Dieter Bock

Hans Dieter Bock ( born March 3, 1939 in Dessau; † 12, 2010 in Hamburg ) was a German jurist who, through his participation in the London conglomerate Lonrho came in the 1990s as real estate and stock speculator in the headlines, what he the reputation of an " early grasshopper " earned. Later he was known as a real estate entrepreneur and patron of the arts and co-owner of the Hamburg Hotels Atlantic and various other German luxury hotels.

On the list of most Germans, he was in 2009 at No. 153 Together with Erwin Conradi he was a partner of Octavian Hotel Holding GmbH (part of Octavian King Holdings in Rotterdam), the number of Kempinski Hotels in Germany ( including the Hotel Bristol in Berlin). include

Career

Bock was born in 1939 in Dessau, the son of a director of Agfa - Wolfen film factory. The family fled in 1953 to Weinheim (West Germany ), where Bock grew up. In 1973, Bock Steuerberaterungsgesellschaft and then also began to invest in real estate and investments. Instead of renting space, he acquired in 1974 in exchange for an annuity an old building in Schwabing, the straight Uschi Obermaier and the Communards Rainer Langhans had vacated. He built the building into a commercial building, where he first his company accounts and tax AG ( bistag ) housed, but sold it a few years later at a high profit. The bistag exists today with its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main and a branch in Halle ( Saale).

In the following years, Bock moved to real estate and stock speculation and expanded its activities including Germany, the United States and South Africa. In 1986 he focused his company in the real estate holding company Advanta. In 1988 he obtained ten percent of the shares of the construction company Philipp Holzmann, a little later he bought at Dywidag and Tilbury to all investments in each short time later sell at a high profit. He then joined as a partner in the Canadian real estate holding company Trizec Hahn, one of North America's largest real estate companies.

In recent decades, Bock focused on the property. He was, through its holding long-standing shareholder in the Atlantic Hotel in Hamburg, the 2008 five star categorization has been withdrawn, as the membership of the Association Leading Hotels of the World.

Bock was in recent years owners of the South African Football Teams Moroka Swallow.

Bock was married, had four children and lived in retirement in London and Darmstadt. It was hard to photograph, was rarely interviews and was therefore often compared by the tabloids with the ALDI brothers. To Bocks special reputation wore his modest appearance at: suits, C & A, instead of plastic bag briefcase, favorite meal pasta (which, however, he drank Chateau Petrus wines ). But Edward Heath once called him " a disgusting and unacceptable face of capitalism " ( " to unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism ").

The Lonrho feud

The end of 1992 rose to buck the mediation of Swedish bankers Christian Norgren with £ 50 million, which he was mainly financed through the BfG Bank, Lonrho one by which he acquired a company share of 18.8 percent.

Lonrho (now Lonmin ), a company established in the early 20th century the Rhodesian mining company, has developed into a global conglomerate, after Tiny Rowland was in 1961 entered into the company. In addition to mines and farms, he also earned publishers (eg, The Observer ) and hotels. In 1985, he defeated the Egyptian businessman and billionaire Mohamed Al -Fayed in a spectacular confrontation to the acquisition of the old-established London's Harrods department store. In full-page newspaper ads Tiny Rowland Bock welcomed in the financially troubled company as an important investor and future co-director, who now held the same proportion as he is. Bock settled in London, where he earned Cheapside House as a residence.

But the cooperation and " male friendship " ended quickly in a power struggle. 1994/95 saw buck for the sacking of Lonrho 's board Rowland. Its shares sold Bock 1996, the mining company Anglo American for about twice their use. This prompted Rowland to the oath that he would " pursue to the end of his days " Bock. However, he denied to have hired private investigators to detect entanglement in a Bock Stasi companies braids.

Munich Praterinsel

1984 Bock bought the old factory building of Anton Riemerschmid at the Munich Praterinsel, but failed with his plan to erect a hotel on the island. A council resolution wrote to him that the land should be made ​​use of basically commercial, but a majority must stand for cultural purposes. It flourished in the number of artists and galleries, international art flair brought in the following years with exhibitions of Keith Haring, David Byrne and Daniel Spoerri to the Isar.

Yet in 2006 announced Bock all tenants due to upcoming renovations and with the promise that artists could return to their ancestral premises after the building work. At the same time, he sold all the property on the Praterinsel to a merger of Danish and Dutch pension funds, on whose behalf the Augsburger property management company Patrizia in 2007 took over the administration. The premises were until his death on empty, with renovation work has not started.

Kempinski

The hotel group Kempinski it came to years of legal battles. 1992 rose buck in the group and bought his company Advanta same time the Berlin headquarters of the hotel chain, the five-star Hotel Bristol on Kurfürstendamm in order to lease it back to the Group. As a major shareholder of the Kempinski AG, he managed to obtain a lease with a term of 20 years and an annual rent of 13 million marks - a good deal at a purchase price of 235 million marks.

When the hotel because of the high lease costs no longer be profitable and got into financial difficulties, the Kempinski AG sued Bock for damages. Then Bock sold its 53- percent stake in the company to the Thai hotel group Dusit Thani, announced in December 1997 the lease without notice and got evicted.

Collection Bock and Olga and Dieter Bock Foundation

In the initial phase 1989-1995 Bock presented the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt am Main substantial amounts of money at your disposal to compensate for the small acquisitions budget of the house. The museum's director, Jean -Christophe Ammann bought so many works or groups of works by a total of 29 artists, including Bruce Nauman object Hanging Heads, painting by Luc Tuymans and knitted pictures of Rosemarie Trockel. They added to the museum collection in the early years as works " Purchased with private funds on permanent loan to the Museum of Modern Art ". The loans flowed according to Ammann's service in late 2001 at the Olga and Dieter Bock Foundation, which in turn could auction off parts of it in a London auction house in 2005. Luc Tuymans obtained an injunction on the grounds that he had then sold his works explicitly to a museum.

Groups of works by Rosemarie Trockel, Andreas Slominski, Reiner Ruth Beck, Bernhard Haertter and Martin Honert that were purchased with the help of Bocks, could be purchased by the City of Frankfurt am Main, 22 works of Thomas Bayrle were still left to the museum on loan.

Awards

In 1999, together with Hermann Graf von Bock Pueckler than earlier BTU Trustees in the music hall of Schloss Branitz awarded the title of Honorary Senator of the Brandenburg Technical University of Cottbus. He served on the Board of Trustees since its foundation in 1996. The architect Peter Eisenmann ( Holocaust Memorial in Berlin ) has served as keynote speaker.

Bolustod

On 12 May 2010 Dieter Bock died at the age of 71 years on Bolustod. Bock had allowed himself to come to his suite at the Atlantic after midnight food and then apparently choked on a piece of meat. According to press reports called to help rescue workers tried in vain to resuscitate Bock. For an autopsy, according to the examining doctors no reason was present. Fremdverschulden were excluded.