Reinhard Mohn, German businessman, dies

Reinhard Mohn, a German entrepreneur who built a post-war family publishing company into a global giant died Saturday, a Bertelsmann company spokesman said.

Mohn was 88 years old. He was famous for running the company, C. Bertelsmann Verlag, with a humane touch, eating in the company cafeteria and keeping to a personal principle that, you have to persuade people, as opposed to giving orders, The New York Times reported Monday.

By 2003, the company owned U.S. publisher Random House and RTL, one of Europe’s premier broadcasters. By 2008, the company had annual sales of $23.5 billion.

Mohn took over the business after a stint as a U.S. prisoner of war. He had served in World War II as an officer in Hitler’s Wehrmacht, the Times said.

It was revealed in 2002 that the company had extensive dealings with the Nazi party. It may have employed Jewish slave labor during the war year. Mohn’s father, Heinrich Mohn, was a member of a group that donated money to the Nazi SS squadron, the Times said.

Mohn, however, saw little to like in the Nazi party, the Times said. He gave managers wide leeway, saying the authoritarian Nazi approach had many problems.

He is survived by his second wife, Liz Mohn, and six children.