Hannsheinz Porst

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Hannsheinz Porst (born November 8, 1922 in Nuremberg ; † April 29, 2010 in Artelshofen ) was a German entrepreneur . For many years he was the owner of the photo retail chain Photo Porst . He founded Maul & Co (commercial printing), Exdata (data processing), DSV (Deutscher Supplement Verlag; rtv ), PORST Housing, Grapha and Atrex.

The entrepreneur

His father Hanns Porst founded a photo shop in 1919, which later became a photo mail order company. After middle school and a toolmaker apprenticeship at Kodak , the young Hannsheinz joined his parents' company in 1948. He was one of the first in Germany to set up a chain of specialist shops with his Photo Porst stores.

After the currency reform, he joined the company that his father had set up and known as "The world's largest photo house" as an equal partner. At the end of the 1950s it was already foreseeable that a mail order business specializing in photos could not have a future. Father Porst handed the company over to his son in 1960, who consequently began to build up a chain of stores across Germany that already five years later had 100 of its own and 600 franchise sales outlets. Thanks to modern marketing and unconventional ideas, it was possible to control 25% of the German photo market.

In addition, the entrepreneur built a printing plant and 500 company apartments on the green field outside Nuremberg . Just a few years later, the “Maul & Co” printing company for gravure, offset and letterpress printing was considered one of the best-known in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Processes

In 1964 Porst was arrested and charged with tax evasion. After paying 9.5 million DM in outstanding taxes and a fine of 2.5 million DM, no charges were brought.

At that time, Porst was already bugged by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution . However, he was only charged later when a Soviet agent who defected to the American occupation forces incriminated him.

Four years later, Porst was arrested again. On July 8, 1969, the Third Criminal Division of the Federal Court of Justice sentenced him to a prison sentence of 2 years and 9 months for treasonous relations with the GDR . Porst, who had been a member of the FDP since 1955 and secretly of the SED at the same time , was convinced that the court had passed on state secrets and information about the FDP to the GDR Ministry for State Security since the mid-1950s . He was friends with the former head of the GDR Enlightenment Headquarters, Markus Wolf . He was the head of the Porst group, which also included Alfred Pilny (Lector at Porst from the GDR and temporary tutor of his sons) and Peter Neumann (employee in Swiss companies). Porst declared himself a Marxist and described his talks in East Berlin as a contribution to better understanding between the two German states. He stated that he had never revealed any secrets; he was never a spy or a traitor.

He was listed as an IM photographer by the GDR Ministry for State Security .

The Porst model

After returning from the Landsberg correctional facility, the entrepreneur gave his businesses away to his employees and developed with them the system of absolute self-determination, which he saw as a form of “total co-determination”, which banks, trade unions and entrepreneurs fiercely opposed as the PORST-MODEL. In 1980 Porst retired from active service in the company, which without him suffered considerable losses in the years that followed and was ultimately sold by the employees, giving up total self-determination. Porst sold its real estate for this purpose, the Porst housing company. Since the 30 million were not enough to offset the accumulated losses of the employee company, the banks forced him to acquire additional capital . Then Interdiscount , Switzerland got on board .

Hannsheinz Porst recently lived secluded with his wife Luise in his father's former weekend house in Artelshofen near Vorra, east of Nuremberg. The breeding of Galloway cattle established by him was later abandoned. Porst died on April 29, 2010 in Artelshofen.

Porst was an honorary citizen of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg . From 1959 to 1960 he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation .

One of his three sons, Jonas, is a music producer. In the 1960s he produced and managed the locally very successful beat group "Jonah & The Whales". In 1968 he produced the first album of the pioneering German rock band Ihr Kinder, which he financed . The Hiltpoltstein recording studio he helped set up was one of the leading rock / NDW studios in Germany. Music groups like Nena and Extrabreit recorded records there.

Works

  • Hannsheinz Porst: Visions lived. The story of a protagonist. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2003, ISBN 3-8311-4656-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Hannsheinz Porst is dead - Marxist and millionaire , sueddeutsche.de, May 20, 2010, accessed on April 30, 2013
  2. ↑ Press report, the enemy is listening
  3. ^ Photo entrepreneur Hannsheinz Porst is dead ( Memento from June 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) FR-online.de, April 30, 2010, accessed on May 1, 2010
  4. ↑ Deceased ( Memento from December 15, 2015 in the web archive archive.today )
  5. ^ Producer Jonas Porst and Deutschrock
personal data
SURNAME Porst, Hannsheinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 2010
Place of death Artelshofen