Self-made man and visionary

Often referred to as "the senator," Dr. Franz Burda II (1903 - 1986) was the last great patriarch of the German press industry and a driving force behind rebuilding postwar Germany. He grew his father's three-man print shop in Offenburg into one of the country's largest printing and publishing companies. He created the successful publications Bunte, Freizeit Revue and Mein Schöner Garten, staged the Bambi Awards and the lavish Bal paré galas in Munich, and dispatched the Burda Squadron to advertise his products over German and Austrian cities. Always a visionary, Franz Burda counted among the trailblazers in Germany's so-called economic miracle.

He was a child of the "short 20th century," as the historian Eric Hobsbawm has described it. While the first decade adhered to the traditions of the previous century, the turmoil of the First World War and – perhaps even more so – the subsequent revolutions in Russia, Germany and Austria spawned a new social and world order. The 21st century had already begun at the end of the Cold War. Franz Burda took advantage of this "interregnum."

"You achieve success with good ideas, the decision to translate them into reality, and the strength to steer the process to fruition."

Franz Burda, publisher (1903 – 1986)

Franz was born in Philippsburg on February 24, 1903, a Mardi Gras Tuesday. His mother Josefine died when he was six. His father, who was also called Franz, moved to Offenburg, established a small print shop and re-married. In 1911 he brought his son to join him there, where young Franz grew up in modest circumstances with a biological brother and six stepbrothers and -sisters. He attended the Schiller Upper School in Offenburg and then completed a commercial apprenticeship at the company Freihandel. Following his transfer to its Freiburg branch, he studied Economics part-time at the city's university.

After 1924, Franz continued his studies in Vienna, Munich and Erlangen, while occasionally working at his father's printing company. In 1927 he completed his degree in Economics – and the following year, he published his first magazine, a radio guide entitled Sürag. In 1928 he obtained his doctorate in Erlangen, having submitted a thesis on the development of commodity exchanges in Baden. In 1929, Burda took his journeyman’s examinations and concluded his apprenticeship in book printing in Freiburg.

"He was blessed with a never-ending supply of optimism."

Lothar Späth, Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg (1937 – 2016)

Franz's father passed away on November 22, 1929. The 26-year-old Dr. Franz Burda took over the print shop behind the Burg butcher shop in Offenburg. In April 1930 he qualified as a master craftsman in the book-printing trade. On Easter Sunday of that same year, he announced his engagement to Anna Magdalena Lemminger. The couple married on July 9, 1931, and their first son was born on May 24 the following year. Like his father and grandfather before him, he was given the name Franz. In 1935 Franz Burda earned his first million. Construction began on a new printing plant at the intersection of main street and Unionrampe, and Burda invested in his first gravure press. His second son Frieder was born on April 29, 1936.

In 1938 Burda acquired the "Aryanized" printing works in Mannheim from the Bauer brothers.The family moved to Heidelberg, where his third son Hubert was born on February 9, 1940. Franz Burda personally managed the operations of the large printing plant, sharing his office until the war with Berthold Reiss, one of the three previous owners. Reiss, who was Jewish, and his wife, the actress Maria Petri, both survived the Nazi era in Heidelberg. Their only son Hans emigrated to Ireland. After the war, Berthold Reiss testified on Franz Burda's behalf at the French military tribunal in Baden-Baden. Their families remained close friends for life. When the Mannheim works were destroyed in a 1943 bombing raid, Franz Burda relocated the company to Lahr-Dinglingen. In 1949, the company officially changed its name from Gebr. Bauer OHG to the Lahr-Dinglingen Works – with Franz Burda as proprietor.

"Franz Burda did not feel comfortable during the Third Reich. He despised and saw through its leader and his followers. But his cohorts were already in place and overwhelmingly powerful; you had to make things work somehow. Abandoning the business, walking out on his country – that was not his way, unless there was no alternative. I admire how he kept his company running, how he came to terms with the situation without capitulating; how he remained a free man."

Golo Mann, historian (1909 – 1994)

During World War II, Burda produced ordnance maps and gravure aerial maps in color. In April 1945, Offenburg became part of the French occupation zone, and Burda began printing schoolbooks and postage stamps for the authorities.

Starting in April 1948, Franz Burda published the magazine Das Ufer which he renamed Bunte in 1954. It was the first German magazine to illustrate entertaining articles with color photographs. In February 1949, the publication of Sürag (later Bild + Funk) resumed, and in September 1949 the first issue of the homeowner magazine Das Haus was released.

"Millions of people are indebted to him for the inspiration, enjoyment and practical help he provided."

Richard von Weizsäcker, President of the Federal Republic of Germany (1920 – 2015)

In 1955 the publisher first presented his Burda aerial advertising team. The Allies still controlled German airspace, so planes had to be chartered in Switzerland; initially, only Swiss pilots were permitted to fly them. Until 1974 the team was deployed to advertise in the skies above German and Austrian cities. Burda also organized major air shows featuring well-known pilots.

The year 1961 marked the groundbreaking ceremony for the Burda headquarters in Offenburg. With a steel structure weighing 160 metric tons and 25,000 cubic meters of interior space, the near 70-meter tower was inaugurated at the end of 1963 – and instantly became the town’s most famous landmark.

At the end of 1962, Burda acquired the women's magazine Freundin and the movie magazine Film Revue. The latter came complete with the Bambi Awards, which Burda has conferred annually since. From 1961 to 1970, Franz Burda staged the Bal paré gala event in Munich's Bayerischer Hof hotel, with guests attending from the worlds of politics, society, film, sports and show business. Famous faces like Sophia Loren, Rock Hudson, Kirk Douglas, Max Schmeling, Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones and Diana Ross have been among the stars to grace the occasion with their presence. In November 1966, Franz Burda installed his 26-year-old son Hubert Burda as the director of the new publishing house in Munich's Arnulfstrasse.

"He was a truly wonderful man. Absolutely top-drawer."

Henri Nannen, publisher (1913 – 1996)

In 1967 Franz Burda acquired the entire Waldbaur press distribution company. Based in Anif outside Salzburg, the leading press wholesaler in Austria already distributed the Burda publications Bunte, Freundin, Bild + Funk and Aenne Burda's Burda Moden.

In 1969, Burda and the American publishing house Meredith established the joint venture Meredith/Burda Inc. And in 1971, its first gravure printing plant was officially opened in Lynchburg, Virginia. The 34,200 square meter facility sported two Cerutti rotogravure presses with eight printing units each, and a proof printing machine with four printing units. Further plants were subsequently built – in Newton, North Carolina (1981) and Casa Grande, Arizona, four years later.

"He taught me how to tell stories with pictures."

Axel Ganz, publisher (born 1937)

In July 1970, Franz Burda launched the first edition of Freizeit und Rätsel Revue, a puzzle magazine that he had conceived himself. And on his 69th birthday in 1972, he witnessed a dream come true: his magazine Mein Schöner Garten made its debut and is Europe's premier gardening magazine today. The following year, he handed over the reins to his three sons, appointing them managing partners in the company. On March 3, 1976, he also stood down from Bunte and nominated his son Hubert as editor-in-chief. For 28 years Franz Burda had charted the course of his company's flagship product, reporting on many of the singular events of the age: he dispatched reporters to accompany Pope Paul VI on his visit to the Holy Land in 1963-64, published photographs of the first-ever heart transplant (performed by the South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard in 1967) and printed the first pictures of Apollo 11's moon landing in 1969. He had negotiated the deal personally with its rocket's designer Wernher von Braun. This special issue of Bunte, entitled "The Flight to the Moon," sold half a million copies.

"For me, he is still with us today. He has become a part of me, somebody who has not perished, not been forgotten."

Reinhold Messner, mountaineer (born 1944)

In December 1985, Dr. Franz Burda Senior gave his shareholdings to his three sons, making them equal partners in each of the companies. Surrounded by his family, he passed away in Offenburg on September 30, 1986.

Franz Burda’s contributions to society

Franz's social initiatives included the creation of a company healthcare fund in 1952 which financed cancer screenings years before the statutory health insurance providers. In 1953, in honor of his father, he built the Franz Burda Community, an extensive residential development for Burda employees in the Albersbösch district of Offenburg. He also supported his workforce in their efforts to build their own homes. In 1955, he instituted continued payment of wages for employees who were off sick – 15 years before similar government legislation. In February 1963, on his 60th birthday, he donated a large open space in Offenburg where his employees could play sports. In 1978 he gifted the daycare center in the district of Stegermatt to the town.

Pioneering conservation

Dr. Franz Burda was one of the first German entrepreneurs and publicists to promote conservation. As early as November 1970, 10 years before Germany's Green Party was formed, the publisher invited leading experts from Germany and abroad to Offenburg for the first interdisciplinary symposium on the environment. Bunte reported on it in an eight-part series, highlighting issues such as air and noise pollution, overfishing, marine debris, and the hazards of nuclear power. A second congress was held the following year. Its themes included post-industrial society from the perspective of futurology, urban planning for the new millennium, toxins in natural foods, and the ecological status of modern humankind. The articles were published in two brochures entitled So rotten wir uns selber aus ("How We Are Wiping Ourselves Out") and Gefahren der Zukunft ("The Risks Of Tomorrow").

Patron and collector of the arts

In addition to his family and company, Franz Burda's main passions were for art, sports and nature. He was a patron and collector of the arts, and for years provided the Great Munich Art Exhibition with large sums to purchase pictures. He donated numerous works of art to his home region of Baden, with his birthplace Philippsburg receiving The Cranes and Birds Taking Flight by Fritz Melis, and Giacomo Manzù’s Pax Aeterna. Manzù also created the monument to the author Grimmelshausen, which Dr. Franz Burda funded in the town of Renchen in 1977. A column was erected in Burda’s hometown of Offenburg to honor its patron saint St. Ursula, followed in 1984 by the two large bronze sculptures Bacchus and Dionysos by the artist Sandro Chia. Finally, Giacomo Manzù designed the publisher’s tomb in Offenburg’s Vineyard Cemetery.

Franz Burda II adored the mountains, relished hiking in his native Baden, went hunting and produced his own wine. He played competitive fistball and actively promoted the sport.

Franz Burda – Awards

Franz Burda received numerous prestigious accolades for his services to the general public. In 1950, the Technical University of Karlsruhe made him an honorary senator. That same year Italy's second highest honor was bestowed upon him, the Commendatore di Merito. In 1958 he was named a freeman of his hometown Philippsburg. In 1963, on his 60th birthday, the city of Offenburg appointed the "courageous creator and resolute leader of its largest company" as an honorary citizen. He received the Golden Grand Cross of Patriarch Athenagoras. In 1967, Dr. Hans Filbinger – the then Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg – presented him with the Commander's Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. On his 65th birthday, he was awarded the Order of Merit for Services Rendered to the Republic of Austria. Five years later he received the Grand Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. To mark his 75th birthday, Germany's Order of Merit with Sash and Star was conferred upon him, as was the Order of Merit of the State of Salzburg. The Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky appointed him an honorary professor at the University of Vienna. Numerous other honors followed, including the Bavarian Order of Merit.

Franz Burda – Timeline

Franz Burda – Literature

• Franz Burda: Kreativität. Tatkraft. Vespertisch. Emil Langenbacher, 2020, ISBN 978-3982147505
• Senator Dr. Franz Burda – Geschichten eines Lebens. Ute Dahmen, Petrarca, 2011, ISBN 978-3871150135
• Dr. Franz Burda. Mensch und Werk. Oswald Scharfenberg. Burda, 1968