سيرة
His parents ran a drugstore. After school, Rossmann trained as a druggist. He then worked in his parents' drugstore until he decided to become self-employed. On March 17, 1972, Rossmann founded his first "drugstore store" in Hanover. It was the first drugstore discounter in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1976, Rossmann moved his company's headquarters to Burgwedel, from where he now managed 20 stores. At its 10th anniversary in 1982, Rossmann was the German market leader with 100 branches. In the wake of political liberalization in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc and German reunification, Rossmann began its expansion in Eastern Germany and Eastern Europe in 1989/90, where the first branches were opened in Poland and Hungary in 1993.
After 20 years of company activity, in 1992 Rossmann was able to boast 158 drugstores in the old federal states and 120 stores in the new federal states. In 1999, Rossmann was the first company in its industry to start selling drugstores online. In 2002, Rossmann, in its 30th year of existence, operated 670 drugstores in Germany and 233 stores in Eastern Europe with a total turnover of 1.24 billion euros. From 2003 onwards, Rossmann began cooperating with the drugstore company Kaisers Drugstore kd, from which he had already taken over several branches. On May 1, 2005, Rossmann took over Kaisers Drugstore GmbH completely from the Tengelmann Group, so that all former kd branches were gradually converted into Rossmann stores. In addition to his entrepreneurial activities, Rossmann is also involved in social policy.
With his German Foundation for World Population, he has been supporting development programs for birth control and the fight against AIDS in countries in the so-called Third World since 1991. Rossmann was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 1998. In 2005, Rossmann ranked third among German drugstore discounters with 1,125 branches, led by Schlecker and DM. The Rossmann chain was represented in Eastern European countries with 350 stores. The company had a total of 13,000 employees.
