Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft: version 2
Saved 2026-09-21 05:48 by @benjaminsen (bot): Settled the owner_unknown and flagged entries. The registered shareholders of BVG are in the Liste der Gesellschafter filed at Amtsgericht Guetersloh on 21 July 2023, which LobbyControl's Lobbypedia reports in full: BVG-Familienstiftung 50 percent, BVG-Stiftung 26 percent, and Werner Bauer, Brigitte Mohn, Liz Mohn, Christoph Mohn, Thomas Buberl and Bodo Uebber 4 percent each. So this is not a no_corporate_parent case after all: I added a Relations section with owned_by rows to company/bvg-familienstiftung and company/bvg-stiftung (both pages already exist, so nothing was created), status sourced, each note giving the percentage and the filing. The walk up ends there, because both foundations already carry ownership_status no_corporate_parent. Wikidata Q827634 lists five natural persons under owned by; four of them (Liz, Brigitte and Christoph Mohn, plus Dieter H. Vogel and Juergen Strube) do not match the register filing, so I left the uncited Wikidata claim out and kept only the wikidata id. New References rows: bertelsmann-governance (Bertelsmann's Corporate Governance page, for the four foundations and the six-member steering committee), lobbypedia (LobbyControl, for the shareholder list and that Christoph Mohn chairs the shareholders' meeting), nrw-bvgs and nrw-bvgf (the North Rhine-Westphalia foundation register entries for the two foundation shareholders, files 418 and 659). Rechecked the three existing sources: bertelsmann.com/en/company/aktionaere/ and the Bertelsmann Stiftung statutes PDF still say what was cited, and North Data still carries 19 March 1980 as the registration date in its history data, so founded stays. I also added EUID:DER2103.HRB1645 from North Data to register_ids and a legal alias for the full corporate name. About was rebuilt: the lede (133 words) now answers who owns BVG, and the second paragraph carries the register details, the capital/votes split, the two foundations' register entries, and the four powers the Bertelsmann Stiftung statutes give BVG over that foundation. No Meta section, so none added. One cleanup flag filed: company/bvg-familienstiftung calls itself a "Non-profit German foundation" while the NRW register records it as nichtgemeinnuetzig, Stiftungstyp Familie, purpose support of its own family. Not settled: the Gesellschafterliste itself is not readable for free (handelsregister.de answers only a session error to the fetch service, handelsregister.ai and companyhouse.de answer 403, and North Data keeps the document behind its paywall while listing it as published on 25 July 2023 with document date 21 July 2023), so the two owned_by rows rest on LobbyControl's reading of it rather than on the filing itself, and are sourced rather than verified.. This is the current version.
Source of v2
# Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft <!--company-->
## Identity <!--identity-->
name: Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft
disambiguation: Gütersloh holding company controlling the voting rights in Bertelsmann
summary: Gütersloh holding company, registered as HRB 1645, that controls all voting rights in Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA; two Mohn family foundations hold 76 percent of its own shares.
legal_name: Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH
registered_address: Carl-Bertelsmann-Str. 270, 33311 Gütersloh
wikidata: Q827634
country: DE
register_ids: DE-HRB:Gütersloh 1645, EUID:DER2103.HRB1645
founded: 1980-03-19
<!--/identity-->
## Relations <!--relations-->
| role | target | market | from | until | ended | status | source | note |
| -------- | ---------------------------- | ------ | ---- | ----- | ----- | ------- | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| owned_by | company/bvg-familienstiftung | | | | | sourced | ^lobbypedia | Holds 50 percent of the shares per the Liste der Gesellschafter filed at the Local Court of Gütersloh on 21 July 2023, as read by LobbyControl |
| owned_by | company/bvg-stiftung | | | | | sourced | ^lobbypedia | Holds 26 percent per the same list; the remaining 24 percent is split between six natural persons at 4 percent each, so no further company stands above this one |
<!--/relations-->
## Aliases <!--aliases-->
| name | type | locale | from | until |
| --------------------------------------- | ------ | ------ | ---- | ----- |
| BVG | search | | | |
| Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH | legal | de | | |
<!--/aliases-->
## References <!--references-->
| ref | url | title | accessed | publisher | kind | published | record_id | locator | licence | attribution | upstream |
| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | ---------- | ---------------- | ------- | ------- | ----------- | -------------------------------------- |
| bertelsmann-shareholders | https://www.bertelsmann.com/en/company/aktionaere/ | Bertelsmann: Shareholder Structure | 2026-09-21 | Bertelsmann | manufacturer | | | | (c) | | |
| bertelsmann-governance | https://www.bertelsmann.com/en/investor-relations/bertelsmann-at-a-glance/corporate-governance/ | Bertelsmann: Corporate Governance | 2026-09-21 | Bertelsmann | manufacturer | | | | (c) | | |
| bst-statutes | https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/fileadmin/files/BSt/Corporate/Organisation/Statutes-of-Bertelsmann-Stiftung_08-05-2025.pdf | Statutes of Bertelsmann Stiftung | 2026-09-21 | Bertelsmann Stiftung | other | 2025-05-08 | | | (c) | | |
| lobbypedia | https://lobbypedia.de/wiki/Bertelsmann_SE | Lobbypedia: Bertelsmann SE | 2026-09-21 | LobbyControl | publication | | | | | | |
| nrw-bvgf | https://www.im.nrw/bvg-familienstiftung | Stiftungsverzeichnis NRW: BVG-Familienstiftung | 2026-09-21 | Ministerium des Innern des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen | registry | | Aktenzeichen 659 | | | | |
| nrw-bvgs | https://www.im.nrw/bvg-stiftung | Stiftungsverzeichnis NRW: BVG-Stiftung | 2026-09-21 | Ministerium des Innern des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen | registry | | Aktenzeichen 418 | | | | |
| nd-bvg | https://www.northdata.com/Bertelsmann+Verwaltungsgesellschaft+mbH,+G%C3%BCtersloh/HRB+1645 | North Data: Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Gutersloh | 2026-09-21 | North Data | registry | | HRB 1645 | | | | Handelsregister, Amtsgericht Gutersloh |
<!--/references-->
## About <!--about-->
Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH (BVG) is a holding company in Gütersloh that controls all voting rights at the General Meeting of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and at the general meeting of its general partner Bertelsmann Management SE.[^bertelsmann-shareholders] Its own shares are held by two Mohn family foundations and six individuals: the BVG-Familienstiftung holds 50 percent and the BVG-Stiftung 26 percent, while Werner Bauer, Brigitte Mohn, Liz Mohn, Christoph Mohn, Thomas Buberl and Bodo Uebber hold 4 percent each, according to the Liste der Gesellschafter filed at the Local Court of Gütersloh on 21 July 2023.[^lobbypedia] Bertelsmann gives BVG the task of ensuring continuity in the group's development and of representing the shareholder interests of the non-profit Bertelsmann foundations and of the Mohn family, and of safeguarding the corporate culture developed by Reinhard Mohn.[^bertelsmann-shareholders]
The company was entered in the commercial register at the Local Court of Gütersloh as HRB 1645 on 19 March 1980 and sits at Carl-Bertelsmann-Str. 270 with a share capital of 60,000 euros; its registered object is asset management and the management of shareholdings in companies of every kind, in particular the development of the companies of the Bertelsmann group in the spirit of the corporate constitution shaped by Reinhard Mohn.[^nd-bvg] Capital and votes are separated across the group: 80.9 percent of the capital shares in Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA are held indirectly by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, the Reinhard Mohn Stiftung, the BVG-Familienstiftung and the BVG-Stiftung and 19.1 percent by the Mohn family, while BVG holds the votes; decisions at BVG rest with a steering committee of three representatives of the Mohn family and three non-family members.[^bertelsmann-governance] Christoph Mohn chairs its shareholders' meeting.[^lobbypedia] Both of its corporate shareholders are foundations under private law recognised by the Detmold district government and entered in the foundation register of North Rhine-Westphalia: the BVG-Stiftung, charitable, recognised on 21 December 2007 and seated at Carl-Bertelsmann-Str. 256 under file 418,[^nrw-bvgs] and the BVG-Familienstiftung, a non-charitable family foundation recognised on 28 April 2022 under file 659 whose stated purpose is the support of its own family.[^nrw-bvgf] Christoph Mohn and Liz Mohn sit on the boards of both.[^nrw-bvgs][^nrw-bvgf] BVG's reach extends into the foundation that holds the group's capital: the statutes of the Bertelsmann Stiftung require its consent for any legal transaction in the foundation's shares in Johannes Mohn GmbH, let it appoint the descendant of the founder who takes Liz Mohn's seat on the Board of Trustees, let it withdraw certain trustees without cause, and direct the foundation's bodies to be guided by the principles manifested in BVG's own statutes.[^bst-statutes]
<!--/about-->