Hildesheim (Niedersachsen) – “Where is this multi-millionaire now?” Word of the visit from Carsten Maschmeyer (63) quickly got around among the students at the Robert Bosch Comprehensive School in Hildesheim.
The financial investor and “Lion’s Den” star graduated from here 44 years ago. Now he wanted to know what became of his old school.
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In the foyer, the entrepreneur buys a “colorful bag” for one euro
First stop: Maschmeyer’s old classroom, room B 2.5. A sixth grader is taking English lessons there.
Maschmeyer goes to a chair by the window: “Here was my place, here the teacher sent me out the door because I couldn’t stop laughing.”
Second stop: the candy stand in the foyer. The prominent guest buys a “colorful bag” for one euro. “I used to spend the lunch money that my mother gave me on records.”
The prominent guest shows director René Mounajed: “There was my classroom”
Third station: the auditorium. “That was our canteen,” Maschmeyer recalls. Now he is reading from his book “The Start-up Gang” in front of 200 schoolchildren. It’s about four students who can’t stand each other at first. But it is precisely because of their different characters that they successfully set up a start-up. “I want that too,” notes Eirik (15). He already has an idea, something with hydrogen technology.
Maschmeyer reads from his new start-up children’s book in the auditorium
Maschmeyer: “If just one of you here in the hall later comes to me in the ‘Lion’s Den’ with your newly founded company, then writing the book has already been worthwhile.”
So little Carsten suffered from his childhood
“When I made up my mind that I would never be poor again”
As a young man, Carsten Maschmeyer was an enthusiastic long-distance runner
He is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Germany, star of the start-up show “Lion’s Cave”. But Carsten Maschmeyer also started out small. And very small.
In BILD he reports on the most formative events of his childhood.
► His mother
“She raised me alone. We lived in a mother and child home for the first two years, then we moved to a one-bedroom apartment with a shared bathroom in a converted barracks.”
► his stepfather
“The punishments weren’t the biggest problem. Worse still was the constant climate of fear. I never wanted that again. It was then that I realized how important a good working atmosphere is.”
► His first job
“We were looking for a poster sticker. I applied immediately and earned my first money at the age of 15. I got 40 pfennigs for a small poster, 50 for a larger one.”
Little Carsten when he started school in 1965
► His passion
“I wanted to be a footballer, but I didn’t have a good feel for the ball and my motor skills weren’t good enough. So I focused on long-distance running. In sport you learn what it means to develop a fighting spirit.”
► His first “deal”
“I had no money for a carnival costume. My mother just put a paper hat on me and sent me to the party with it. There are moments and memories that stick. This was such a moment. I’ve never felt so ashamed. With charm I got a plastic revolver from a “cowgirl”. I wanted to borrow the western hat from a classmate. He refused. So I bought the hat from him. I had no money and paid off my debts with food stamps. At night in bed I decided that I never wanted to be poor again.”