Axel Springer
Axel Cäsar Springer (May 2, 1912 – September 22, 1985) was a German journalist and the founder and owner of the Axel Springer SE publishing company.
Early life
Springer was born in Altona near Hamburg, where his father worked as publisher. As a young man, from July 1941, Springer acted as projectionist at the Waterloo cinema, near the Dammtor railway station, which presented American films for the well-to-do youth of Hamburg until Germany's declaration of war against the United States in December 1941.
Journalist career
Springer's career started as an apprentice compositor and publisher at the publishers Hammerich & Lesser-Verlag, his father's company. After that, he received practical training in the news agency "Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau" and worked as a local reporter for the newspaper Bergedorfer Zeitung.
Starting in 1934, he worked as a journalist with Altonaer Nachrichten until the compulsory closure of the newspaper in 1941. From 1941 to 1945, he published literary works in Hammerich & Lesser Verlag.
Axel Springer SE
Axel Springer SE is one of the largest digital publishing houses in Europe, with numerous multimedia news brands, such as BILD, WELT, and FAKT and nearly 14,000 employees. It generated total revenues of about €3 billion and an EBITDA of €507 million in the financial year 2014. The digital media activities contribute more than 50% to its revenues and more than 70% to its EBITDA. Axel Springer’s business is divided into three segments: paid models, marketing models, and classified ad models.
Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, the company is active in more than 40 countries with subsidiaries, joint ventures, and licenses.
It was started in 1946/1947 by journalist Axel Springer. Its current CEO is Mathias Döpfner. The Axel Springer company is the largest publishing house in Europe and controls the largest share of the German market for daily newspapers; 23.6%, largely because its flagship tabloid Bild is the highest-circulation newspaper in Europe with a daily readership in excess of 12 million.
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