Johann Max Boettcher
Johann Max Böttcher (born August 2, 1920 in Husum ; † August 7, 2014 in Hamburg ) was a German patron , hotelier , businessman and colonel in the Bundeswehr reserve.
Life
Böttcher came from a Berlin civil servant family; From 1907 to 1946 his father Max was a gymnastics and drawing teacher at the Hermann Tast School (until 1924 "Husum School of Academics") in Husum, which he was supposed to attend himself, as well as a freelance graphic artist and painter. He designed u. a. the Husum emergency money . During the November pogroms in 1938 , his father was briefly arrested by the National Socialists because of his Jewish ancestors. In his youth, Johann Max Böttcher was a member of the youth organization of the paramilitary steel helmet . After graduating from high school in 1939, he was drafted into the Reich Labor Service (RAD) and then served as a soldier in the Wehrmacht for five and a half years . However , he was denied promotion from senior ensign to lieutenant .
After the Second World War he studied at the Building School of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg with a degree in engineering . After that, the civil engineer studied first, ran a car and crane rental business and finally opened a steel trade . With the establishment of the Bundeswehr in the 1950s, he applied for the regular military officer career . Regardless of having passed the preliminary course in Sonthofen , from then on he preferred the career of reserve officer , because it allowed him to continue doing business. He last held the rank of Colonel in the Reserve (d. R.) of the Army in the Bundeswehr.
He founded a real estate company in Hamburg-Billbrook , which made him a multimillionaire . In addition to various properties, primarily in the Billbrook industrial area , he owned the Alte Oberpostdirektion on Stephansplatz in downtown Hamburg and Wotersen Castle in Schleswig-Holstein, which he acquired in the 1990s.
An originally planned transformation of the castle into a hotel could not be realized. After initial renovation work, it was sold again in 1999 after the woman's death. As early as 1994, he acquired the old Hermann Tast School building in Husum and subsequently converted it into a luxury hotel (5-star hotel). In 1996 it was reopened under the name “Altes Gymnasium” and became one of the best addresses in Schleswig-Holstein. In 2002 he left the operative business of his company and transferred it to Pegaso Deutschland GmbH . In 2005 he sold his commercial property to an unspecified foreign investor. In October 2006, he left the hotel for reasons of age. This went to the restaurateur Lenka Hansen-Mörck, owner of the Historisches Krug in Oeversee. In 2007 he sold the Alte Oberpostdirektion to the Hamburg DWI de Waal Group; an agreement with the Benetton Group did not come about beforehand .
Böttcher was married ( widower from 1998) and had no heirs , which influenced his strategic corporate decisions. After his death in Hamburg in 2014, he was buried in the Husum Ostfriedhof.
Johann Max Böttcher Foundation
In 1981 he and his wife Lisa founded the Johann Max Böttcher Foundation in Vaduz in the Principality of Liechtenstein . This is particularly dedicated to environmental protection , youth development , securing democracy and a market economy, as well as regional projects in Northern Germany. He also felt connected to his former school and the foundation through generous donations in kind and money. The foundation has also been awarding the Böttcher Prize (to the best graduates of the year) and the recently created Johann Max Böttcher Scholarship (to civilian students) from the Helmut Schmidt University of the German Armed Forces for several years .
Awards
- 1981: Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon
- 1996: Gold Cross of Honor of the Bundeswehr
- 2004: Honorary Senator of the Helmut Schmidt University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg
Web links
- Presentation of Johann Max Böttcher and the Böttcher Foundation on the website of the Helmut Schmidt University
- Johann Max Böttcher scholarship in the scholarship database of the BMBF
Individual evidence
- ^ Archival signature of Johann Max Böttcher in the State Archives of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg in the German Digital Library , accessed on December 4, 2014.
- ↑ a b c Thomas Friedrichsen: Husum Stories (= The series of picture history ). Sutton, Erfurt 2005, ISBN 3-89702-887-5 , p. 47.
- ↑ Thomas Friedrichsen: Husum Stories (= The series of picture history ). Sutton, Erfurt 2005, ISBN 3-89702-887-5 , p. 77.
- ↑ a b Billbroker stories: Johann Max Böttcher . In: derbillbroker , 03/2010, p. 4 f.
- ↑ a b c d Presentation of Johann Max Böttcher and the Böttcher Foundation on the website of the Helmut Schmidt University
- ↑ Georg Pakschies: Why I sold Wotersen to an architect . In: Hamburger Abendblatt , vol. 51, December 17, 1998, No. 99, p. 17.
- ↑ The "Old High School" in Husum . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , November 20, 1997, p. 67.
- ^ A b Rainer Horn: Johann Max Böttcher sells real estate . In: Hamburger Abendblatt , September 15, 2005.
- ^ History , Hotel "Altes Gymnasium", accessed on August 12, 2014.
- ↑ Gisela Schütte: The old Postpalast has a new owner . In: Die Welt , February 10, 2007, No. 35, p. 37.
- ↑ Heike Vowinkel: The man who sold Wotersen Castle. It was difficult for him . In: Welt am Sonntag , January 10, 1999, No. 2, p. 87.
- ↑ Hamburg Foundation Directory . In: Initiativkreis Hamburger Stiftungen and Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Senate Chancellery (ed.): Citizens and Society. Foundations in Hamburg . Convent, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-934613-44-6 , p. 146.
- ↑ Noble wing from a noble donor . In: Husumer Nachrichten , May 19, 2012.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Böttcher, Johann Max |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German patron, hotelier, merchant and reserve officer |
DATE OF BIRTH | August 2, 1920 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Husum |
DATE OF DEATH | 7th August 2014 |
Place of death | Hamburg |