Oh, hello, Dirk Roßmann (75 years old) calls out in a friendly manner.

First of all, the speaker is greeted.

Then he gives everyone a fist in greeting.

It's his employee's birthday, there are hearty congratulations, gifts, a bottle of champagne.

The joy is great.

Raoul Roßmann (36 years old) sits behind the desk, which is actually not his place.

Several bestseller lists of his father's novels hang on the wall.

So this is Dirk Roßmann's realm.

He made the company that Raoul runs today.

After 49 years, Roßmann senior withdrew from management.

Nevertheless, he will look back in the interview – to 50 years of “Rossmann”.

Please have a seat, he says and sits down on the sofa opposite.

Raoul rolls his desk chair next to his father.

It starts:

Stefanie Diemand

Editor in Business.

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Mr Roßmann, you have made the drugstore chain great over the past 50 years.

What would you say was your greatest entrepreneurial success in these five decades?

Dirk R.: In retrospect, I see the greatest success as having mastered the critical period in the 1990s together with my family and our employees.

After a dramatically rapid expansion and at the same time high bank debts, we were on the verge of collapse at the time.

Everything was at stake - the continued existence of the company and the preservation of many jobs.

Raoul R.: The pressure on my father was enormous, and he also had a heart attack.

I was a child then, but of course I felt the tension that prevailed at home.

I was only able to really classify it many years later, when I was working in the company myself.

I asked myself the question: How would my life have been if we hadn't survived the crisis in the 1990s?

Did you find an answer to this?

Raoul R.: No, I really don't know, and fortunately I don't have to.

I might have taken a different path, but today I know one thing for sure: I belong here like a fish belongs in water.

I do what I do well.

Dirk R.: I won't contradict you there!

As the son of an entrepreneur, you, Raoul Roßmann, have been active in the company for a long time.

Last year you finally became the head of Rossmann.

Same question: What was your biggest success?

Raoul R.: Luckily I haven't had to go through an economic crisis during my time at the company.

But my example, too, grows out of a challenge.

When I took over a department at the beginning of my career in 2010, the main thing was to win back the trust of the employees.

This was massively disrupted by corruption processes that we had uncovered in this area shortly before.

Mr Roßmann, your father died when you were only twelve years old.

Did your mother give you any advice that shaped you as an entrepreneur?

Dirk R.: My mother always gave me the feeling that she loved me very much.

That was very important for me and my development – ​​as it is for every child.

My mother said to me: boy, heart education is the most important education.

A simple saying with so much truth in it.

Whoever has no education of heart is a poor person.

How did your parents shape you, Raoul Roßmann?

Raoul R.: In contrast to my father, I am lucky that both parents are there and have supported me in many areas of life and continue to do so.

They listen to me and take me seriously.