Uwe Rittmann (Editor), Tobias Rappers (Editor), Olaf Salié (Editor)
The Secrets of German Family Businesses
From Unsung Heroes to World Market Leaders
From Unsung Heroes to World Market Leaders
Expert Insight and Best Practice Revealed
At a time of global uncertainty, geopolitical tension and economic upheaval, this book highlights one of Germany’s greatest strengths: its family businesses. As the country’s largest employers, taxpayers and drivers of economic growth, they form the backbone of the German economy.
Yet their importance extends far beyond national borders. All over the world, German family businesses are synonymous with lasting quality, technical excellence and entrepreneurial reliability – especially in an era when stability has become crucial to success.
Leading practitioners and scholars examine the diversity and strength of German family-owned businesses – The Secrets – through personal experiences, practical examples, and analyses.
The book presents 50 portraits of German family-owned businesses – the rising stars, the legacy keepers, the world market leaders, the brands, and the 'hidden champions' – revealing the fascinating secrets behind them. These stories offer a unique insight into the DNA of the companies concerned, showing how entrepreneurial vision and family values go hand in hand, underpinning their pivotal role in economic resilience, stability and future viability worldwide.
Biography
Uwe Rittmann
Professionally, Uwe Rittmann has one great passion: family businesses and entrepreneurial families. As Head of the Family Business and SMEs at PwC Germany, he has a broad and in-depth overview of the German family-business landscape. After many years with a medium-sized auditing and consultancy firm, he joined PwC as a partner in 2011. For more than 30 years he has successfully advised both international, publicly listed family firms and privately owned mid-sized companies, and he has served for many years on the advisory boards of several family businesses.
Tobias Rappers
Tobias Rappers is the founder and Managing Director of Maschinenraum GmbH, a platform that brings together almost 80 German family businesses to provide support in all key areas of transformation. A strategy consultant and digital expert, he has wide-ranging expertise in designing and implementing transformation processes. He particularly values the DNA of the German SME sector, shaped by courage, trust and long-term thinking. Rappers studied at the WFI School of Management, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Stellenbosch University in South Africa and the Indian Institute of Management. Before founding Maschinenraum, he worked as a consultant at Roland Berger.
For over two decades, Olaf Salié served as editor-in-chief of the Deutsche Standards brand, most recently under the umbrella of the ZEIT publishing group. Since 2025, he has been editor of the ABOUT Germany series at Prestel Verlag, where his books Chanson and Traumfabriken were published. Olaf Salié is regarded as a creative originator and a well-connected project developer in the field of both print and digital media. Working with his long-time publisher Dr Florian Langenscheidt, he developed titles such as the Lexikon der deutschen Familienunternehmen (‘Encyclopaedia of German Family Businesses’). Alongside business-related topics, a particular focus of his work lies on the subject of artisan manufacturers. Olaf Salié lives in Berlin with his husband and their dog.
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