Otto Julius Maier

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Otto Julius Maier (born October 6, 1930 in Waldsee ) is a former German publisher and IHK functionary. Under his leadership, Ravensburger Otto Maier Verlag, founded in 1883, developed into the internationally active gaming company Ravensburger AG, a market leader in many segments .

ancestors

Otto Julius Maier is a scion of the Maier family of booksellers, printers and publishers, which have been based in Ravensburg for several generations. His great-grandfather Carl Maier (1819–1867) moved to the city in 1845, took over the Dorn bookstore and founded the Catholic-conservative local newspaper Oberschwäbischer Anzeiger . His grandfather, the bookseller Otto Robert Maier (1852-1925), founded the book and games publisher Otto Maier in 1883 as an offshoot of the bookstore. The newspaper publisher and Dornsche Buchhandlung were later sold to the brother of Carl Maier's widow, Eugen Ulmer . Otto Roberts eldest son Otto Maier (1891–1952), Otto Julius Maier's father, had continued the publishing house through the Weimar Republic and the National Socialist period .

From the end of the 1920s, his publishing house became known for, among other things, handy cinema-sports books . The reference to the cinema refers to the fact that the individual phases of a sport are shown in photos on successive pages. When the edge flakes off quickly, the athletes move. That is why the slogan on the cover was also called “with pictures that really move”.

biography

After graduating from the Ravensburger Spohn-Gymnasium , Otto Julius Maier did an apprenticeship as a publishing bookseller in his parents' company from 1948 to 1950 , after which he gained practical experience in bookshops, publishers and toy companies in Germany, Switzerland and France.

When his father died unexpectedly in 1952, at the age of 21, later together with his cousin Dorothee Hess-Maier , he took over the management of the publishing house, which had 90 employees at the time. After a difficult start, success came mainly from the publication of games such as Memory (1959) and Malefiz (1960), which are now considered classics . From 1963 Maier was personally liable partner of the company. Under him, the company was converted into a GmbH in 1981 , and in 1988 into a (still fully family-owned) stock corporation, with him as CEO. In 1995, the company now had 1,500 employees and achieved sales of almost 390 million marks , he gave up operational management and moved to the chairmanship of the supervisory board of Ravensburger AG, which he held until July 22, 2005. Otto Julius Maier was then a simple member of the committee, before he withdrew entirely from the management of the company on July 25, 2008 and limited it to the role of shareholder of the AG and managing director of Ravensburger Holding GmbH & Co. KG .

Maier was also a member of the supervisory board of the Nuremberg Toy Fair for around four decades and, from 1983 to 1998, president of the Bodensee-Oberschwaben Chamber of Commerce and Industry .

Honors (selection)

literature

  • Andrea Reidt: The grandson or Mister Ravensburger catches the hat: an entrepreneurial story. Otto Julius Maier in conversation with Andrea Reidt . Sagas-Edition, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-944660-01-1 ( review in Südkurier ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information based on Munzinger biography
  2. ↑ Kopfnuss: Heinold asked about Eugen Ulmer KG in February , BuchMarkt.de, February 27, 2009
  3. ^ Ancestral life data according to the biography of Otto Robert Maier in LEO-BW, Landeskundliches Informationssystem Baden-Württemberg.
  4. ↑ How to learn to ski quickly. The technique of skiing was demonstrated by the first runners. With teaching from A. Janner . Verlag Otto Maier Ravensburg, 1932, printed by Otto Bechtler Buchdruckerei, Esslingen a. N.
  5. ^ Supervisory board of Ravensburger AG: Otto Julius Maier resigns chairman, successor will be Dr. Klaus Bleyer , BuchMarkt.de, July 27, 2005.
  6. ↑ Personnel: Change in the Supervisory Board of Ravensburger AG , Börsenblatt, July 28, 2008
  7. ↑ List of medal recipients 1975–2019. (PDF; 180 kB) State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg, accessed on June 12, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Otto Julius Maier receives Medal of Honor , Schwäbische Zeitung, April 3, 2001
  9. ↑ Honorary citizen of the Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences
personal data
SURNAME Maier, Otto Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher and IHK functionary
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Forest lake