Bertelsmann

Bertelsmann (Media conglomerate, Multinational corporation)
Formation	1835
Headquarters	Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Member of	Transatlantic Policy Network

See also Bertelsmann Foundation.

Bertelsmann is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates and is also active in the service sector and education. Bertelsmann is an unlisted company, which remains primarily controlled by the Mohn family.

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, BMG, Arvato, the Bertelsmann Printing Group, the Bertelsmann Education Group and Bertelsmann Investments.

In December 2020 the magazine Stern, published by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann showed the religious overtones in the Covid jab campaign "An act of love your 'neighbor as yourself' - Vaccination, what you need to know"

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Bernd Hamm	“First, the process of concentration in the media has progressed rapidly, both internationally and in Germany. There are only a few corporations left that dominate the media landscape. Secondly, the owners - from Springer to Bertelsmann, Bauer, Burda or Holtzbrinck - all tend towards a politically conservative, business-friendly, socially and ecologically insensitive worldview. Take Bertelsmann, a corporation that makes its money primarily with entertainment, across all media types. At first sight, that just looks like making money - and what is actually being propagated is an extremely conservative, Christian-inspired idea of how society should be. This becomes much clearer, however, in the case of the Bertelsmann Foundation, which has been involved in the forced Americanization of our universities and the business-oriented restructuring of local administrations - rather than for the common good - with great success..That also applies to the low profile giant Holtzbrinck: It has now bought up all the important paperback series (apart from Suhrkamp) (along with numerous newspapers) and immediately discontinued critical series - such as Rororo-Aktuell or Fischer.”	Bernd Hamm
Theodore Shackley	“Bill Casey was one of the key men in the acquisition of media after WW2. It was one of his proteges (a young German immigrant to the US) who was sent back to Germany after the war to take over Bertelsmann and build it up. Rupert Murdoch was very tight with Shackley, which is how he got launched on his global acquisitions and has now taken over the WSJ. Murdoch was running a failed national newspaper in Australia while Shackley was station chief in Oz. Then suddenly he becomes a US citizen literally overnight and goes on an endless buying spree. Shackley's pockets were infinitely deep. At the time, Murdoch was facing the likely closure of his newspaper The Australian. His ticket out was Shackley. This also explains why Murdoch was allowed to break all the rules in acquisition of media in America.”	Theodore Shackley Sterling Seagrave	2007

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