Roland Berger

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Roland Berger (2012)

Roland Berger (born November 22, 1937 in Berlin ) is a German entrepreneur and corporate and political consultant . He is the founder of the management consultancy Roland Berger and honorary chairman of the supervisory board. Berger is also an honorary professor at the BTU Cottbus .

Life and professional history

Roland Berger was born as Roland Altmann in Berlin in 1937. His father Georg Berger , a member of the NSDAP from 1931 until it was expelled from the party in the summer of 1944, was the head of finance for the Hitler Youth from 1936 to 1939 . In 1937 he was appointed Ministerialrat by Hitler. In 1939/40 he was the authorized signatory of the Magdeburg crisp bread factory. From January 1941 to July 1942 he was general director of the Aryanized food company Ankerbrot . Contrary to earlier statements by Roland Berger, his father was not an active opponent of the persecution of the Jews, but was imprisoned by the Gestapo in Munich from July to September 1944 - apparently due to an intrigue of the Nazi power apparatus. His mother, Thilde Altmann, worked as a manager in her parents' general store, and later in a furniture company. After marrying Georg Berger, the family name was changed.

After attending primary schools in Vienna and Egglkofen , he attended grammar schools in Landshut , Munich and Nuremberg , where he graduated from the humanistic new grammar school in Nuremberg in 1956 . He studied business administration in Hamburg and Munich ; In addition to his studies, he ran a laundry with 15 employees. In 1962 he completed his studies with a degree in business administration at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich as the best of his year. In 1962 he was able to sell his laundry for DM 600,000  .

From 1962 to 1967 Berger worked as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group , first in Boston , later in Milan , then in 1967 he set up as a business consultant in Munich and founded the predecessor company of today's Roland Berger Strategy Consultants .

A great success for him in 1968 was the recommendation, based on his forecast of an extraordinary increase in charter flights from the Touropa , Scharnow, Hummel and Dr. Tigges to found the travel company TUI . With the opening of a Milan office in 1969, Berger was now aiming to internationalize its consulting activities; the company is now active worldwide. Increasingly, he also won state institutions as customers.

The German bank acquired in 1988 for about 100 million marks 75.1 percent of the shares in "Roland Berger & Partner GmbH International Management Consulting". In 1997 the bank increased its stake to 95 percent. A year later, Berger and his employees bought the company back.

Since 1996, Roland Berger has been a visiting professor at the Technical University of Munich and since 2000 an honorary professorship for business administration and management consulting at the Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus .

In 2019 he commissioned the historian Michael Wolffsohn to come to terms with the past of his father Georg Berger. The results were published on May 31, 2020.

Foundations and companies

RiverRock European Capital Partners LLP

Roland Berger is Chairman of RiverRock European Capital Partners LLP, an investment company that offers capital solutions for primarily small and medium-sized European companies in various industries. The current sole shareholders of RiverRock are Roland Berger, Florian Lahnstein and Jason Carley, and Michel Péretié, ex-CEO of Société Générale SGCIB, joined the company on December 1, 2012 as an equal partner and co-CEO. The members of the Supervisory Board include Wolfgang Clement , Manfred Lahnstein and Mark Wössner . RiverRock left Berger Lahnstein Middelhoff & Partners LLP, which was founded in 2009. which was split into two legally and economically independent companies in 2010. Roland Berger remained Chairman of BLM, which continues the product lines "SPAC" (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) and investment funds. The hedge fund activities were spun off into a new company called "Pulse Capital Partners" with Thomas Middelhoff as chairman and partner.

Roland Berger Foundation

In 2008, Berger founded the Roland Berger Foundation with headquarters in Munich. The foundation is endowed with foundation capital of initially 50 million euros from the private assets of the founder and has two purposes:

  • With the Roland Berger Prize for Human Dignity , the foundation honors people and organizations around the world who have made a special contribution to the protection of human rights and human dignity.
  • With the German School Scholarship, the Roland Berger Foundation supports talented children and young people from socially disadvantaged families across Germany. Each scholarship holder receives an individual support plan that covers ten learning areas and is accompanied by a volunteer mentor on their way to high school. 520 schoolchildren are currently being supported across Germany.

Prime Minister Günther Beckstein presented Roland Berger with the deed of foundation. Federal President Horst Köhler took over the patronage of the one million euro prize. The Board of Trustees, chaired by Roland Berger, consisted of State Secretary Gert Haller , Head of the Office of the Federal President, Ms. Barbara Lochbihler , General Secretary of the German section of Amnesty International , the educationalist Dieter Lenzen , President of the Free University of Berlin, and Ms. Karin Berger. In his speech, Roland Berger explained the purpose of the foundation:

“How does a founder come up with such foundation purposes? They are personal experiences: Born in National Socialist Germany, I had to witness the inhuman terror of the Gestapo as a small child. Our home was regularly searched unannounced by henchmen of this injustice state. Finally in 1944 my father was arrested by the Nazis. These years were the darkest period in German history. Human dignity counted for nothing. It was taken from many. (…) The fact is, however, that human dignity and rights are still disregarded in many parts of the world. Let's just look at Somalia, Chad or Sudan. In my opinion, two world wars and the Holocaust in the first half of the last century particularly oblige us Germans to stand up for these values. (…) The foundation's purpose of promoting education is also based on personal experience. Ultimately, I was only able to achieve something in life because I had access to first-class education. It enabled me to develop my skills and thereby, I hope at least, to contribute personally and professionally to the progress of society. That's why I decided to use my foundation to promote education, especially the training of young people from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. "

In 2019, after research by the Handelsblatt, Berger distanced himself from his practice of portraying his father as an opponent and victim of National Socialism. In truth, according to the Handelsblatt, Berger's father benefited from Aryanization and promoted the NSDAP. Roland Berger relativized the significance of the statements in his speech on the establishment of the foundation, since the reference to his father was not included in the foundation's statutes. The Roland Berger Foundation canceled the 2019 human rights award.

Roland Berger Strategy Consultants

From 2003 to 2010 the company Roland Berger Strategy Consultants was headed by Burkhard Schwenker, and since 2010 by Martin C. Wittig. Roland Berger himself was chairman of the company's supervisory board from 2003 to 2010. In 2010, Schwenker took over this office and Berger was elected honorary chairman of the supervisory board, while the then CFO Martin Wittig took over the chairmanship of the board.

Roland Berger Art Collection

Since the early years of consulting, Roland and Karin Berger have been promoting the development of an art collection - The Roland Berger Art Collection. Karin Berger, firmly networked with museums, galleries and artists, ensures continuous expansion. The collection now includes around 1000 works. She deals with contemporary intellectual and aesthetic currents.

Cooperation with the Federal Government

He was regarded as a close advisor to Gerhard Schröder, even during his time as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, but especially during his chancellorship. Allegedly, Berger turned down the offer to become Minister of Economics in 1998 because he wanted to remain independent. At the same time he also advised the Union's candidate for chancellor Edmund Stoiber : “I say the same thing to both of them about the same problem. And I don't do any campaign advice. I advise neither Mr. Stoiber how to become Chancellor nor Mr. Schröder how he can stay. ""

Roland Berger got involved in 2009 as an unpaid negotiator for the Federal Ministry of Economics to find private investors to rescue the ailing Adam Opel GmbH .

This commitment met with criticism, since Berger has been a member of the fifteen-person executive committee of the Italian car company Fiat since May 2006 . He denied a conflict of interest or a partiality in favor of Fiat by pointing out that he would not receive any payment from any of the parties involved and that he was also open to cooperation between Opel and the Austrian automotive supplier Magna .

Memberships and functions

Awards

Private

Roland Berger is in his second marriage to the journalist Karin Berger, b. Gottschalk, married. He has two sons, Markus and Oliver; both are entrepreneurs. Berger lives with his wife in Munich-Bogenhausen ; both are involved in the cultural life of the capital of the Free State. His wife is involved in the boards of trustees of the development associations for the Munich Opera Festival , the Alte and Neue Pinakothek as well as in cultural institutions in Berlin, Vienna and Lucerne.

Roland Berger's private fortune is estimated at "a well three-digit million amount".

Fonts

  • with Ulrich Steger (ed.): On the way to European corporate management. A reading book for managers and Europeans. Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-41930-5 .
  • with Peter Gillies: shear forces. The new German economic miracle and its makers. Edition Ferenczy at Bruckmann, Munich 1992.
  • with Armin Töpfer : Company success in the European single market. Verlag Moderne Industrie, Landsberg am Lech 1990, ISBN 3-478-31640-5 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Roland Berger  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Expert opinion: Enlightenment or character assassination? Roland Berger, his father and the Handelsblatt - p.21f Published on www.walther-rathenau-akademie.de on May 31, 2020, accessed on June 17, 2020
  2. ↑ Expert opinion: Enlightenment or character assassination? Roland Berger, his father and the Handelsblatt - p.49 Published on www.walther-rathenau-akademie.de on May 31, 2020, accessed on June 17, 2020
  3. ↑ Expert opinion: Enlightenment or character assassination? Roland Berger, his father and the Handelsblatt - p.49 Published on www.walther-rathenau-akademie.de on May 31, 2020, accessed on June 17, 2020
  4. ↑ Expert opinion: Enlightenment or character assassination? Roland Berger, his father and the Handelsblatt - pages 12 and 52 Published on www.walther-rathenau-akademie.de on May 31, 2020, accessed on June 17, 2020
  5. ↑ a b Interview: whitewashing or self-deception? Roland Berger faces the truth about his father Georg. Retrieved October 19, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b Roland Berger in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
  7. ↑ Expert opinion: Enlightenment or character assassination? Roland Berger, his father and the Handelsblatt - p.7 Published on www.walther-rathenau-akademie.de on May 31, 2020, accessed on June 17, 2020
  8. ↑ Rainer Frenkel: The stimulus figure . In: Die Zeit , No. 7, / 2004.
  9. ↑ a b career questions to ... Roland Berger . In: Die Zeit , No. 44/2004.
  10. ↑ From washer to consultant . In: Die Welt , January 24, 2004.
  11. ↑ Julia Löhr, Henning Peitsmeier: faz.net , FAZ , June 8, 2010.
  12. ↑ a b Self-deception: Roland Berger, his Nazi father and the guilt of the German economy. Retrieved October 19, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Michael Wolffsohn: Expert opinion: Enlightenment or character assassination? Roland Berger, his father and the Handelsblatt. In: Walther Rathenau Academy. May 31, 2020, accessed June 1, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Roland Berger wins Michel Péretié - ex-CEO of Société Générale SGCIB - as partner and co-CEO for his London asset manager RiverRock European Capital Partners LLP. ( Memento from September 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) Riverrock, 1 p.
  15. ↑ Introducing Berger, Lahnstein, Middelhoff ( Memento of April 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) Riverrock, 3 pp.
  16. ^ Roland Berger Foundation - establishment of a foundation .
  17. ^ Roland Berger Foundation
  18. ^ Mathias Brüggmann, Andrea Rexer: Roland Berger Foundation cancels the award of the human rights award. In: Handelsblatt. October 19, 2019, accessed February 17, 2020 .
  19. ↑ artcollection.rolandberger.com
  20. ↑ Shadow Cabinet: Interview with Roland Berger as Stoiber's Minister of Economic Affairs . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed August 17, 2019]).
  21. ^ DIE ZEIT: The current TIME from April 8, 1998 . In: The time . April 8, 1998, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed August 17, 2019]).
  22. ↑ Werner A. Perger: One for Schröder . In: The time . April 8, 1998, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed August 17, 2019]).
  23. ↑ Rainer Frenkel: Power has a face . In: The time . April 4, 2002, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed on August 17, 2019]).
  24. ↑ Melanie Ahlemeier : The many faces of Roland B. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 20, 2009.
  25. ↑ Roland Berger advises government and GM at the same time . Spiegel Online , March 19, 2009.
  26. ↑ Timo Pache, Sven Clausen, Peter Ehrlich, Kristina Spiller: Opel rescue. How Roland Berger advises Fiat . ( Memento from August 1, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Financial Times Deutschland , May 7, 2009.
  27. ↑ rolandberger.com , Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
  28. ↑ fcbayern.de
  29. ^ Oxford Martin School
  30. ↑ Internet site of compamedia GmbH - mentor of the best medium-sized companies The “Top 100” jury
  31. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
  32. ↑ head of the day. Unexpected comeback for Roland Berger . ( Memento from July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Financial Times Deutschland , March 19, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Berger, Roland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur and business consultant
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin