Hilmar Kopper (13 March 1935 – 11 November 2021) was a German banker, and former chairman of the Board of Deutsche Bank (1989–1997).
Hilmar Kopper | |
|---|---|
| Born | 13 March 1935 |
| Died | 11 November 2021 (aged 86) |
| Occupation | Banker |
| Organizations | |
Life and career
editKopper was born in Osłonino in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of (Poland), the second of four children of a Mennonite family. His family was expelled after World War II.[1]
As the family could afford academic education only for one child, Kopper's elder brother, he became a trainee at Deutsche Bank in 1954,[1] at a regional branch named Rheinisch-Westfälische Bank in Köln-Mülheim. He would spend his whole career at the bank.[2] He was sent to the J. Henry Schroder Banking Corp. in New York City, and then worked in Deutsche Bank's department for foreign affairs (Auslandsabteilung in Düsseldorf. In 1972, he became a member of the board of the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank AG (German-Asian Bank). He was promoted to General Representative (Generalbevollmächtigter) in 1972,[3] and became a board member in 1977.[2][3] [4] After the terrorist murder of Alfred Herrhausen, the bank's chief executive, in 1989, he succeeded him as chairman (Vorstandssprecher).[5] During his tenure, the bank was redesigned to become a global player.[3] He held the position until 1997, and then was chairman of the supervisory board until 2002.[4][5]
Kopper chaired the supervisory board of DaimlerChrysler from 1998 to 2007. He was a former member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group.[6] He was also a jury member of the Franz Werfel Human Rights Award.
Controversy
editKopper received widespread public and media attention in 1994, when he used the word "peanuts" to describe a sum of DM 50 million. A jury of linguistic scholars subsequently voted the term as German Un-word of the year, thus criticizing the widely differing definitions of a non-notable amount of money by bank managers and average people.[7] With some self-irony, Kopper posed on a heap of peanuts for advertisement of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ("Dahinter steckt immer ein kluger Kopf, or "There is always a clever mind behind it").[3]
Private life
editDuring Kopper's time as a trainee in the U.S., he met the author Ernest Hemingway by chance on a beach in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1958 and remained a life-long fan of his books.[8] He married his first wife, Irene, in 1961.[3] One of the couple's three children is the historian Christopher Kopper. They separated in 1999.[3] Since 2003, Kopper was married to Brigitte Seebacher, the widow of Willy Brandt.[2]
Kopper died after a short severe illness at age 86.[5]
Publications
edit- Kopper, Hilmar (1997). Die Bank lebt nicht vom Geld allein : Beiträge zu Kultur und Gesellschaft 1994–1997 (in German). München: Piper. ISBN 3-492-22584-5. OCLC 45050456.
References
edit- ^ a b "Hilmar Kopper / deutscher Bankmanager". Munzinger (in German). 27 August 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
- ^ a b c Homberger, Antje (10 March 2005). ""Mr. Peanuts" hängt an der Macht". Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 13 November 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f "Hilmar Kopper: Zum 65. nochmal in turbulente Zeiten". Manager Magazin (in German). 9 March 2000. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
- ^ a b "Übersicht und Biographien" (in German). Historische Gesellschaft der Deutschen Bank. Archived from the original on 1 April 2009. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
- ^ a b c Sims, Tom (12 November 2021). "Former Deutsche Bank CEO and chair Hilmar Kopper dies at 86". Reuters. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
- ^ "Former Steering Committee Members". Bilderberg Group. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
- ^ "Ein Jahr, ein (Un-)Wort!". Der Spiegel (in German). 31 October 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ Stock, Wolfgang (29 September 2013). "Hilmar Kopper trifft auf Ernest Hemingway". Hemingways Welt (in German). Retrieved 12 November 2021.