Erich Schumann (publisher)

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Erich Schumann (born December 13, 1930 in Nuremberg ; † January 21, 2007 in Ratingen ) was managing director of the WAZ media group from 1978 until his death . He was the director of over 500 publications, including the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and 37 other daily newspapers across Europe, with a total daily circulation of over four million copies and 16,000 employees. The turnover in 2006 was over two billion euros.

Life

Schumann studied law and business administration at the Universities of Erlangen , Bonn , Paris and New York from 1950 to 1956 . In the period from 1956 to 1960 he worked as a trainee lawyer and completed this training with the Great State Examination in Law .

From 1960 he then practiced his own lawyer in the field of business and tax law in Bonn, and this work as the senior of a law firm he carried out until 1977. From 1969 to 1971 he worked on commissions for legal reforms of youth welfare and the illegitimate.

From 1978 he was employed as managing director and managing partner of the WAZ media group in Essen, where he succeeded the founder Erich Brost . The founder of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung adopted him in 1985. Together with Günther Grotkamp, he built the WAZ group into an international media company in the 1980s and 1990s. Together with the former Chancellery Minister Bodo Hombach , he represented the interests of the Brost family within the WAZ. Erich Brost's widow, Anneliese Brost , owns 30% of the company shares, Erich Schumann over 20% until his death. After Schumann's death, the shares went to the grandchildren of Erich Brost.

In Austria Schumann was primarily known for the dispute between the owners of the Kronen Zeitung . As a representative of the WAZ, which owns half of the crown , he has been replacing Hans Dichand (owner of the second half) as managing director and editor-in-chief since 2001 . This dispute, which was sometimes very personal and public, was not finally resolved until Schumann's death. The public remembered the exchange between Dichand and Schumann, in which Schumann called on him to resign, because he was not only doing his business poorly, but his time at the age of 82 was already over.

In December 2006, Schumann had to undergo severe digestive tract surgery, which led to rumors that he would be retiring from publishing in the near future for health reasons, which were denied. However, Schumann did not recover from the operation, after a setback he died on the evening of January 21, 2007 in a Ratingen hospital. He was married to Karina Schumann (née Reimann) and had no children.

engagement

Among other things, he was active as chairman of the German Sports Aid Foundation and on the Presidium of the National Olympic Committee from 1992 to 1996 . From 1995 to 1997 he was chairman of the supervisory board of E. Holtzmann & Cie. AG in Karlsruhe - Maxau true. He took over the chairmanship as associate moderator in the Initiativkreis Ruhrgebiet from 1998 to 2000.

As a lecturer at the Law Faculty of the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster , he took part in the supervision of the students as part of the connection to social practice. He co-founded the JuraForum symposium and used funds from his foundation to enable the additional course in subject-specific foreign language training in law (FFA) .

Schumann was a member of the SPD for a long time , but the party excluded him in 2000 because he gave the CDU 800,000 marks from his private fortune in their donation affair. The news magazine Der Spiegel had reported a wave of subscription cancellations at the WAZ after the donation of money. As a result, the SPD initiated a process of elimination. Schumann had justified his donation by saying that he feared that the CDU could go under and break the stable equilibrium between two major popular parties.

Awards

literature

Web links

credentials

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wuv.de
  2. ↑ "Cancellation due to Kohl"
personal data
SURNAME Schumann, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German editor-in-chief of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ)
DATE OF BIRTH December 13, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 2007
Place of death eat