Mail order company 'Otto Versand'
On 17 August 1949, Otto founded the mail order company 'Otto Versand' (Otto GmbH & Co KG) in Hamburg.[5] The first catalog had 14 pages, was hand-bound and included only shoes. In the following years the Otto Group expanded more and more.[4] In 1981, the management of the fast-growing company was turned over to his eldest son, Michael Otto.
In 1952, Otto married Jutta Becker and 1957 his second son Frank was born, the only child from his second marriage. In the 1960s, he started the Sagitta Group, today's Park Property,[6] one of the largest real estate companies in Canada.
Through his North American experiences, Werner Otto got the idea to found another enterprise, the ECE Projekt Management GmbH & Co. KG,[7] which he did in 1969. The company builds and manages shopping malls; finance and staff. ECE is one of the leading developers, implementers, owners and operators of large commercial real estate in Europe.[5]
His third wife Maren Stücken gave birth to Otto's youngest children Katharina and Alexander in the 1960s. Katherina is a filmmaker in New York. Alexander received from his father the real estate company ECE entrusted.
In his range of social causes, he founded in 1969 the Werner Otto Foundation, which supports medical research.[8]
In 1973, when he was over 60, Otto developed the Paramount Group in New York, to invest in US real estate.[9]
At Harvard University he donated a new museum building, the Werner Otto Hall, for the art of German Expressionism, out of the Busch-Reisinger Museum. The building has now been demolished as part of a redevelopment project led by Renzo Piano.
In 2011, he died at the age of 102 in Berlin.[10] His widow, Inga Maren Otto, is a German art collector and philanthropist.[11]
