Hilmar Kopper

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Hilmar Kopper (born March 13, 1935 in Osłonino in Poland ( Oslanin bei Putzig )) is a German bank manager and was CEO of Deutsche Bank from 1989 to 1997 .

Life

Kopper was born the third of four children to a Mennonite farmer in Pomerania . He started as an apprentice at Rheinisch-Westfälische Bank in 1954 (Deutsche Bank again from 1957) and stayed there all his professional life. In 1969 he became head of the Leverkusen branch and in 1977 a member of the board of directors. After Alfred Herrhausen's murder in 1989, Kopper was appointed spokesman for the board of directors and thus advanced to become one of the most important managers in German and international banking. His success was marred by the insolvency of the building contractor Jürgen Schneider , to whom Deutsche Bank had granted excessive loans due to personal relationships. Kopper's successor in office was Rolf-E in 1997 . Breuer .

From November 17, 1998 to April 4, 2007 he was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of DaimlerChrysler ; his successor was Manfred Bischoff . For the majority of this time - from May 1995 to December 2005 - Jürgen Schrempp was the Chairman of the Executive Board , and since January 1, 2006 Dieter Zetsche .

In December 2010, Kopper (in his capacity as chairman of the supervisory board of HSH Nordbank ) agreed a termination agreement with the then HSH chairman Dirk Jens Nonnenmacher . Kopper announced at the time that nuns makers were still entitled to bonuses. He said: "In the old contracts there were formulations that even left me speechless."

The Schleswig-Holstein FDP parliamentary group leader Wolfgang Kubicki said at the end of 2012 that Kopper had clearly gone too far in agreeing the severance payment of 4 million euros: “There is even an initial suspicion of infidelity. In the event of a conviction, HSH Nordbank cannot pay millions to an employee who has been proven to have committed a criminal offense. ”The Hamburg criminal lawyer Gerhard Strate also saw this as a clear breach of duty by Koppers in 2012:“ The contract only protects the interests of Mr. Nonnenmacher , but not those of the bank or the countries. "

Kopper has three children from his first marriage, including the historian Christopher Kopper . Kopper separated from his wife Irene in 1999; since 2003 he is married to Brigitte Seebacher (* 1946), Willy Brandt's widow and third wife .

Kopper was a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Conferences .

At the beginning of January 2013 it was announced that Kopper would resign prematurely from his position as chairman of the supervisory board of HSH Nordbank. Kopper's successor was Thomas Mirow on February 28, 2013 .

Others

In winter 2003 Kopper took part in the play Kölner Devisen, a theatrical implementation of the events surrounding the collapse of the Cologne private bank Herstatt in the 1970s, which was performed in Frankfurt-Bockenheim .

"Peanuts"

At a press conference on April 25, 1994, Hilmar Kopper referred to the damage amount of approx. 50 million DM, which had been incurred by the craftsmen commissioned by real estate bankrupt Jürgen Schneider and which Deutsche Bank would pay, as peanuts . Kopper was referring to the relation to the total claims amounting to five billion DM (1: 100). The German public perceived the formulation as arrogant; Peanuts subsequently became the bad word of 1994.

The word is a common metaphorical term in the English-speaking world . Deutsche Bank was accused of contributing to the bankruptcy of billions.

For the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) advertising campaign “ There's always a clever head behind it ” , Kopper had himself photographed on a mountain of peanuts.

Supervisory board mandates

Honors

Awards

Honorary positions

Works

  • Hilmar Kopper u. a .: The bank doesn't live on money alone. Contributions to culture and society 1994–1997. Piper, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-492-22584-5 .

Web links

Wikiquote: Hilmar Kopper  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ HSH affairs: supervisory board boss Kopper settles with politics and justice ; Spiegel-Online, December 18, 2010.
  2. ^ Christiane habenicht, Peter Hornung and Jürgen Webermann: Nonnenmacher is allowed to keep a severance payment of millions ; ( Memento from November 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) ndr.de November 19, 2012
  3. ^ Pflüger Rechtsanwälte GmbH: author reading by Christopher Kopper: "Bankiers under the swastika" ; Retrieved August 11, 2010
  4. ^ Deutsche Bank: Kopper loves Brandt widow ; Spiegel-Online, July 11, 1999
  5. ↑ www.bilderbergmeetings.org
  6. ^ Landesbank: HSH Nordbank supervisory board chief Kopper throws down ; Welt.de, January 11, 2013; Retrieved January 11, 2013.
  7. ↑ Thomas Mirow new head of the supervisory board , accessed on August 28, 2015.
  8. ↑ Focus .de: Jürgen Schneider - The "Peanuts" bankruptcy , accessed on February 28, 2014
  9. ↑ Jens Koch : The letter of comfort . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 978-3-16-148674-6 , p. 538 . , Excerpt from google books with the wording of the declaration
  10. ↑ einestages.spiegel.de: German language prizes: One year, one (in) word! ... 1994: Peanuts
  11. ↑ leo.org: peanuts
  12. ↑ Hilmar Kopper: For the 65th time again in turbulent times ; Manager Magazin , March 9, 2000
    Antje Homburger: Banker's birthday: “Mr. Peanuts “is in power ; Spiegel Online , March 10, 2005
  13. ↑ Thomas Mirow new head of the supervisory board , accessed on March 12, 2013.
  14. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Kopper, Hilmar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German banker
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Oslanin , Putzig district , West Prussia