Michael-Gotthelf Hillary-Clinton-Rathenaupreis

Michael Alfred Gotthelf (born 1953 in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

) is a German entrepreneur and publicist. He is the initiator and founder of the literary prize Ludwig-Börne-Preis, the Frank Schrirrmacher foundation and the

Walther Rathenau Institut The Walther Rathenau Institut, Stiftung für internationale Politik is a non-party and non-profit foundation based in Berlin. It is named after Walther Rathenau, the German-Jewish foreign minister of the Weimar Republic. Aims and purposes The ...

, a foundation for international policy that awards the Walther-Rathenau-Preis.

Life

Michael A. Gotthelf was born in 1953 in Frankfurt am Main to a Jewish father from Berlin and a Bavarian Catholic mother.

Education

In 1972, after completing his ''

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

'' at the Goethe-Gymnasium in Frankfurt, Gotthelf went on to study sociology, political science, economics and business administration at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in California and the

Goethe University Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

in Frankfurt, where he earned his doctorate degree in economics. As an economist he i. a. contributed an essay entitled "Was starrt ihr alle auf 1929?!" to "Die Zukunft des Kapitalismus" which was published by

Suhrkamp Verlag Suhrkamp Verlag is a German publishing house, established in 1950 and is generally acknowledged as one of the leading European publishers of fine literature. Its roots go back to the "arianized" part of the S. Fischer Verlag. In January 2010, ...

Professional career

He started his professional career as an editor for the

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...

in Frankfurt and thereafter worked as a bank manager. In the early nineties he managed the Metallbank, a subsidiary of the

Metallgesellschaft Metallgesellschaft AG was formerly one of Germany's largest industrial conglomerates based in Frankfurt. It had over 20,000 employees and revenues in excess of 10 billion US dollars. It had over 250 subsidiaries specializing in mining, specialty c ...

. For the Munich-based parent group he, in 1995, founded the Hypovereinsbank (Schweiz), which focused on business with institutional clients. Gotthelf gained control as the bank’s general manager and – after it was renamed into AP Anlage & Privatbank AG due to a management buyout – operated as their Chairman of the Board of Directors before the bank was acquired by the Latvian

Parex Bank Parex Bank was a Latvian bank founded in 1992 by Valērijs Kargins and as a privately owned full-service banking company in Riga, Latvia that was very dominant in currency exchange in the 1990s. It had local and international clients in both ...

in 2004. Gotthelf also occasionally works as a feature writer and guest author for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the

Neue Zürcher Zeitung The (''NZZ''; "New Newspaper of Zurich") is German language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zurich. The paper was founded in 1780. It has a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the German Swiss newspaper of record ...

Diplomatic activity

In 1992 Michael A. Gotthelf became the

Honorary consul A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

for the Czech Republic in Frankfurt. From 2000 until 2004 he functioned as Honorary consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Zurich and afterwards he moved to London. For some years now he has been operating as an advisor for several international institutions; he advised the President of Madagascar on a

pro bono ( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...

basis.

Awards and honors

For his commitment to the Ludwig-Börne-Preis the municipal authorities of the city of Frankfurt awarded Gotthelf the Goethe Plaque in 2000. In 2007, he was awarded the Verdienstkreuz of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

, also for his long-standing activity for the Ludwig-Börne-Stiftung.

Foundations

As chairman of the Ludwig-Börne-Stiftung, Gotthelf was one of the initiators of the Ludwig-Börne-Preis, a literary award for essays, reviews and reportage founded in 1993. Germany’s President

Joachim Gauck Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany. During the P ...

and the literary critic

Marcel Reich-Ranicki Marcel Reich-Ranicki (; 2 June 1920 – 18 September 2013) was a Polish-born German literary critic and member of the informal literary association Gruppe 47. He was regarded as one of the most influential contemporary literary critics in the f ...

have been awarded this prize among others. At the beginning of 2008 Gotthelf founded the

, a foundation for international policy based in Berlin. He serves as the Chairman of the advisory Board of this foundation. In remembrance of the German foreign policymaker

Walther Rathenau Walther Rathenau (; 29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922) was a German industrialist, writer and politician who served as foreign minister of Germany from February 1922 until his assassination in June 1922. Rathenau was one of Germany's leading ...

the institute supports political education and annually awards the Walther-Rathenau-Preis standing for human rights and tolerance.

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

, for instance, received the prize due to her efforts for the peace in crisis regions.Walther Rathenau Institut
on rathenau-stiftung.de In 2014/15 Gotthelf, together with Mathias Döpfner and Martin Meyer among others, founded the "Frank-Schirrmacher-Stiftung" following the surprising death of his friend Schirrmacher in June 2014. Schirrmacher was one of the leading German intellectuals and editor in chief of the cultural section of the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung". The prize money of 20,000 Swiss Francs for the annual Schirrmacher award which honours work to further the understanding of current affairs, was received by Hans Magnus Enzensberger in 2015, followed by Michel Houellebecq, Jonathan Franzen, Daniel Kehlmann and Peter Thiel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gotthelf, Michael Businesspeople from Frankfurt Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1953 births Living people Stanford University alumni Goethe University Frankfurt alumni