Hilmar Kopper

Hilmar Kopper (born 13 March 1935) is a German banker and former Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Bank (1989-1997).[1][2]

Personal life

Kopper was born in Osłonino (Poland) to a Mennonite family, his family was expelled after World War II.[3] Since 2003, he is married to Brigitte Seebacher-Brandt, the third wife of Willy Brandt. One of his three children of his first marriage is the historian Christopher Kopper.

Career

Kopper was employed as a trainee in Deutsche Bank in 1954 and spent his whole career there. He became a board member in 1977, and after the terrorist murder of Alfred Herrhausen in 1989, he became chairman. He chaired the supervisory board of DaimlerChrysler from 1998 to 2007. He is a former member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group.[4] He is also a jury member of the Franz Werfel Human Rights Award.

Controversy

Kopper received widespread public and media attention in 1994, when he used the word "peanuts" to describe a sum of DM 50 million. A jury of linguistic scholars subsequently voted the term as German Un-Word of Year, thus criticizing the widely differing definitions of a non-notable amount of money by bank managers and average people.[5]

Publications
  • Die Bank lebt nicht vom Geld allein. Beiträge zu Kultur und Gesellschaft 1994–1997. herausgegeben von Brigitte Seebacher-Brandt, Piper Verlag, München 1997, 144 S., ISBN 3-492-22584-5.

References
  1. "Mr. Peanuts" hängt an der Macht vom 10. März 2005 auf Spiegel Online
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-04-01. Retrieved 2010-01-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. Biography
  4. "Former Steering Committee Members". bilderbergmeetings.org. Bilderberg Group. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  5. Spiegel Online: Ein Jahr, ein (Un-)Wort! (in German).
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