40 years Friedrichs & Partner - Part I
How it all started ...
Our founder, Dr. Hans Friedrichs, was a pioneer in human resources management in Germany and played a key role for decades in shaping modern human resources management.
Hans Friedrichs belonged to the inner circle of Dr. Walter Scheel (in the late 70ies popular as Bundespräsident of Germany) who in 1952 founded the association "Der Neue Betrieb - Studienkreis für sozialwirtschaftliche Betriebsformen".
In 1975, this association was renamed "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Personalführung" (DGFP). Today, the DGFP still plays an important role in German HR management, especially as an HR competence and career network.
At DGFP, Hans Friedrichs played an active role, among other things, in setting up the nationwide network of HR experts, who are linked with each other all over Germany and regularly exchange ideas on HR topics.
Devoting heart and soul to leadership and HR management, Hans Friedrichs worked as managing director for DGFP until 1982.
In 1982, Hans Friedrichs left DGFP and set out for new professional shores, remaining true to his passion for HR.
Thanks to his time at DGFP, he had an extensive network in the German HR scene. What could be more logical than to specialize in the search and selection of HR professionals?
Said and done - and that's how it all started.
In 1983, Hans Friedrichs founded Dr. Friedrichs Unternehmensberatung and started out in Executive Search at the age of 58.
Initially still a one man show working out of his study, he quickly became known as proven expert in filling HR positions - from CHRO to HR manager.
Based on his successes his consulting expertise grew beyond human resources. Soon, Dr. Friedrichs Unternehmensberatung was also filling management positions in the areas of technology, sales, and many more.
The consulting team also grew in size in the following years, spread across several locations in Germany. A new main office was built at the headquarters in Ratingen, from where the nationwide activities were coordinated.
After prosperous 7 years, a very special new chapter began for Dr. Friedrichs Unternehmensberatung - starting with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Hans Friedrichs war born in Goldberg (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), which became part of the German Democratic Republic GDR after World War II. Therefore the reunification of both, Western Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) and Eastern Germany (German Democratic Republic) was his long-cherished dream.
So it was a genuine matter of the heart for him to start an office in Berlin after the reunification.
With the Berlin office of Dr. Friedrichs Unternehmensberatung he made his entrepreneurial and advisory contribution to the German reunification and the reconstruction of Eastern Germany (more on this later in a separate article).
That way Hans Friedrichs also became a pioneer in Eastern Germany being one of the first Executive Search firms in the East.
Over the following years he particularly enjoyed working in and for Eastern Germany and his passion was always spread among his entire consulting team. Very special times back then.
However, he did not have much time to enjoy his entrepreneurial success.
Shortly after his 10th company anniversary, Hans Friedrichs passed away totally unexpected at the beginning of 1994.
After his sudden death, nothing was the same anymore. Many things in and around Dr. Friedrichs Unternehmensberatung had to be rethought and also had to be started anew.
During this transformation process, Dr. Friedrichs Unternehmensberatung became today's Friedrichs & Partner Unternehmensberatung in 1996, now based in Düsseldorf.
With this year's 40th anniversary of Dr. Friedrichs Unternehmensberatung / Friedrichs & Partner Unternehmensberatung, more than 30 years have passed since the death of our founder.
But his essential values and ethics live on unchanged to this very day.
We live with committment
And much more.
On the occasion of our 40th anniversary, we proudly and gratefully look back on our entrepreneurial beginnings and take our history with its essential values into our future!
Yours
Mathias Friedrichs
m.friedrichs@friedrichs-partner.com
Phone: +49 (0) 211 – 57 73 00
P.S.: For reasons of better readability of the contributions, the "male" formulation is chosen in each case.
However, all 3 genders are of course always addressed in the sense of equal treatment.
