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Asklepios founder Große Broermann (at an appearance in 2018)

Photo: Eventpress / IMAGO

The founder and partner of the Asklepios Clinics, Bernard Große Broermann, is dead. He died on Sunday at the age of 80, the company announced.

Große Broermann founded the Asklepios Group in 1985 and made it Germany's largest family-owned hospital operator.

According to the company, Asklepios now looks after more than 3.5 million patients per year with around 68,000 employees in around 170 medical facilities.

»We mourn with the family of Dr.

Bernard Große Broermann, to whom we express our deepest sympathy and sincere condolences on behalf of the company and all employees," said the CEO of the Asklepios Group, Joachim Gemmel.

Co-CEO Marco Walker emphasized that Broermann's great influence on the healthcare system in Germany "cannot be overestimated."

The acquisition of the majority stake in the then state hospital operation in Hamburg in 2005, today's Asklepios Kliniken Hamburg, was of crucial importance for the development of the group.

Hamburg's mayor Ole von Beust (CDU) sold the state company against the will of the population, as almost 77 percent voted against selling the state company in a referendum that was not legally binding at the time.

Today, the Asklepios Kliniken Hamburg includes the hospitals Altona, Barmbek, Harburg, St. Georg, Wandsbek, Rissen and Nord with the locations in Heidberg, Ochsenzoll and Wandsbek.

In 2011, the group took over the majority in the listed clinic operator MediClin and in 2020 the majority in the also listed Rhön Klinikum AG.

Große Broermann, born on November 20, 1943 in Damme, Lower Saxony, initially studied medicine and chemistry before devoting himself to business administration and law.

According to the company, Broermann has ensured that the Asklepios Group remains permanently in family ownership.

All investments have been pooled in the Broermann Holding, in which a committee made up of family members and confidants will protect the shareholder interests in the future.

In the list of the richest Germans, manager magazin recently ranked Broermann in 78th place with assets of around three billion euros.

mic/dpa