Mail order pioneer Werner Otto dies at 102

Hamburg businessman and entrepreneur Werner Otto, founder of the mail-order company OTTO and the shopping centre developer ECE, died on Wednesday, December 21, at the age of 102 in Berlin, his family announced.
Werner Otto was one of the last post-war trade pioneers who had considerable influence on Germany's economic, socio-political and social development due to their visionary power, distinctive inventiveness, and entrepreneurial courage.
Dr Michael Otto, chairman of the Otto Group supervisory board and eldest son of Werner Otto, added: "His deeds and decisions were consistently future-orientated and he accomplished a great deal as an entrepreneur."
Werner Otto, born on August 13, 1909 in Seelow as son of a merchant, moved with his family as refugee to Hamburg after the Second World War. There, he founded his first shoe company. "When the sector borders were eliminated and shoes in good quality were introduced to the market by shoe companies that were traditionally located in south-west Germany, my company without specialist staff was not viable. This is why I closed it down. At least, I still had 6,000 deutsche mark and the factory halls," remembered Otto.
Then he had the idea that changed his life: why not sell shoes produced by others? With a start-up capital of 6,000 deutsche marks and four employees, the success story started in 1949 with the result of the otto group as the world's largest mail-order group. Werner gave priority to an innovation-oriented corporate strategy, the establishment of an efficient management and the consistent multiplication of own strengths. In this way, he avoided the cardinal error many founders make: considering oneself as indispensable in the long term in the daily business and to interfere in too many details. Already in 1965, Werner Otto transferred the management of the company to Günter Nawrath, who was not a member of Otto's family. In 1981, Werner's son Dr. Michael Otto continued to head to company.
As of 1965, he established another successful company: ECE – economically and in terms of personnel completely independent from the OTTO mail-order company. Today, ECE is the most important development, construction and management company for shopping centres in Europe, as well as large office blocks, logistics centres and other commercial large-scale real estate. In 2000, Werner's youngest son Alexander Otto took over the management of ECE.
In 1962 Werner Otto took the step to North America and developed industrial parks and residences in Canada. From 1973 he started setting up a US real estate group: the Paramount Group in New York.
He founded the "Werner Otto" Foundation in 1969 that supports the centre for childhood cancer diseases at the pediatric university hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, which has saved the lives of many children with leukemia. The foundation also awards a prize every two years for outstanding scientific achievements by Hamburg researchers and doctors.
Werner founded the "Werner Otto Institute" in Hamburg in 1974 dedicated to the early detection and treatment of developmentally challenged or disabled children and teenagers. Since 1966, there is also the Werner Otto Scholarship to promote young medical and scientific students at the University of Hamburg, while in the "Werner Otto House" in Berlin, hearing-impaired children and adolescents are taught to hear again after a cochlear implant operation.
Other donations include the new museum building at Harvard University, the Werner Otto Hall, to showcase the expressionist art of German-speaking artists, church restoration work in Seelow, reconstruction of the Belvedere Palace on Pfingstberg hill, an additional modern stage for the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Jungfernstieg promenade in Hamburg.
On the occasion of his 100th birthday, Werner and his wife Maren founded in 2009 the "Werner and Maren Otto Foundation for the promotion of old-age care" in particular in Berlin and Brandenburg.