Günther Kaußen

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Heinz Günther Kaußen (* around 1928; † April 13, 1985 in Cologne ) was a German business economist and real estate entrepreneur .

Life

He first studied philosophy , psychology and German . After the early death of his parents, he switched to business administration at the University of Cologne . He then worked as a research assistant at the local institute for general business administration, auditing and corporate taxation with Erich Gutenberg .

In 1957 he inherited a two-family house at Bad Godesberger Dürenstrasse 25, which he was able to rent cheaply to members of the Persian embassy, ​​and which became the starting point for his real estate company. In the summer of 1959, the purchase of a second apartment building in Cologne followed. After buying his eighth apartment building in 1961, he went into business for himself. Properties in the old building districts of Berlin , Düsseldorf and Hamburg followed . In April 1962 he acquired his 30th, in January 1964 his 50th and in February 1965 his 100th building and thus rose to become the largest private home owner of the through the debt-financed purchase of numerous apartment houses in need of renovation, which he rented out at high prices but hardly maintained then Federal Republic. In 1966 he finally acquired entire settlements, such as the miners' settlements belonging to the United Helene & Amalie colliery , which was closed in 1965, with 4000 apartments from Friedrich Krupp AG in Essen and 1115 company apartments from Monopol Bergwerks-GmbH in Kamen and Bergkamen .

However, his business practices earned him numerous lawsuits and growing criticism, initially from the regional media. When the news magazine Der Spiegel over Kaußen ran a cover story under the heading “ Housing speculator Kaußen ” in 1977 , he already owned over 20,000 apartments. He also began to get involved in the USA and had a branch office in San Francisco to manage his real estate there .

At the beginning of the 1980s, his more than 35,000 apartments in mostly poorer locations, mostly in need of renovation, got into financial difficulties not only for the tax office and the banks, but also for himself, which was no longer manageable. On April 13, 1985, Kaußen hanged himself in his bathroom. He left four daughters from a longstanding relationship with an employee.

Then the Cologne bankruptcy judge Wilhelm Uhlenbruck commissioned the Cologne lawyer Klaus Hubert Görg with the search for assets, the administration and the processing of the estate estate, which saved numerous creditors from bankruptcy.

Movies

  • The public-shy Kaußen, sought in vain by many journalists, was first shown in the 42-minute WDR documentary Gesucht wird ... Günter Kaußen filmed by Paul Karalus from a helicopter planting potatoes and tomatoes on the roof of his Cologne house (first broadcast on August 9, 1974).
  • The life of Kaußens was filmed by Claus Strobel in a 90-minute documentary with the title “ I am not God, but like God ”, which was released in 1994 . Hermann Lause played the main role.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The Kaußen bankruptcy in US courts . In: Journal of Business Law . No. 22 , November 24, 1989, ISSN  0723-9416 , p. 1493 ( zip-online.de [accessed December 19, 2018]).
  2. ↑ brief info Choices: Kultur.Kino.Köln
personal data
SURNAME Kaußen, Günther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kaußen, Heinz Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German business economist and real estate entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH around 1928
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1985
Place of death Cologne