Hubert Burda Media is one of Germany’s largest media companies. It is a true global player that boasts international renown.
Hubert Burda, who has been working for the company since the 1960s, took over its reins following the death of his father in 1986. At that time, the company’s core business comprised 15 periodicals and various print shops. Thanks to a keen business sense and great potential for innovation, under his leadership the company has since broken through a series of milestones in the history of the German media. The emergence of Super Illu as the most popular sales magazine in eastern Germany, the launch of Focus, a news magazine with a practical slant, and the development of the innovative Lisa brand are just a few examples of successful media concepts devised at Burda and which have proven their worth on the market. The success story of Hubert Burda Media owes its humble beginnings to a three-man printing works located in the town of Offenburg in the region of Baden and run by Franz Burda, printing and publishing the very first articles of the written press back in the era of Kaiser Wilhelm II. His son, Senator Franz Burda, then took on the baton, expanding the business with a great deal of entrepreneurial nous and publishing talent. His watchwords were diligence, optimism, the courage to take risks and trust in intuition. Combined, of course, with just the right dose of luck for good measure.
With the senator at the helm, classical periodicals such as Bunte, Das Haus, Freundin, Meine Familie & Ich, Mein Schöner Garten and Freizeit Revue came to the fore. And the launch of the Bambi media prize brought some of the glamour of Hollywood to Germany.
In parallel, Aenne Burda, the senator’s wife, once described by Lothar Späth as “Germany’s secret fashion queen”, built up the world’s largest fashion publishing house, riding on the success of the publication Burda Moden. Today, the fashion classic Burda Style is published in 17 languages in 99 different countries across the globe.
