Gerhard Schmidt (lawyer)

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Gerhard Schmidt (born May 4, 1919 in Halle an der Saale ; † February 20, 2009 in Essen ) was a German lawyer and notary . He was the doyen of the German foundation system .

Life

Gerhard Schmidt studied law in Halle, Lausanne and Leipzig. After the end of the Second World War, he started his own business in Essen as a lawyer specializing in commercial law, and from 1950 in the law firm Schmidt, von der Osten & Huber, Essen and Berlin.

Introduction of the shares of Nixdorf Computer AG on the Düsseldorf Stock Exchange in 1984. Interview with F. Wilhelm Christians (Chairman of the Deutsche Bank Supervisory Board), Herbert Zapp (Member of the Deutsche Bank Management Board), Heinz Nixdorf and Gerhard Schmidt (Chairman of the Nixdorf Computer AG Supervisory Board).

From 1969 to 1989 he was chairman of the supervisory board of Nixdorf Computer AG and its close advisor until Heinz Nixdorf's death in 1986. In his role as chairman of the supervisory board, he was particularly involved in the development of the Nixdorf company, where he was considered a "gray eminence". At the same time he was chairman of the supervisory board of Wilhelm Karmann GmbH in Osnabrück from 1978 to 1995 .

From 1979 to 1998 he was a board member of the World Economic Forum Geneva / Davos and since 1985 chairman of the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation and the Westphalia Foundation. Since 1987 he has been a board member of the Ludwig Erhard Foundation and is also involved in the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft , the German Children and Youth Foundation , the Bertelsmann Foundation , the non-profit Hertie Foundation , the Zeit Foundation Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius , and Robert Bosch Foundation , the Mercator Foundation and the German Business Foundation .

In 1997 he was the initiator and member of the board of trustees of the " German Future Prize - Federal President's Prize for Technology and Innovation ".

Gerhard Schmidt was one of the most important personalities in the German foundation landscape and was honored in 2005 by Federal President Horst Köhler with the gold medal for services to the foundation system of the Federal Association of German Foundations , the highest award for services to the German foundation system. In 2007 he received the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany from Federal President Horst Köhler in Berlin .

He was married to Addy-Ingeborg Schmidt since 1946. His life motto was Serve in Sovereignty .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. “Laudation to Dr. Gerhard Schmidt ” , Federal Association of German Foundations, May 13, 2005
  2. http://www.stiftung-westfalen.de/ Web presence of the Westphalia Foundation and the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation
  3. ^ "Acceptance speech from Dr. Gerhard Schmidt ” , Federal Association of German Foundations, May 13, 2005