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.

Werner Otto is one of very few living commercial pioneers, whose visionary foresight, marked resourcefulness, and entrepreneurial courage have shaped the economic, sociopolitical and social development of the Federal Republic of Germany within the last fifty years.

He is one of those entrepreneurial pioneers, whose economic empires, founded and set up after the German currency reform, reached global success; whose companies not only carry their founders' names but are still chiefly organised by the founders' families.

Otto's focus was always on his business, never on himself. Apart from his family and health, he believes his greatest source of happiness to be the creative and inventive opportunities offered to independent entrepreneurs. His motto is, "Panta rhei"— everything flows. "People who think statically and are afraid to take steps for fear of mistakes should not become entrepreneurs," Otto says, convinced.

The heart and soul of his business ventures is the mail-order company founded in Hamburg on 17 August 1949. Otto talks about the company in a speech, an excerpt of which can be found below.

In its more than fifty-year history, the Otto company evolved into the largest mail-order company in the world. Represented in twenty-one countries in Europe, America, and Asia, it belongs to the most expansive and, at the same time, highest-yielding companies in the industry.

The basis of this unique development was the consistent translation of Werner Otto's entrepreneurial convictions into reality. A clear innovation-oriented company strategy, the set-up of an efficient management board and the consistent propagation of his own strengths were always paramount to him. Thus, he avoided the cardinal mistake many founders of new businesses make: They believe themselves to be indispensable in the day-to-day running of a company, meddling with every little detail. Instead, Otto placed great value on setting up highly qualified executive teams, who were able to work largely independently and on their own responsibilities. In 1981, Otto turned over the company to his son Dr. Michael Otto.

It is in Werner Otto's nature to be forward-looking and to always see the bigger picture. When he formed the ECE Projekmanagement company in the late 1960s, Otto made sure that the company's economic health and its personnel were independent of and not connected to the the company Otto.

Today, the ECE is one of the major development, construction, and management companies for meanwhile 90 shopping centres in Europe. Furthermore, the ECE develops and builds large office blocks, special-purpose properties, and other commercial projects. Also active in Germany's new provinces, the ECE's constant objective is to contribute efficiently to the enlivening of city centres as well as gentle urban regeneration. In 2000, Werner Otto's son Alexander took over ECE.

At a time when Globalisation meant a foreign term to many of us, Werner Otto already took the chance of investing into America. In the early 60ties he began building up the Sagitta Group in the Canadian town of Toronto.

Today this Real Estate Group manages over 7000 apartments and around 140.00 sqm of industrial real estate. Additionally industrial areas have been developed. Meanwhile the Sagitta Group is one of the leading companies of its kind in Canada.

In 1973, at the age of over 60, an age when others might think of retirement, Werner Otto started setting up a US real estate group, the Paramount Group in New York. In Canada, Otto developed industrial parks and housing areas.

Because of his entrepreneurial freedom and creative opportunities Werner Otto always felt he needed to fulfill his social and sociopolitical obligations.

In order to be able to efficiently support specific causes and to relieve human distress, he founded the Werner-Otto-Foundation in 1969. The medical foundation pitches in wherever a need arises that the government cannot meet for lack or delay of financial resources. Complementing government research funding is exactly what Werner Otto considers the mission of his foundation and every private initiative in the medical sector. More specifically, one of the strengths of private research advancement organisations is the ability to make quick decisions and act swiftly, which saves many programmes halfway before they get cancelled.

One of the major projects of the Werner-Otto-Foundation is the scientific treatment centre for childhood cancer diseases at the paediatric university hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, which has saved the lives of many leukemic children.

In 1974, inspired by the family doctor's report on the excellent treatment results in children in the US, Werner Otto founded the Werner-Otto-Institute on the premises of the Alsterdorf Foundation, Hamburg, the first and, to date, only special facility in Germany dedicated exclusively to the early diagnosis and treatment of developmentally challenged or disabled children and teenagers.

Excellent scientific achievements are rewarded by the Werner-Otto-Foundation every two years; the prize for the advancement of medical research is awarded to doctors and researchers based in Hamburg.

In 1996, the "Werner-Otto-Stipendium zur Förderung des medizinisch-wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses an der Universität Hamburg," a scholarship program for the advancement of young medical science students at the university of Hamburg, was launched. After chochlear implant surgery, previously hearing-disabled children and teenagers learn how to hear again at the Werner-Otto-House in Berlin.

In other areas, Otto has also done justice to his principle of fulfilling his social responsibilities. Early on, he was emphatic about treating nature responsibly and supporting environmental protection. Otto donated a new museum building, the Werner Otto Hall, to Harvard University, so the university could showcase the expressionist art of German-speaking artists.

In his native town of Seelow, where, at the end of the war, the last hard battles were fought and more than 50,000 people died, Werner Otto had the spire re-erected and the nave renewed. In the city of Potsdam the Belvedere palace on the Pfingstberg hill was renovated and reconstructed thanks to Otto. In Hamburg, Otto supported the redesign of the Jungfernstieg promenade. Having rebuilt and expanded the Werner-Otto-Institute, the amount Otto donated for these projects alone, brings the total of his donations to roughly 20 million Euros.

Werner Otto received several awards and decorations for his entrepreneurial and social commitment, amongst others the Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Ehrendenkmünze [honorary commemorative medal] in Gold and the “Bürgermeister-Stolten-Medaille” of the Hamburg Senate, the honorary title "Professor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg," the Ernst-Reuter-Medal of the Berlin Senate as well as the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's "Social Market Economy Prize" for his entrepreneurship. He is an honorary doctor and honorary senator of the University of Hamburg as well as Laureate of the Hall of Fame in the German House of History in Bonn.

Excerpt of a speech by Prof. Dr. h.c. Werner Otto before the Otto Group’s Management in December 1999.