The Funke family

Logo of The Funke family

Jakob Funke, one of the two founders of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ), established the Funke family. Over the past few decades, his publishing house has developed into the FUNKE Mediengruppe. It is wholly owned by Jakob Funke Medien Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG and Funke Management GmbH. Its owners are the heirs of Jakob Funke, via a complex shareholder structure: his daughter Petra Grotkamp and her children Julia Becker, Nora Marx and Niklas Jakob Wilcke. Today, FUNKE is one of the largest and most successful media companies in Germany. The company focuses on three business areas: regional media, magazines and FUNKE Digital. Around 1,700 journalists and around 3,800 media professionals work for the group. FUNKE has stakes in numerous publishing houses, agencies and companies throughout Germany, publishes well-known newspapers and magazines and operates numerous radio stations.

Media Companies / Groups

Media Outlets

Facts

affiliated_business_interestsFinancial services
  • GRAMA Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH (Petra Grotkamp, Managing Director)
Real estate
  • Grundstücksgesellschaft Brucker Holt 2 GmbH & Co. KG (Niklas Jakob Wilcke, Partner)
Legal and tax advice, auditing
  • Krell Pleines Wilcke Rechtsanwälte in Partnerschaft mbB (Niklas Jakob Wilcke, Managing Director, Partner)
Mining & metal processing
  • MHC2100 Services GmbH (Niklas Jakob Wilcke, Partner)
Affiliated Interests Family & Friends
  • Petra Grotkamp
    was born in 1943 and is the youngest of four daughters of Jakob Funke, the conservative co-founder of WAZ. In 1975, she and her sisters Ute de Graffenried, Gisela Holthoff and Renate Schubries inherited half of the company that her father had founded together with Erich Brost. In 1986, she married Günther Grotkamp, ​​her father's long-time close confidant and managing director of the WAZ media group. Due to his strategic masterpieces, he is considered the architect of the "WAZ model" and is responsible for numerous company acquisitions and the expansion of WAZ into a nationally renowned media group. In 2012, Petra Grotkamp took over the majority of the company from Erich Brost's heirs. As part of the transaction, the group was renamed FUNKE Media Group.
  • Julia Becker
    has been Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of FUNKE since January 1, 2018. Julia Becker was born in Essen in 1972, she grew up with two siblings. After school, she studied German, English and theatre studies in Munich and Münster, and later German, English and political sciences. The mother of three, she is married to Otto Becker, a former show jumper, team Olympic champion and current coach of the German show jumpers. Since her mother Petra Grotkamp took over the majority share in the FUNKE media group in 2012, Julia Becker has been a member of the supervisory board and the shareholders' committee of the Essen-based family business. At the beginning of 2018, she took over the chairmanship of the supervisory board from her mother.
  • Nora Marx
    was born in Essen in 1976 and is married. After graduating from high school, she gained her first experience in advertising and marketing agencies in the areas of text, consulting and public relations. She then studied German and political sciences at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf from 1997. Parallel to her studies, she worked as a freelancer for FUNKE's Neue Ruhr / Neue Rhein Zeitung (NRZ) and the magazine SMAG. In 2002, she completed her studies with a Magister Artium. From 2003, Nora Marx worked as a freelance copywriter for various advertising and marketing agencies. She was also self-employed with the artist agency pro:cdur. The agency worked primarily in the areas of cabaret and music.
  • Niklas Jakob Wilcke
    was born in Essen in 1967 and is married. He studied law at the Ruhr University in Bochum and was admitted to the bar after completing his first and second state examinations at the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court in 1995 and 1997. Immediately after his admission, he went to Great Britain for a year and worked as a lawyer in London. Since 1998, Niklas Wilcke has been a lawyer in Essen and managing partner of the law firm KPW Rechtsanwälte. In addition to his judicial and advisory work, Niklas Jakob Wilcke is involved as a speaker at training courses and lectures in companies.
Passive Transparency
upon request, ownership data is easily available from the company/channel
Sources