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Schulte-Hillen in January 2017: Almost 20 years at the helm of G + J
Photo: Christian Charisius / dpa
The long-time head of the magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr, Gerd Schulte-Hillen, is dead. He died on Wednesday at the age of 80, as the Hamburg media company confirmed on Thursday.
The publishing manager Schulte-Hillen headed the magazine publisher for around 20 years, which publishes »Stern«, »GEO« and »Brigitte« and is also involved in the SPIEGEL publishing house. In 1981 he started in the position of CEO and remained so until 2000. During this time, sales and earnings as well as the number of titles rose sharply. At the age of 60 he switched to the supervisory board. From 2000 to 2003 he was chairman there.
The head of Gruner + Jahr, Stephan Schäfer, announced: "Today we are not only mourning the longstanding former CEO of Gruner + Jahr, but also one of the defining figures in the publishing history of the Federal Republic of Germany." He is a successful and passionate manager has always been an advocate of independent journalism. The publisher owes a lot to Schulte-Hillen. "We bow in deep sorrow to a great colleague and our thoughts are with his wife and the family," said Schäfer.
Schulte-Hillen was born in 1940 in the Sauerland.
He studied mechanical engineering and completed a postgraduate course in business administration.
In 1969 he started as an assistant to the management at the Bertelsmann subsidiary Mohndruck in Gütersloh.
In 1973 he took over the management of the gravure printing plant of Gruner + Jahr at the Itzehoe location, and he quickly rose to the board of the printing and publishing house.
fdi / dpa