Worth listening! We portray the most exciting family businesses of our time. In our interview podcast we talk to entrepreneurs or CEOs of family businesses.
The interview podcast for medium-sized businesses
How can the origin and future of Mittelstand companies be courageously united? What are the challenges facing family businesses and what experiences do they gather in digital transformation? These questions are answered by “Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum“, the interview podcast for German Mittelstand*. Once a month, Tobias Rappers, Managing Director of Maschinenraum, and Katja Michel, Editor at the business magazine Capital, talk to thought leaders and makers from the heart of the German economy and focus on the personalities and their motivation.
At the end of each episode, our guests recommend a book that has inspired them, which is then presented to the next guest on "Alles Neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum". The reading recommendations can be found on the digital bookshelf of the Maschinenraum book club.
*The podcast is in German.
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Episode 50
Dr. Thomas Stoffmehl
Vorwerk
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Episode 49
New Year's special 2025
Horx Future
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Episode 48
Matthias Lapp
Lapp Group
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Episode 47
Maximilian Offermann
BWF Group
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Episode 46
Per Ledermann
edding
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Episode 45
Bonita and Wolfgang Grupp Jun.
Trigema
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Episode 44
Viktoria Schütz
DEGUMA-SCHÜTZ
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Episode 43
Friedemann Wecker
Bauck
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Episode 42
Sebastiaan Krol
Interzero
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Episode 41
Jochen Schweizer
Jochen Schweizer Group
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Episode 40
Dr. Felix Kroschke
Kroschke Group
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Episode 39
Andreas Reuter
Schäfer Shop
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Episode 38
Christiane Underberg
Semper idem Underberg
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Episode 37
New Year's special
EOS, Phoenix Contact und WAREMA
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Episode 36
Andreas and Daniel Sennheiser
Sennheiser
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Episode 35
Alexander Gerfer
Würth Elektronik
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Episode 34
Pia und Günter Albers
ELA Container
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Episode 33
Christoph Werner
Chairman of the dm-Management Board
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Episode 32
Ralf Putsch
Managing Partner at KNIPEX
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Episode 31
Angelique Renkhoff-Mücke
Chairwoman of WAREMA
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Episode 30
Wolf-Dieter Adlhoch
CEO of the Dussmann Group
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Episode 29
Isabel Bonacker
Deputy Chairwoman of the Board
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Episode 28
Niklas Koellner
Managing Director at Wenko-Wenselaar
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Episode 27
Emese Weissenbacher und Thomas Fischer
MANN+HUMMEL
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Episode 26
Dr. Alexandra Kohlmann
CEO at ROWE MINERALÖLWERK
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Episode 25
Prof. Dr. Nadine Kammerlander & Jörg Rocholl, PhD
WHU & ESMT
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Episode 24
Mike Bucher
CEO & Chairman of the Board of Schöck AG
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Episode 23
Anna & René Ruhland
Managing Directors at Myposter
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Episode 22
Dr. Philipp Dehn
Managing Partner & CEO at DEHN
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Episode 21
Dr. Heiner Lang
Managing Director at WAGO
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Episode 20
Frank Seidensticker
Managing Partner at Seidensticker
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Episode 19
Dina Reit
Co-Managing Director at machine builder SK LASER
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Episode 18
Richard Grohe
Family Entrepreneur & Managing Director of Syngroh Capital
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Episode 17
Bernard Krone
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of KRONE Group
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Episode 16
Stephan Tahy
CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of Duravit AG
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Episode 15
Paul Niederstein
Managing Partner of The Coatinc Company
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Episode 14
Clara & Dr. Eberhard Sasse
Sasse Group
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Episode 13
Kerstin Hochmüller
CEO at Marantec Company Group
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Episode 12
Max Viessmann
Co-CEO at Viessmann Group
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episode 11
Cornelia & Philipp Horsch
CEOs at Horsch
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episode 10
Jan-Hendrik Goldbeck
CEO at GOLDBECK
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Episode 9
Dr. Gunther Wobser
Managing Director at Lauda
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Episode 8
Andreas Krengel
Board member at WEPA
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Episode 7
Werner Conrad
Chairman of the Board of Directors at Conrad Electronic
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Episode 6
Marie Langer
CEO at EOS
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Episode 5
Jens Fiege
CEO at Fiege Logistik
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Episode 4
Konstantin Sixt
Chief Sales Officer at SIXT SE
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Episode 3
Anna Maria Braun
Chairwoman of the Board at B. Braun Melsungen
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Episode 2
Simon Vestner
CEO at Digital Spine
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Episode 1
Frank Stührenberg
CEO at Phoenix Contact
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As founding Managing Director of Maschinenraum GmbH, Tobias Rappers has built an ecosystem of more than 70 German-speaking family businesses since 2019 to support them in their digital and sustainable transformation. He has extensive knowledge in the strategic and practical design of transformation processes and values the DNA of the German Mittelstand, which is characterized by courage, trust and long-term thinking.
Before joining Maschinenraum, Tobias Rappers worked for seven years as a management consultant at Roland Berger. During his time there, he developed a new consulting approach as Managing Director of Spielfeld Digital Hub GmbH and successfully implemented it operationally.
Tobias Rappers holds a Master in Management and studied at the WFI School of Management, HHL Handelshochschule Leipzig, University Stellenbosch in South Africa and the Indian Institute of Management.
Tobias Rappers (on the right)
Managing Director Maschinenraum
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Katja Michel prefers to travel as a reporter. Because she writes a lot about SMEs, this often means traveling to the German provinces rather than the big wide world. She has been an editor at Capital since February 2022. Before that, she was a freelance correspondent in Istanbul, an editor at Gruner + Jahr Wirtschaftsmedien in Hamburg for Impulse magazine and a freelance author in Berlin. She studied politics, history and literature in Berlin and Rome and graduated from the Berlin School of Journalism. Her stories have won several awards, including the Herbert Quandt Media Prize
Katja Michel
Editor at Capital
Listen to and watch our intro for "Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum"
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