Hans Barlach

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Hans-Georg Barlach (born August 31, 1955 in Ratzeburg ; † July 15, 2015 in Hamburg ) was a German gallery owner and entrepreneur . His role in the legal disputes surrounding Suhrkamp Verlag attracted a lot of attention and made him known outside of the media industry.

Life

Hans Barlach was the younger of two sons of Nikolaus (Klaus) Barlach (1906-2001), the only son and sole heir of the sculptor Ernst Barlach .

Hans Barlach attended the North Sea boarding school in Sankt Peter-Ording , dropped out of school in 1972 and began training as a chemical engineering assistant in Neumünster . After completing his apprenticeship, he worked as administrator of the Ernst Barlach estate on behalf of his father from 1977. From the end of 1982 he ran his first gallery at Loogeplatz in Hamburg-Eppendorf in an Art Nouveau villa bought in 1980 as the seat of the estate administration. In August 1984, on Barlach's initiative, the Kunstraum Hamburg was set up and in November 1984 he opened the color bath gallery in the basement of the Holthusenbad .

Since 1984 Barlach was involved in the Hamburger Rundschau , whose owner he became in 1998 and which he discontinued in the spring of 2000.

In the 1990s, Barlach, as a partner in the Kunsthof Vermögensverwaltung oHG , invested in Berlin's Oranienburger Strasse 27 and created the KunstHof Berlin , a residential and commercial complex there .

In 1999 Barlach provided a guarantee of four million DM and, as a project developer and shareholder of the Süllberg property company, together with the former Heidelberg construction investor Roland Ernst, renovated the historic Blankeneser Süllberg Hotel in Hamburg, whereby in May 1999 the listed Süllberg Tower collapsed, for which none are supposed to Demolition permit applied for by Barlach was granted. Barlach rejected suspicions that the house had been intentionally damaged for cost reasons.

With his collaboration with Frank Otto founded City Boulevard Beteiligungs GmbH and Co. KG took over Barlach in October 1999 by Gruner + Jahr , the Hamburger Morgenpost . Barlach initially held 33% of the shares in City-Boulevard, and since 2003 67% of the shares. In 2004 he bought the rest of the shares with the help of a loan of 1.6 million € from the publisher Heinz Bauer and sold MOPO in January 2006 to BV Deutsche Zeitungsholding , a company of the Veronis Suhler Stevenson International Ltd. investor group. (VSS) and David Montgomery's Mecom Group for an estimated € 24 million.

Also in 2004, Gruner + Jahr wanted to sell TV-Today for € 15 million, and Barlach took over - with what later turned out to be a loan financed by Burda-Verlag - the program guide and sold it to Burda in 2005.

Barlach lived in Hamburg-Winterhude . He died on July 15, 2015 at the age of 59 in Hamburg of pneumonia .

The Suhrkamp dispute

Barlach achieved greater fame beyond Hamburg and the media industry with his participation in Suhrkamp Verlag . In November 2006 he announced that he would, together with the Hamburg patron and investment banker Claus Grossner († 2010), take over Medienholding AG Winterthur for eight million euros and thus the 29% of the shares in the publishing house that had previously been owned by the Swiss entrepreneur and patron Andreas Reinhart were held. In the following years there were legal disputes with the Suhrkamp managing director Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz . Since Joachim Unseld's departure as a partner in November 2009, Medienholding AG Winterthur has held 39% of the publisher's shares, and the Siegfried and Ulla Unseld Family Foundation , chaired by Unseld-Berkéwicz, holds 61%.

In September 2011, Barlach filed a lawsuit against the management of Suhrkamp Verlag for embezzlement. In 2012 he planned to join the management with Josef Depenbrock . On December 10, 2012, the Berlin Regional Court sentenced the management to compensation and declared the resolution of the shareholders' meeting of November 17, 2011 not to recall Unseld-Berkéwicz to be void. The judgment never became final.

In Switzerland, by judgment of the Swiss Commercial Court of the Canton of Zurich on May 7, 2013, Barlach was obliged to pay the then seller of the shares in Medienholding Winterthur AG, the entrepreneur Andreas Reinhart, the purchase price of CHF 5 million. Barlach defended himself unsuccessfully against the seller's action with arguments which the commercial court qualified as obviously unfounded. The Swiss Federal Supreme Court dismissed Barlach's complaint against this ruling by ruling on September 2, 2013. Barlach, who had resisted the execution, publicly announced on September 5, 2013 that he would settle the debt.

In the course of the disputes, there was mutual denigration. A presiding judge stated in the process at the end of 2012: “Both shareholders apparently see each other as an incarnation of evil.” Suhrkamp author Peter Handke wrote about Barlach at the time : “But there, there is, no, someone is fundamentally evil, an evil one. A monster. "

In May 2013, Suhrkamp applied for insolvency proceedings in self-administration . The process is seen in part as an abuse of bankruptcy law. In January 2014, the Berlin-Charlottenburg district court approved the conversion of Suhrkamp-Verlag into a stock corporation .

On April 17, 2014 it became known that the Suhrkamp minority shareholder Medienholding AG was allowed to take action before the Federal Court of Justice according to a decision by the Berlin Regional Court. The Federal Court of Justice initially overturned two decisions by the Berlin Regional Court. By judgment of 20 October 2014, the Berlin Regional Court but (in accordance with § 253 para. 4 through an Impact assessment Insolvency Act ) legally rejected the opposition of the media holding AG against the insolvency plan of the publishing house, the one including through the proposed conversion of KG AG decisively limited its ability to influence the management of the publisher.

On December 14, 2014, the Federal Constitutional Court first issued an interim order in favor of Hans Barlach and Medienholding AG, but then on December 18, 2014 rejected the application for an interim order against the conversion of Suhrkamp Verlag into a stock corporation and at the same time rejected the constitutional complaint not accepted for decision. The Suhrkamp Verlag was converted into a stock corporation in January 2015, and all special rights of Barlach from the previous partnership agreement were lost. In addition to the family foundation and Medienholding AG (39%), the couple Sylvia Ströher and Ulrich Ströher also had a stake in Suhrkamp Verlag at the end of the insolvency proceedings .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sandra Kegel: Suhrkamp shareholder Hans Barlach He played all or nothing . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . July 15, 2015, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed December 10, 2015]).
  2. ↑ Berlin Chronicle: March 12, 1976. In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 12, 1976.
  3. ↑ Hans Barlach . Munzinger biography, accessed July 15, 2015.
  4. ↑ Evelyn Preuss: The grandson honors the legacy of the grandfather . In: Hamburger Abendblatt , December 27, 1982, p. 19 (PDF; 1.3 MB)
  5. ↑ Evelyn Preuss: More than a place of art: the color bath gallery . In: Hamburger Abendblatt , November 28, 1984, p. 10 (PDF; 1.9 MB)
  6. ↑ The slow death of an experiment. In: Die Welt , March 13th, 2000.
    Editorial group in dissolution. In: Die Welt , November 10, 1999.
  7. ↑ Kunstraum Oranienburger Straße: An initiative by Dirk Streifler and Sascha Pohlan ( Memento from July 15, 2015 in the web archive archive.today ). Streifler & Kollegen, Kunstraum Oranienburger Straße, accessed on July 15, 2015.
    Ingeborg Ruthe: No more shadowy existence. In: Berliner Zeitung , March 10, 2007.
  8. ↑ Gisela Reiners: The future of the Süllberg is written in the stars. In: Die Welt , June 7, 2000.
    Süllberg builder Roland Ernst arrested in Heidelberg. In: Hamburger Morgenpost , March 27, 2000.
    Topics of the month: “Rien ne va plus” - A casino on the Süllberg? ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Hamburger Klönschnack issue 04/2000, Klaus Schümann Verlag, Hamburg.
  9. ↑ Süllberg: Client threatens a million dollar fine. In: Hamburger Morgenpost , May 20, 1999.
    Süllberg: A case for the public prosecutor. In: Hamburger Morgenpost , May 25, 1999. The
    oyster cellar moves to the Süllberg . ( Memento from September 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Hamburger Abendblatt , 12/13. May 1999, page 19 (PDF; 142 kB)
  10. ↑ Info: The MOPO buyers. In: Hamburger Morgenpost , October 22, 1999.
  11. ↑ a b Kai-Hinrich Renner: Suhrkamp - Hans Barlach goes all out. In: Hamburger Abendblatt , December 19, 2012.
  12. ^ TV Today: Burda financed Barlach. In: Manager Magazin , July 13, 2004.
  13. ↑ Hans-Georg Barlach in portrait: Much more than just a grandson. In: handelsblatt.com. Retrieved July 17, 2015 .
  14. ^ Suhrkamp shareholder Hans Barlach has died. ( Memento of July 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Communication from the rbb , July 15, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2015
    A battle fought. dpa article in: Der Tagesspiegel , July 15, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2015
  15. ↑ Claus Großner: An unknown acquaintance . Hamburger Abendblatt , December 22, 2010.
  16. ↑ Arno Widmann: In truth a baroque opera. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , December 14, 2012.
  17. ^ Richard Kämmerlings: Dispute about the publisher: Suhrkamp loses - at least for now. In: Hamburger Abendblatt , December 11, 2012.
    Sebastian Hammelehle: Court dismisses Berkéwicz as head of the publishing house. In: Spiegel Online , December 10, 2012.
  18. ^ Judgment of May 7, 2013 in the matter of Andreas Reinhart, plaintiff, ... against Hans Barlach, defendant . Commercial Court of the Canton of Zurich on May 7, 2013 (pdf; 300 kB).
    Joachim Güntner: Swiss judgment against Barlach: relaxation under the protective umbrella. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , June 1, 2013.
  19. ↑ Barlach is defeated before the federal court. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , September 4, 2013.
  20. ^ Suhrkamp becomes a stock corporation. In: Die Zeit , September 4, 2013.
  21. ^ Joachim Güntner: The farce after the tragedy? In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , December 7, 2012.
  22. ↑ Peter Handke : Suhrkamp: "Untoldable Nightmare" . In: Die Zeit 52/2012 of December 27, 2012.
  23. ↑ Protective shield proceedings secure the existence and ability of Suhrkamp Verlag to act . Announcement from Suhrkamp Verlag, May 27, 2013.
  24. ↑ https://wirtschaftsrecht-news.de/2014/09/bgh-entscheidet-uber-suhrkamp-insolvenz/
  25. ↑ Suhrkamp insolvency: court approves conversion to stock corporation . Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 15, 2014.
  26. ↑ Suhrkamp dispute before the Federal Court of Justice: redevelopment has priority . Boersenblatt.net , April 17, 2014.
  27. ↑ Barlach successful with Suhrkamp lawsuit. In: fr.de . July 21, 2014, accessed May 15, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Zeit Online, October 24, 2014
    on the history see z. B. also Thomas E. Schmidt: Suhrkamp Verlag: It's over . The time 44/2013 from October 23, 2013.
  29. ↑ https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Entscheidungen/DE/2014/12/rk20141204_2bvr197813.html
  30. ↑ tha / dpa: Suhrkamp: Federal Constitutional Court overturns judgment. In: Spiegel Online . December 4, 2014, accessed May 15, 2020 .
  31. ↑ https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Entscheidungen/DE/2014/12/rk20141218_2bvr197813.html
  32. ↑ https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/bundesverfassungsgericht-suhrkamp-darf-aktiengesellschaft.2852.de.html?dram:article_id=306683
  33. ^ Nada Weigelt: Hans Barlach: Suhrkamp shareholder dies of pneumonia at 59. In: welt.de . July 15, 2015, accessed May 15, 2020 .
  34. ↑ The Revelation: Suhrkamp boss Ulla Berkéwicz. In: welt.de . January 31, 2015, accessed May 15, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Barlach, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Barlach, Hans-Georg (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German gallery owner and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Ratzeburg
DATE OF DEATH 15th July 2015
Place of death Hamburg