A Global Lesson: Success Through Cooperation and Compassionate Leadership

Reinhard Mohn, legendary entrepreneur and father of the global media giant Bertelsmann, offers penetrating insights into his motives, beliefs, and hopes as one of the world’s foremost businesspeople.

Reinhard Mohn has grappled with the political and cultural changes of recent decades like few other entrepreneurs of his time. In this deeply personal book, Mohn, for the first time, describes his entrepreneurial development in the context of his own fascinating personal experiences.

A Global Lesson plumbs the extraordinary depth of Mohn’s life, from his Protestant upbringing and his time as a German soldier in an American POW camp during World War II to his socially conscious choices as a young businessman.

The hopes and challenges of booming 1950s Germany influenced Mohn’s early years as an entrepreneur in many ways. He quickly understood that to be successful he had to combine economic thinking with social responsibility. Furthermore, as he guided Bertelsmann’s evolution from a medium-sized company to a global media corporation, he realized how important it was to seek dialogue with other cultures. Through it all–from the period of German rebuilding after the war through the age of globalization–Mohn fostered a successful corporate culture that served as a model for business leaders across the globe.

A Global Lesson reveals the motives that guided Mohn’s development, and shares how his family origins and personal experiences shaped his life’s work. His story is also a testament to his leadership. Throughout his life and career, Mohn has promoted a unique and important philosophy: economic thinking and democratic culture cannot be in opposition–and only by standing up for humanity can we master the challenges of global cooperation.

REINHARD MOHN, born in Gütersloh, Germany, in 1921, is the great-grandson of Bertelsmann’s founding publisher, Carl Bertelsmann. In five decades under his leadership, Bertelsmann grew to be one of the world’s leading media conglomerates. He is married to Liz Mohn and has six children.

ANDREA STOLL, Ph.D., studied German, philosophy, and journalism in Mainz and Vienna. Since 1992 she has worked as a freelance writer and producer for book publishers, film studios, and television stations and as a lecturer at the University of Salzburg. She has published numerous essays and several books, specializing in biographic and socio-political topics.