The founder of the drugstore chain dm, Götz Werner, is dead. He died on Tuesday at the age of 78, as the company announced in Karlsruhe.
His family said his strength had steadily declined over the past few months.
The CEO, Christoph Werner, said his father died peacefully.
Götz Werner was born on February 5, 1944 in Heidelberg.
The trained druggist, German youth rowing champion and pioneer for an unconditional basic income has created a drugstore chain with dm, which is now active in 14 European countries.
More than 66,000 people work for dm.
According to the company, sales amounted to 12.3 billion euros.
Since the early 1990s, and even more so after he left operational responsibility for the company in 2008, Werner has devoted his time to the unconditional basic income project.
He promoted the idea in lectures and contributions to discussions.
Werner saw this as an important social contribution to give people the freedom to take their own initiative and participate in the life of free civil society, even in times of increasing globalization, digitization and automation.
"He was always aware that he would not live to see the completion of this idea," says the statement about his death.
Nevertheless, he put a lot of energy into it because he recognized it as right and sensible for himself.
Werner also gained a foothold in the academic world.
In May 2005, the University of Karlsruhe commissioned him to head the Institute for Entrepreneurship and awarded him the title of professor.