To mark the occasion, Daniel Häni talks to Enno Schmidt, artist and long-time companion of Götz Werner, in the UM podcast
On Tuesday, February 8, Götz Werner died at the age of 78 - a guest of honor at Unternehmen Mitte and a titan in his life’s work and influence. As the founder of the DM drugstores in Germany with countless branches and employees, he focused on people and became famous for his leadership culture. Götz Werner became really popular with his vision of an unconditional basic income. “Billionaire with a basic income” was the headline in the Frankfurter Allgemeine in 2008.
In this interview, his companion Enno Schmidt provides deep insights into an extraordinary personality.
Excerpt
Dear Enno, thank you for taking the time to do this podcast on such short notice. Our mutual friend, colleague and companion Götz Werner passed away on Tuesday morning, February 8. Now we want to talk with each other about the work and life of this outstanding entrepreneurial personality, and about his legacy.
First of all for our listeners: we have known each other since 2005. We founded the Basic Income Initiative in Switzerland together. You are one of my most important partners and friends. It was only thanks to you that it was possible to get the popular initiative for a basic income in Switzerland off the ground.
We organized numerous events, made the first film about Basic Income, travelled around and, finally, launched the Popular Initiative together with many other great people, collected the signatures and designed the campaign for the 2016 vote.
Götz Werner played an important role on this journey. I got to know him personally through you and Peter Dellbrügger. At the time, you were a lecturer at Götz Werner’s Institute for Entrepreneurship at the University of Karlsruhe. You talked to him a lot, interviewed him countless times, accompanied him to events and visited him again and again in Stuttgart, as well as in his house on Lake Constance. You made countless film recordings with Götz Werner and also wrote a biographical portrait - much of the material is still unpublished.
You are currently working as managing director of FRIBIS, the Freiburg Institute for Basic Income, which was set up as part of the Götz Werner Professorship.
You also visited Götz Werner several times during his recent illness and spoke to him. For me, you are the “Götz Werner Understander”, so to speak.
That’s why I’m really looking forward to delving into the Götz Werner phenomenon with you and our listeners.
He was once called “the good giant” in a portrait in the TaZ. He sometimes said of himself that he was a “toothpaste salesman”.
I would say: a Titan has died.