Volz Adrenaline

Udo Müller - The exceptional story of a passionate entrepreneur | The amazing success story of the man behind Ströer, t-online.de, Statista...
23001. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-3-8437-3109-6
Verlag: Ullstein Taschenbuchvlg.
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 464 Seiten

The amazing success story of the man behind Ströer, t-online.de, Statista... More than once Udo Müller, with perseverance and his enormous penchant for risk-taking, put everything on one horse. He started off in the world of external advertising and became market leader, first in East Germany, then in the united Germany. Then he went global. And shortly afterwards spectacularly went public at the stock market. Followed by an expansion of his product line with digital publishing, online marketing and dialogue media. During the transition from 'Old Economy' to 'New Economy' Ströer has grown to be a unique and diverse media empire.

Hartmut M. Volz, geboren 1946, ist seit über 50 Jahren Journalist. Er war fast zwei Jahrzehnte Mitglied der  Spiegel-Redaktion, Chefredakteur bei News in Wien und hat als Medienberater Axel Springer, Burda, Bauer, Deutsche Börse, Siemens, TUI und Yahoo unterstützt. Er ist Autor von 'Die Spur des Geldes. Der Fall des Hauses Siemens' (2009, Aufbau Verlag).

Autoren/Hrsg.

Volz, Hartmut M.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Charpentier, Annette

Leseproben

Preamble

Berlin, Border Crossing Friedrichstrasse

It is a cold night in January 1988 when Udo Müller leaves his Charlottenburg office carrying two parcels. A few years previously, the Godesberg man and two associates had founded the Berlin advertising agency .

Müller, who is only 25 years old at this point, has nevertheless already had a remarkable career as a sportsman and serial entrepreneur. Two years after he started to play handball, he featured on the under-18 national team. As a professional, he played in the Bundesliga for Reinickendorfer Füchse, a well-known Berlin club. At the same time and together with his friend Dieter Nerlich, he founded the company Füchse-Werbung, which published the Foxes’ official program for every game. He was only 19 then. In the company’s first year, the partners made a six-figure profit. Then he did the same for the professional soccer club . And together with a photographer friend he sold art posters worldwide with the company .

For the two years prior to this cold night, Müller and Nerlich had been partners in their & company. And he knows that if he is successful tonight, he will be heading for even more success. Much more.

It’s nearly midnight when Müller gets into his Mercedes and drives to Kochstrasse, close to the Wall. There he changes to the underground line C. This line goes underground through the territory of East Berlin for several kilometres before it carries on towards Tegel in the West. The next stop is Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse, or Friedrich Street station, in the East, directly on the demarcation line. Passengers can get straight back to the West after a few meters as soon as the train doors are closed. This has been an everyday occurrence ever since the city was divided.

The train has only a few passengers on board as it slowly rolls toward the dark East and passes without stopping at the disused stations Stadtmitte and Französische Strasse, to stop a few minutes later than planned in Friedrichstrasse station. Müller gets off, and his eyes follow the departing train. Now he gets slightly nervous. He is alone in the bright light of the platform, far below the surface in the no-man’s-land between East and West.

Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse – Berlin’s notorious underground station. Since the Wall was built in August 1961 it became the most important transport link in the divided capital. It’s here where the S-Bahn (regional trains), the underground system and long-distance trains from East and West cross. The “antifascist protection wall”, as the GDR calls the Wall, winds its way about a kilometre from here. Every day, tens of thousands of Berliners cross the Iron Curtain to the “other side” and back again to the free part of the city.

A labyrinth of corridors, barricades and walls ensures that people from the East don’t even catch sight of the West. Travellers must pass controls by deliberately unfriendly GDR-border police and officers of the Stasi. Dozens of surveillance cameras cover every square inch. This night, too.

Müller looks at his watch. It’s a quarter past midnight. The next train arrives, stops briefly, and moves on. It’s the last one tonight. Passengers hurry to the stairs to catch their train to the West. Then Müller is alone again on the platform and waits. The meeting point and the time have been set by his business partners.

Müller has a rendezvous with the class enemy. He wants to get into business with East Germany. He doesn’t only want to organise advertising in GDR sport venues, something he and Lunenburg have been doing for a few years in the West. He also wants to do something new, something that has never happened before.

It is something that will gain the attention of the whole industry. And if it works out, many new business opportunities will open for our Müller.

It has been three months since the first contact with the people of the East German agency One of the top officials had asked Horst Lunenburg for a meeting. Horst, however, thought it was simply a routine visit and let the guest know that he didn’t have much time.

The man from East Berlin wasn’t too happy about this treatment, but the reason for his visit was too important, and time was at a premium. He quickly came to the point. This time he wasn’t talking about the regular advertisements in socialist sports stadiums, but something quite delicate: Western adverts on GDR territory.

Lunenburg didn’t grasp the significance and didn’t feel inclined to ask any questions. “I’m really in a hurry,” he said finally again and grabbed his coat. “You should talk to Udo Müller,” he added. “He’s our man for special cases.”

Half an hour later Müller and the man from the East were sitting in the Grunewald restaurant La Cascina. The conversation was awkward. The guest seemed disappointed because he hadn’t been able to talk to Lunenburg himself. He carefully studied the menu and eventually ordered a “large grilled fillet steak” and a glass of “good French red wine”. Müller ordered the same.

They chatted about the similarities between their businesses. handled foreign sports adverts mainly via the worldwide Swiss marketing agency Lüthi. For a few years now, Horst Lunenburg had been the local partner for the politically neutral Swiss company, particularly for advertising in the GDR. Müller knew what they were talking about. But generally, this part of the business was dealt with by Lunenburg.

was managed by the GDR Ministry for Foreign Trade. There was also a company called DEWAG, which in the GDR had a monopoly over advertising. It was an official branch of the state party SED, the one and only ruling party.

Finally, the meal arrived. Müller looked at the man opposite him, how...