secondary education, without any start-up capital, becomes the owner of the largest trading house in Europe.

But, as in any fairy tale, it turned out to be exactly half true. While awarding himself doctoral degrees and professorships, Otto Weissheim preferred not to talk about his life. Especially about the part that occurred during the Second World War.

Interested in such a strange omission, German journalist Michael Radtke comes across the case of a sick military hospitalist, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler non-commissioned officer Otto Weissheim. The latter, however, used a lot of effort to hide this unpleasant fact from his biography. On this occasion, the Bavarian Ministry of Culture even initiated a closed examination, which seemed to show that Beisheim, apparently, did not take a direct part in Nazi atrocities.

On the one hand, the experts were right. The Leibstandarte was founded personally by Adolf Hitler shortly after coming to power on March 17, 1933, because he did not trust the conventional army. Until September 1933, the unit was called the “Berlin Staff Guard,” and from November 1933 its members began to take the oath personally to Adolf Hitler and, as a personal army, were not subject to any party or constitutional supervision. The Leibstandarte was primarily engaged in the protection of government members and government buildings and was not respected by members of the rest of the SS units, calling them “SS pleasure troops” or “asphalt soldiers.” On the other hand, the selection for this elite unit was quite strict, and its soldiers were personally loyal to the Fuhrer. Thus, at the fronts, some suffered very high losses, which can be explained by insufficient military training, blind fanaticism and disregard for death.

At the Nuremberg Trials, the entire Waffen-SS organization, including the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler, was declared criminal. However, some members of the division were not only able to get away with it, but also settled well in their new life, while maintaining their previous ideology.

SS veteran Franz Schönhuber founded and led the right-wing Republican Party in 1985. Member of the Bundestag (from the CSU) Karl-Heinz Spielker also went into politics. One of the most active ideologists of National Socialism is the Untersturmführer of the 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler" Herbert Schweiger. “We, the soldiers of the German Wehrmacht, have nothing to be ashamed of!”, he says, believing that the logical continuation of today’s world processes will be the third world war - a global conflict

Between the most developed races. In particular, Herbert Schweiger talks about the desire of the yellow race, led by the Chinese, to expand “living space” and world domination, and, accordingly, it is the third world war that will determine which race will rule on planet Earth in the coming historical period. That is why the German national movement is already trying to develop a program of action for this period in order to meet the changes head-on.

When the Nuremberg trials began, our prosecutors tried to bring to trial not only the direct criminals of the Reich, like Goering or Frank. Prosecutors from the USSR also wanted to condemn corporations that rose up in the war and used the slave labor of concentration camp prisoners. In response, Western comrades (even then we were no comrades at all) began vying to convince the Russians that private property was inviolable, that company owners had no choice, as if they had not competed in Nazi tenders, and so on and so forth. Naturally, even then, many Western “allies” tried their best to hide their connections with the Nazis, especially after the general publication of photos and film materials from the concentration camps. In short, none of the oligarchs who profited from the war were put to the wall.

So who managed to hide under the rug to save their reputation? No, we will not cite the example of the Krupp factories or the Bavarian Motor Works, which, to please the Nazis, even switched to the production of weapons and jet engines. Let’s not even go into the biography of Hugo Boss, who not only was a “weaver” of the Reich uniform, but also rose to Nazi orders, because... before the rise of Hitler, he almost went bankrupt, and he personally joined the Nazi party in order to correct shaky affairs. We will try to illuminate those who crawled most deeply under the carpet and managed to become covered with the saving dust of time.

German "stormtroopers" quench their thirst

Let's start, perhaps, with an aperitif, i.e. from drinks. In 1940, when World War II was already in full swing, the United States finally stepped up its efforts and banned the supply of Cola syrup to the German factories of the American company. Therefore, Max Keit, head of the German divisions of Coca-Cola, created a new product based on existing ingredients - apple cake from cider and whey from cheese production. The resulting yellowish drink was called “Fanta” (from the German word “Fantasie”). Of course, the taste of that Fanta was far from modern.

Sales of Max Kite jumped up. Throughout the war, Max counted profits, retained all the factories of the Coca-Cola company, and in 1960, Cola, which returned to the German market, bought the rights to produce the popular Fanta.

Well, let's continue our run through the German grocery store. In the second half of the 19th century in Switzerland, Julius Maggi founded a brand of dry soups and food seasonings. Soon the company opened in the German town of Singen. The rise of the Nazis to power was an incredible opportunity for Maggi to expand its business, because... they managed to get a contract to supply the Wehrmacht with semi-finished products. Not a contract, but a dream - millions of regular and eternally hungry customers who simply do not have a chance to choose a menu.

And what would it be without sweets! Just before the war, the expanding Nestlé company, extremely far-sightedly, created an independent, only on paper, branch in the United States, capturing markets. In this way, the company reduced the risk of sanctions and other unpleasant prohibitive measures associated with their trade with the Reich. As a result, the outbreak of war did not affect sales in any way. The company traded food products with both the Axis countries and the allied countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. Such double-dealing, naturally, did not bring honor to the office. In addition, according to some reports, company representatives in Switzerland even sponsored the Nazis in 1939 in order to obtain a contract for the supply of chocolate, coffee and concentrated milk with such “charity”. By the end of the war, Nestlé had become a real corporation, spanning almost all continents.

After a strong lunch, the Nazis, despite Hitler’s negative attitude towards smoking (he called it the revenge of the Indians against the whites), still liked to take a drag or two. And then the Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken company comes onto the scene. For this office, the Nazis' rise to power could not have come at a better time: it became almost a monopolist on the German market. In 1930, Jewish tobacco suppliers, mired in crisis, left the market. They are immediately replaced by Reemtsma. Already in June 1932, the head of the company, Philipp Reemtsma, was honored with a meeting with the top of the future Reich, and in 1933, after a meeting with Goering and certain “gifts” from the tobacconists, the office received carte blanche.

In 1939, representatives of Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken received official status as leaders of an association of companies working for the needs of the front. Moreover, this company shamelessly used forced labor of prisoners, including the labor of children. And, by the way, the scale of exploitation of “second-class” people by these businessmen is truly amazing. Even in Crimea, on tobacco plantations, they used the local population, driven to work by occupation and hunger. Now the assets of this brand belong to Imperial Tobacco.

In addition to pharmaceutical giants like Ciba and Sandoz or Bayer (the chairman of the latter company in 1956, Fritz ter Meer, was actually a Nazi and experimented on people in Auschwitz), even seemingly innocent companies, for example, cosmetics, had “relations” with the Nazis . Thus, the Beiersdorf company, which owns the Nivea brand, was highly valued by the Nazis for using exclusively the natural beauty of Germans and German women, as well as a truly Aryan font, in their advertising campaign. For the sake of truth, I must note that the head of the company, Yakobson himself, did not find a place in the world of new competition due to his last name. He hastily fled from the Nazi country to the Netherlands back in the 30s.

And now, of course, shopping. The seemingly modern company Metro Group also has its own mothball skeletons in the closet with Nazi symbols and a satanic glint in their eyes. As you know, Metro was founded in Germany in 1964 by several citizens, including a certain Otto Beisheim. The company itself simply did not have time to work for the Reich, but citizen Otto distinguished himself in this field in full. Otto was born in 1924 into the family of an estate manager, but the young boy’s heart was not in rural life. And in 1941 he managed to join no less than the SS division “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler”. I don’t think it’s worth explaining that confused boys and politically illiterate brats were not kept from speaking at all in such a structure. As a result, by the end of the war, Otto was captured by the Allies. By the way, he never gave interviews to the press, apparently because of his old habit he was afraid of “ziganizing.”

Not far from the creator of Metro, another founder of an equally large company left, which has prevented finances from stagnating in the pockets of ordinary people with his ideas for decades. This is IKEA. The founder of the company, the dear old Swede Ingvar Kamprad, also did not remain indifferent to the fate of Europe when Hitler forged the “new order”. As it became known only in 1994 from the letters of the Swedish Nazi and friend of Ingvar Per Endahl, Kamprad was a member of the Swedish Nazi party from 42 to 45. And he didn’t just take part in the sabbaths of young “dreamers,” but raised funds for the party and even recruited supporters. This is what I understand - “idea”!

Now we get to clothes. Two of the largest corporations producing sportswear and footwear, Adidas and Puma, were founded by very specific brothers. Adolf and Rudolf Dassler first started together at the Gebrüder Dassler company, which flourished during the rise of the Nazis to power. Both brothers joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and became its ardent members, even serving in Hitler’s army for some time. But Europeans have a memory like that of the Dory fish from the famous cartoon, so in Herzogenaur there is already a monument to Adolf Dassler, and they themselves are a symbol of commercial and “sporting” success.

And this is just a drop in the ocean of companies for which money is no object. American banking structures, automobile manufacturers of the Old and New Worlds, pharmaceuticals, etc. were allied with the Nazis. No, this does not mean that it is necessary to immediately begin a “crusade” against companies known for their connections with the Nazis (I’m afraid that some of these companies will forever remain in the shadows). This means that the absence of a trial against them back in 1945 does not leave us even a ray of hope that the whole nightmare of slave labor and blood business will not happen again. After all, in 1945, the tycoons were practically given an indulgence.

Founder of a famous German retail chain Metro Otto Beisheim was found dead on his estate located near the city of Rottach-Egern in Germany.

The cause of death is suicide. Being terminally ill, 89-year-old Beisheim decided not to suffer, preferring a simpler path. He left behind a fortune exceeding $5 billion (as of 2008). Since Beisheim has no heirs, it will become the property of two non-profit foundations in Germany and Switzerland.

Otto Beisheim was born on January 3, 1924 in Essen. Little is known about his fate, because the billionaire himself never talked about himself and became famous for the fact that didn't give any interviews. Beisheim never managed to obtain any worthwhile education. Due to the extremely difficult economic situation in the country, he had to go to work early. He worked in a store selling leather goods and managed to achieve very decent results.

During World War II, Beisheim served in an elite unit - the 1st Panzer Division "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler", whose members were initially actually the Fuhrer's personal guard. Most likely, it was this unsightly fact in his biography that became the reason for such isolation and reluctance to tell anything about himself and generally appear in public.

Beisheim began developing the METRO Cash & Carry network in 1964 and quickly succeeded in this field. At first he did this on his own, later the company Franz Haniel & Cie and the Schmidt-Ruthenbeck family also became involved in the business. And in 1968, the chain's first store opened outside Germany - in the Netherlands.

The birth of the METRO AG concern occurred in 1996, when two large German retail chains Kaufhaus and Kaufhof also joined METRO Cash & Carry.

The METRO chain came to Russia in 2000, when the first hypermarket was opened in Moscow. Today in the Moscow region alone there are 12 retail outlets. In total, more than four dozen METRO hypermarkets have already been opened in Russia, in various cities with a population exceeding 500,000 people. Also here you need to add two dozen Real hypermarkets (now sold to the Auchan chain) and about thirty MediaMarkt stores.

About three months ago, Germany was shocked by the news: in his own home in the Bavarian city of Rottach-Egern, he committed suicide Otto Beisheim. He was among the founders of one of the world's most profitable Metro Groups. A few months before this sad event, the multibillionaire became aware of the diagnosis, and his health, despite intensive treatment, began to rapidly deteriorate. I made a decision and voluntarily put an end to my truly amazing destiny.

A brief history of the formation of Otto Beisheim

He was a very difficult and very private person who for decades deliberately avoided publicity; meticulous journalists even called him a man without a face. Perhaps this is why many details of his life remained unknown; he never gave a single interview, preferred to travel on someone else’s passport, and avoided recognition even in the companies he led.

Otto Beisheim was born in the Ruhr (County of Essen) on January 3, 1924. The family was quite poor, which was not uncommon in Germany at that time, so the future multi-billionaire did not even have enough money to send him to school. At first he studied leatherwork, then went into trade. The young man was very fascinated by the prevailing ideas of Nazism at that time, he was even honored to serve in one of the elite SS units “Adolf Hitler”, in which the oath was taken personally to the Fuhrer.

Although Otto Beisheim had a small role in the war and did not play a special role in the war, before his capture by the Americans he managed to earn the Iron Cross - one of the most popular awards for bravery in the Wehrmacht. It is possible that it was participation in the war on the side of the Nazis that later became one of the reasons for the businessman’s secrecy.

The lack of secondary education affected Otto Beisheim's future career. He really managed to master only two things: trade and war. He decided to engage in trade, which was difficult to do practically from scratch in a devastated country. Having traveled to, the young merchant became acquainted with the principle of small-scale wholesale trade. In 1964, together with several German families, he registered the Metro company and opened the first store in Mülheim.

A real breakthrough in German trade

Legally, Otto Beisheim was not a co-owner of Metro. He was "just" the general manager of one of the company's stores. But the concept that Beisheim developed and implemented based on his American experience brought such powerful results that after a couple of years he became a co-owner of the company.

The new trading format practically exploded; Metro stores were liked by hotel and restaurant owners. Small-scale purchases allowed us to significantly save on delivery and avoid overpaying for large quantities of goods. Very soon the network became so popular in Germany that the owners risked entering the foreign market.

Today, the brainchild of Otto Beisheim - the Metro Group of companies - consists of Cash&Carry wholesale hypermarkets, electronics and household appliances stores, Galeria Kaufhof department stores, and hypermarkets. There are more than 2,200 retail outlets in 32 countries around the world, generating a turnover approaching 70 billion euros annually. Metro's capitalization has reached almost 8 billion euros, and every German believes that any self-respecting city simply must have its own Metro store.

The last years of Otto Beisheim's life

In the early nineties, the businessman gradually moved away from managing the company and participating in the business, leaving the board of directors. A few years ago, he even reduced his personal stake in Metro to 10%. Having received Swiss citizenship in 1988, he led a quiet and inconspicuous life, which he spent in the winter in Miami, returning in the summer to the Swiss Bar.

Otto Beisheim liked to work, and he did it as secretly as possible; even those close to him did not know about most of the projects. So, in the early 90s, the billionaire saved Kirch from Leo, buying the rights to two and a half thousand films from him. In the 90s, the university in Vallendar received fifty million marks from Beichsheim and began to be named after him. In 2004, Potsdamer Platz in the German capital was decorated with the center of Beichsheim, in which he invested 463 million, but even, as usual, did not come to the opening.

By the way, the center was erected in memory of the multi-billionaire’s wife Inge, who was with him for half a century and died in 1999. Almost 10 years later, Otto Beisheim married again, but by the time of his death he did not have any children. Therefore, the multi-billionaire's fortune, which last spring Forbes estimated at 3.3 billion euros, will, according to his orders, be divided between the funds he founded, located in Bar and Munich.

This person of the week, according to Euromag, is one of the most mysterious German multi-billionaires, who decided to die due to an incurable disease. However, of course, this courageous decision is just an episode in the amazing life story of one of the founders of the Metro Group network, Otto Beisheim, who revolutionized the retail market 50 years ago.
On February 18, one of the richest people in Europe, one of the founders of the Metro Group network, Otto Beisheim, voluntarily passed away in Rottach-Egern, Bavaria. The news of the businessman's death was published by the Bild newspaper, which reported that on Monday Beisheim's housekeeper heard the sound of a gunshot, and some time later the businessman's body was found in the bathroom.
The fact is that some time ago, multi-billionaire Otto Beisheim was given a disappointing diagnosis. He began a course of treatment, but his health was getting worse every day. As a result, as the Beisheim Group, which he founded, later stated, the businessman decided to “leave his life due to a hopeless health situation.”
However, it is worth noting that this decision of Otto Beisheim, because of which EUROMAG magazine recognized him as “man of the week”, is only the final chord in the amazing life story of this man, who 50 years ago turned the idea of ​​Germans and many Europeans about retail trade by introducing their compatriots with the format of small wholesale trade.
Otto Beisheim was born on January 3, 1924 in the Essen region of the Ruhr, which was a large industrial region in Germany. The Beisheim family was not rich, and the parents did not have the opportunity to send their son to school. Otto began studying leatherwork, but later took up trade.
Otto Beisheim is one of the most mysterious figures in big German business. This multi-billionaire has never given a single interview in his entire life. Many believe that the answer to this phenomenon is hidden in his youth.
There is one extremely ambiguous detail in Otto’s biography - he served in one of the most elite units of the Waffen SS - the Adolf Hitler Life Standard, which enjoyed the personal patronage and special favor of the Fuhrer. At the dawn of the Reich, in the thirties, members of this organization took a personal oath to Hitler and played the role of personal security for the Nazi elite.
However, as historians note, his role in World War II was minor, since he was one of the lower ranks and also quickly fell into British captivity. No matter how small his role was, Otto Beisheim was awarded the Iron Cross, second degree.
After the war, he, like most Germans, was forced to rebuild his country. Since 1948, economic reforms began in Germany, developed by the first Minister of Economy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Ludwig Erhard. Later, the result of his reforms would be called the “German economic miracle.”
A young man who did not even finish school found himself in a difficult position after the war - he only knew how to fight and trade. It was the latter that he decided to do. The 1940s-1960s were the era of the formation of modern global giants in the trading industry. In those years, brands such as the Swedish IKEA and the American Walmart appeared.
After spending several years trying to create something worthwhile in Germany, Otto saved up money to travel to the United States, where he became acquainted with the concept of small-scale wholesale trade. As noted by German media, upon returning to Germany, Beisheim, together with the Schmidt-Ruthenbeck family and the family holding company Franz Haniel & Cie, founded the Metro trading company in 1964 and opened the first small wholesale store in Mülheim.
In fact, if you look at it legally, Beisheim was not the founder of the company - he joined the Metro concern when the store opened in Mülheim in 1964, becoming its general director. However, this was already the company's second store. However, the concept that Beisheim brought to the company allowed him to become an owner after 2 years.
For the Germans this was a new format of trade. Metro Cash & Carry stores quickly gained popularity among restaurant and hotel owners who were unaccustomed to this format. Small wholesale purchases allowed companies to save money on delivery and not overpay for large quantities of certain goods.
Soon the new company was known throughout Germany, which the owners took advantage of and began to actively develop the chain of stores, bringing it to foreign markets.
Now the group includes wholesale hypermarkets Metro Cash & Carry, chains of stores selling electronics and household appliances Media Markt and Saturn, Galeria Kaufhof department stores, as well as Real hypermarkets (Metro recently sold some of them to the French Auchan).
The total number of Metro Group outlets in 32 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa reaches 2,200, the group's total sales exceed 66 billion euros per year, and the market capitalization is 7.9 billion euros. It is almost impossible to imagine a German who has never entered at least one of the mentioned stores.
Since the 1990s, Beisheim has stepped away from Metro management and active involvement in business. He resigned from Metro's board of directors in 1994 and reduced his stake in the group to around 10% in 2009-2010.
Very little is known about his biography beyond the official protocols. It is reliably known that he received Swiss citizenship in 1988. It is reported that in recent decades he has lived "in several countries" - in the summer in the Swiss Bar, and in the winter in Miami. In addition, he also had houses in Paris, Lugano (Switzerland) and Rottach-Egern.
It is also known that he was actively involved in charity work, although even people close to him are sure that they did not know about all of the billionaire’s projects. For example, in 1990 he bought the rights to 2,500 films from Leo Kirch and thus saved him from bankruptcy. In addition, he was a co-owner of the Kabelkanal television channel until 1995.
On January 10, 2004, the Beisheim center opened on Berlin's Potsdamer Platz for 463 million euros, under the roof of which are, among other things, five-star hotels of the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott chains. Otto built this building in honor of his late wife Inge, with whom he lived for 50 years. She died in 1999. In 2008 he married again. Beisheim had no children.
Beisheim sponsored children's sports teams, schools and higher education institutions, and provided funds for the construction of playgrounds and sports facilities. In 1993, he donated DM 50 million to the University of Management in Vallendar. Since then, the educational institution bears his name.
Beisheim's fortune in March 2012 was estimated by Forbes magazine at 3.3 billion euros. The capital will be divided between two charitable foundations founded by Beisheim - in Munich and Bar.
According to Bild, the Metro co-founder was often called a “man without a face” in the press: he avoided media attention and never gave interviews; At Metro staff meetings, he was rarely recognized by other employees. Beisheim also feared kidnapping and traveled under false names, such as Luigi Fontana and Bernard Duthoit.