Michael Gotthelf

Background

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

Career

He started his professional career as an editor for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Frankfurt and thereafter worked as a bank manager. In the early nineties he managed the Metallbank, a subsidiary of the Metallgesellschaft. Foreign 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 Associated Press 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 in 2004.

Gotthelf also occasionally works as a feature writer and guest author for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In 1992 Gotthelf became the Honorary consul for the Czechoslovakian 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. Foreign some years now he has been operating as an advisor for several international institutions.

He advises the President of Madagascar on a pro bono basis.

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 and the literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki have been awarded this prize among others He serves as the Chairman of the advisory Board of this foundation.

In remembrance of the German foreign policymaker Walther Rathenau the institute supports political education and annually awards the Walther-Rathenau-Preis standing for human rights and tolerance.

Achievements

• Foreign his commitment to the Ludwig-Börne-Preis the municipal authorities of the city of Frankfurt awarded Gotthelf the Goetheplakette in 2000. In 2007, he was awarded the Verdienstkreuz of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, also for his long-standing activity for the Ludwig-Börne-Stiftung.