page_title: Bertelsmann
section_title: 1971 to 1983
hierarchical_section_title: Bertelsmann / History / 1971 to 1983
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: de:Porträt von de:Reinhard Mohn English: en:Portrait of en:Reinhard Mohn
context_page_description: Bertelsmann is a German private multinational conglomerate based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates and also active in the service sector and education.
  Bertelsmann was founded as a publishing house by Carl Bertelsmann in 1835. After World War II, Bertelsmann, under the leadership of Reinhard Mohn, went from being a medium-sized enterprise to a major conglomerate, offering not only books but also television, radio, music, magazines and services. Its principal divisions include the RTL Group, Penguin Random House, Gruner + Jahr, BMG, Arvato, the Bertelsmann Printing Group, the Bertelsmann Education Group and Bertelsmann Investments.
  Bertelsmann is an unlisted and capital market-oriented company, which remains primarily controlled by the Mohn family. The company's key principles are creativity and entrepreneurship.
context_section_description: Starting in 1971, Bertelsmann operated as a joint-stock company ("Aktiengesellschaft" or "AG"), becoming Bertelsmann AG. The increasingly diversifying book publishers were bundled in the Verlagsgruppe Bertelsmann publishing group at the end of the 1960s. In 1972, this company moved from Gütersloh to Munich. Key divisions remained in Gütersloh, for which a new office building was built in 1976 at the group's official location. To this day, it has remained the Bertelsmann headquarters, referred to as the Bertelsmann Corporate Center. The rapid growth of Bertelsmann led to structural and financial problems. In the 1970s, financing requirements reached their peak. From 1975 to 1980, for example, the return on sales fell below one percent. Bertelsmann also encountered new regulatory rules in its home market, in particular through laws governing mergers. Larger acquisitions became practically impossible. At the same time, there was an increasing saturation of the German market for the Bertelsmann Lesering, whereas the foreign book clubs earned the lion's share of revenues in this corporate division.
  The internationalization of Bertelsmann, initiated in the 1960s, was taken further: Among other things, Bertelsmann acquired shares in the publishing houses Plaza & Janés based in Barcelona and Bantam Books from New York City. In the United States, a location was established for Ariola and Arista Records was acquired. In the period of the 1979–1980 recession, there was discussion concerning the succession of Reinhard Mohn. In 1981, he finally moved over to the supervisory board. Manfred Fischer, who had previously headed up management of Gruner + Jahr, became the new chairman and chief executive officer. With this move, Bertelsmann, for the first time, was led by a manager who was not a member of the owner family. Mark Wössner became Fischer's successor as chairman and chief executive officer of Bertelsmann in 1983. The affair concerning the forged Hitler diaries occurred at the beginning of his tenure, which damaged the reputation of Gruner + Jahr and Bertelsmann as a whole.
caption: Portrait of Reinhard Mohn (2008)
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