Founder

Prof. Dr. h.c. Werner Otto, a Hamburg merchant and entrepreneur, was born in Seelow (in the German region of Mark Brandenburg) on 13 August 1909. He died on 21 Dezember 2011 at the age of 102 in Berlin.

Werner Otto was one of the last living post-war trade pioneers, who had considerable influence on the Federal Republic’s economic, socio-political and social development due to their visionary power, distinctive inventiveness, and entrepreneurial courage.

Otto's focus was always on his business, never on himself. Apart from his family and health, he believed his greatest source of happiness to be the creative and inventive opportunities offered to independent entrepreneurs. His motto was "Panta rhei" — everything flows.

The heart and soul of his business ventures is the mail order company founded in Hamburg on 17 August 1949. In its more than 60-year history, the company evolved into one of the largest mail order businesses in the world. Represented in 20 countries in Europe, America, and Asia, it is one of the most expansive and, at the same time, innovative companies in the industry.

The basis of this unique development remains the consistent realisation of Werner Otto's entrepreneurial convictions. A clear innovation-oriented corporate strategy, the establishment of an efficient system of management influenced his entrepreneurship. He therefore avoided the cardinal fault many founders of new businesses make of believing themselves to be indispensable in the day-to-day running of a company. Instead, Otto placed great value on setting up highly qualified management teams able to work largely independently and on their individual initiative. In 1981, Otto turned the management of the company over to his eldest son Dr. Michael Otto.

In the late 1960s, Werner Otto founded the company ECE Projektmanagement GmbH Co. KG (ECE) in Hamburg, making sure that the company's business and personnel were completely separate from that of the Otto Group.

Today, ECE is one of the most important development, construction, and management companies for shopping centres in Europe. ECE also develops and builds large office buildings, special-purpose properties, and other commercial projects. Werner Otto's youngest son Alexander has led ECE since 2000.

At a time when globalisation was not on everyone’s lips yet, Werner Otto first ventured abroad by investing in North America. In the early 1960s he began building up Park Property in Toronto, Canada. Today this real estate group manages over 7,000 residential units and around 150,000 m2 of industrial property. In 1973, at the age of 64, when others might think of retirement, Werner Otto began setting up a real estate group in the US: the Paramount Group based in New York.

Werner Otto always felt it was his duty to use the opportunities he enjoyed thanks to his successful enterprise to give back to society. This motivated him to found the Werner Otto Foundation in 1969. Its purpose is to provide financial support for medical research at Hamburg hospitals. Other beneficiaries are the Werner Otto Institute, founded in 1974, dedicated to the early detection and treatment of developmentally challenged or disabled children and teenagers, and the scientific treatment centre for cancer in childhood at the Hamburg-Eppendorf University Hospital.

The Foundation currently also funds the Werner Otto Scholarship to promote young medical and scientific students at the University of Hamburg, and a prize for the advancement of medical research, which is awarded every two years for outstanding scientific achievements by Hamburg researchers and doctors.

Werner Otto has remained true to his principle of fulfilling his social responsibilities in other areas as well. He was very quick to recognise the need for a responsible treatment of our natural environment and actively supported conservation efforts. Otto also donated a new museum building at Harvard University, the Werner Otto Hall, to showcase the expressionist art of German-speaking artists.

In his native town of Seelow, where 50,000 people died in the last major battles at the end of the second world war, Werner Otto had the church spire re-erected and the nave restored. In Potsdam, Belvedere Palace on Pfingstberg hill was renovated and reconstructed with Otto’s help. He funded an additional modern stage for the Konzerthaus Berlin. In Hamburg, Otto supported the redesign of the Jungfernstieg promenade. The rebuilding and expansion of the Werner Otto Institute brings the total Otto has donated to these projects alone to about 20 million euros.

Werner Otto has received several awards and decorations for his entrepreneurial and social commitment, including the Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Honorary Commemorative Medal in Gold and the Hamburg Senate’s Mayor Stolten Medal, the honorary title of Professor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the Berlin Senate’s Ernst Reuter Medal as well as the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's Social Market Economy Prize for his business practices. He was an honorary doctor and honorary senator of the University of Hamburg and a Laureate of the Hall of Fame in the Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland history museum in Bonn.

• Werner Otto was the father of two daughters (Ingvild and Katharina) and three sons (Michael, Frank, and Alexander).