Werner Otto (13 August 1909 – 21 December 2011) was a German entrepreneur. In 1949, he founded

Otto GmbH Otto GmbH & Co KG (doing business as Otto Group, stylized as otto group, formerly Otto Versand) is a German mail order company and one of the world's biggest e-commerce companies. Based in Hamburg, it operates in more than twenty countries. Ott ...

, which eventually became the world's largest

mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing a ...

group. He was married three times and had five children. Otto and his family consistently ranked among the wealthiest Germans.

Early life

Werner Otto was born the son of the retailer Wilhelm Otto and his wife Frieda. His mother died shortly after giving birth to a daughter in 1910. He attended the school in

Schwedt Schwedt (or Schwedt/Oder; ) is a town in Brandenburg, in northeastern Germany. With the official status of a '' Große kreisangehörige Stadt'' (major district town), it is the largest town of the Uckermark district, located near the river Oder, ...

, later the high school in

Prenzlau Prenzlau (, formerly also Prenzlow) is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, the administrative seat of Uckermark (district), Uckermark District. It is also the centre of the historic Uckermark region. Geography The town is located on the Uecker, Ucke ...

(

Uckermark The Uckermark () is a historical region in northeastern Germany, straddles the Uckermark (district), Uckermark District of Brandenburg and the Vorpommern-Greifswald District of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Its traditional capital is Prenzlau. Geogra ...

Career

After a commercial apprenticeship, he started his own business as a retail merchant in

Szczecin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...

. For the dissemination of leaflets, Otto was sentenced in 1934 to two years imprisonment. After his release, he operated a cigar shop and married in 1939 his first wife, Eva Haffner. In 1941, their daughter

Ingvild Ingvild is a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Ingvild Bryn (born 1961), Norwegian journalist * Ingvild Ryggen Carstens (born 1980), Norwegian ski mountaineer and former heptathlete * Ingvild Isaksen (born 1989), Norwegian footba ...

was born and two years later son

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

. The end of the war saw Otto with a head injury in a

military hospital A military hospital is a hospital owned and operated by a military. They are often reserved for the use of military personnel and their dependents, but in some countries are made available to civilians as well. They may or may not be located on a ...

. After the war he fled with his family from Soviet-controlled East Germany to Hamburg, which was under British control. There he founded a shoe factory in 1948, which went bankrupt a year later in 1949. In the same year he divorced. Motto for his life was "Panta rhei" — everything flows."Historie"
Otto Group

Mail order company 'Otto Versand'

On August 17, 1949, Otto founded the mail order company 'Otto Versand' (

& Co KG) in Hamburg. The first catalog had 14 pages, was hand-bound and included only shoes. In the following years the Otto Group expanded more and more. In 1981, the management of the fast-growing company was turned over to his eldest son, Michael Otto. In 1952, Otto married Jutta Becker and 1957 his second son

Frank Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curr ...

was born, the only child from his second marriage. In the 1960s, he started the ''Sagitta Group'', today's ''Park Property'', one of the largest real estate companies in Canada. Through his North American experiences, Werner Otto got the idea to found another enterprise, the ECE Projekt Management GmbH & Co. KG, which he did in 1969. The company builds and manages shopping malls; finance and staff. ECE is one of the leading developers, implementers, owners and operators of large commercial real estate in Europe. His third wife Maren Stücken gave birth to Otto's youngest children

Katharina Katharina is a feminine given name. It is a German form of Katherine. It may refer to: In television and film: *Katharina Bellowitsch, Austrian radio and TV presenter *Katharina Mückstein, Austrian film director *Katharina Thalbach, German actre ...

and

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

in the 1960s. Katherina is a filmmaker in New York. Alexander received from his father the real estate company ECE entrusted. In his range of social causes, he founded in 1969 the Werner Otto Foundation, which supports medical research. In 1973, when he was over 60, Otto developed the ''Paramount Group'' in New York, to invest in US real estate. At

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

he donated a new museum building, the ''Werner Otto Hall'', for the art of

German Expressionism German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...

, out of the

Busch-Reisinger Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

. The building has now been demolished as part of a redevelopment project led by

Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (20 ...

. In 2011, he died at the age of 102 in Berlin.

Awards

Otto was awarded the Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, was an honorary senator of the city of Hamburg, and on his 100th birthday became an honorary citizen of the city of Berlin. Otto is included in Germany's Hall of Fame in the history museum in Bonn.Cruz, Julie
"German Mail-Order, Real Estate Tycoon Werner Otto Dies at 102"
''

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'', 2 January 2012

References

Weblinks

Personal website of Werner Otto

{{DEFAULTSORT:Otto, Werner 1909 births 2011 deaths People from Seelow German company founders 20th-century German businesspeople German centenarians Men centenarians Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Otto family