In family businesses, the generation change often leads to a break.
Bahlsen was split in 1999.
The Oetkers can also tell a song about how future generations split up in the dispute over leadership.
The drugstore founder Dirk Roßmann, on the other hand, sets an encouraging counterpoint: He has relied on a smooth transition and is now handing over responsibility to his son Raoul Roßmann at the age of 75 without a public dispute.
The family did a lot right, also because the shares in the family-owned investment company were sorted out early on.
However, it would be too easy to explain the procedure in general as a successful model.
Raoul's older half-brother, Daniel Roßmann, never showed any ambitions for the top position.
In addition, Raoul is only the second generation of the Roßmanns to take over, while older family businesses have to deal with much larger, more branched relatives.
As the saying goes: the first generation builds, the second administers, the third destroys.
The greatest challenges are still ahead of the drugstore chain in Burgwedel.