Willy Gassmann

Willy Gassmann (* 1921 ; † March 17, 1992 in Papeete ) was a Swiss publisher . He became known throughout Switzerland as the owner of the Gassmann Group and as the president and patron of the EHC Biel ice hockey club .

Life

Willy Gassmann was born into the Gassmann publishing family in 1921 as the son of Olga Gassmann-Laubscher and Charles Gassmann . His father had returned from Canada in 1919 , where he had worked as a hotelier to support his ailing brother. After his death in 1935, Charles Gassmann ran the company alone, later with the support of his son.

Franz Joseph Gassmann I had already taken over the high-ranking book printing company in Solothurn in 1781 and also published the first Solothurn newspaper. In 1850 Franz Josef Gassmann founded the first printing company in Biel and began to publish the Seeländer Bote . In 1863 the Feuille d'Avis de Bienne (today Journal du Jura ) was added. His uncle Willy took over the company in 1896 and published the Seeländer Bote every day from 1904. For the city of Biel , he used the name Bieler Tagblatt , while the old name was still used for the surrounding regions.

After the death of his father, Willy Gassmann took over the company in 1954. While his father pursued a rather cautious business policy, Gassmann now went on an expansion course. He modernized the company and increased the number of copies of the Bieler Tagblatt by leaps and bounds, so that the publishing house and the printing company could continue to expand. This was partly thanks to the takeover of the stumbling bilingual competition paper Express , with which Gassmann de facto established a media monopoly in Zealand . This was reflected in the number of copies. While the print run was 9,000 in 1949, it shot up to 22,000 by 1958. Due to the increased volume of advertisements, the newspaper scope was expanded.

In 1966 Gassmann turned the Bieler Tagblatt into a forum newspaper . This change became visible with the transition to a colored layout . The supremacy remained until 1978. Mario Cortesi , founder of the first independent media office in Switzerland, established a new medium in the region with the bilingual free newspaper Biel Bienne . Almost at the same time, Gassmann began making the transition from lead to film typesetting, making him one of the pioneers of this “electronic revolution”.

Gassmann remained loyal to the company to the end. He spent most of the last years of his life in Polynesia , where he died in 1992 at the age of 70. He left a wife and three grown children. After his death, his son Marc took over the Groupe Gassmann.

President of the EHC Biel

In 1956, the Biel publisher took over the presidency of EHC Biel (EHCB), which at that time was playing in the third-highest league in Switzerland . With major investments, such as the construction of an artificial ice rink, he played a key role in the Biel's ascent to the National League B (NLB). The club quickly established itself at the top of the NLB. The promotion to the highest league did not succeed, so Gassmann resorted to unusual means. In 1964 he left the unsuccessful trainer Ernst Wenger on a coach trip at a petrol station in Murten. Gassmann's influence in the club and the region increased steadily, and he did not shy away from using his newspaper for personal accounts.

At the beginning of his tenure as president, the publisher had aimed at building a covered ice hockey arena. In 1971 the construction of the ice rink was finally started after a narrowly won vote. The EHCB promptly rose to the NLA in 1975 for the first time in the club's history . It was the beginning of a golden era for EHC Biel. Gassmann increased spending again and put together one of the best teams in the league with players like Steve Latinovich , Urs Lott and Aldo Zenhäusern . He will remember his unconventional way of negotiating new players. So he asked the then Kloten striker Urs Bärtschi : "You Urs, what are you breaking?" 120,000 Swiss francs , this is supposed to have answered, a high sum for the time. But Gassmann agreed without hesitation. In 1978 and 1981 the Biel ice hockey club won the championship title with President Gassmann . After the first win in 1978, Gassmann invited the whole team on a two-week trip to the Bahamas. The "Bieler Patron" generally maintained close contact with the players. This went so far that Gassmann had his permanent place in Biel's cloakroom, where he and the players changed for the game.

In 1982 Gassmann gave up the office of president. The so far last championship title in 1983 heralded the end of the Gassmann era. After that, the club went downhill until it disappeared from the NLB in 1995 with a mountain of debt of 4.5 million francs.

In addition to his office as EHCB President, Gassmann presided over the Bielersee Yacht Club and the Bieler Braderie from 1947 to 1951 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Family Gassmann. In: mémreg. May 1, 2005, accessed August 3, 2017 . 
2. ^ Charles Gassmann. In: mémreg. May 1, 2005, accessed August 3, 2017 . 
3. ^ The Gassmann family of publishers. In: mémreg. May 1, 2005, accessed August 3, 2017 . 
4. ^ Franz Joseph Amatus Gassmann (1812-1884). In: mémreg. May 1, 2005, accessed August 3, 2017 . 
5. ^ History and organization of the Gassmann Group. Groupe Gassmann, accessed on August 3, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Willy Gassmann. In: mémreg. May 1, 2005, accessed August 3, 2017 . 
7. ↑ ^{a b} Willy Gassmann. In: mémreg. May 1, 2005, accessed August 3, 2017 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b} Biel's media landscape significantly shaped. In: Bieler Tagblatt . March 17, 2012, accessed August 3, 2017 . 
9. ^ Matthias Nast: The Biel press and the post-war boom. In: mémreg. Retrieved August 3, 2017 . 
10. ↑ Matthias Nast: Technical Innovations. In: mémreg. Retrieved August 3, 2017 . 
11. ↑ ^{a b} EHC Biel. Memories. In: sporttotal.ch. Retrieved August 3, 2017 . 
12. ↑ ^{a b} EHC Biel celebrates its 75th anniversary. In: hockeyfans.ch. January 6, 2014, accessed August 3, 2017 . 
13. ↑ ^{a b c} The eventful history of the EHCB. EHCB, accessed August 3, 2017 . 
14. ↑ Werner Schweizer, Klaus Zaugg: Torrianis heirs . Schwanden Verlag, Kilchberg 1993, ISBN 3-9520363-1-5 , p. 206 .
15. ^ Presidents, honorary members, distinguished members. (No longer available online.) YCB, archived from the original on August 3, 2017 ; Retrieved August 3, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.