Prof. Michael Otto celebrates his 80th: Big station for a big hamburger

Hamburg – The star of the evening in shed 52, where King Charles III. (74, BILD reported) was quiet.

Professor Michael Otto, who turned 80 on Wednesday, patiently shook 305 prominent hands on the red carpet with his wife Christl. Always smiling. Always cordial.

Christl wore a self-designed, light pink sequined designer dress, made by students from the Munich fashion school. Christl used to do her master’s degree there.

Both took so much time for the welcome chat that some guests had to wait outside in front of the harbor wooden shed (120 m long, 12 m high).

Otto is a Hanseatic citizen, honorary citizen (since 2013), patron (including 10 million for Elphi), billionaire (around 8 billion euros). An exceptional entrepreneur (43,000 jobs, more than 16 billion euros in sales). And with a green ecological conscience.

His guests – first class

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (64, SPD) and his wife Britta Ernst (62) were afraid of carpets and scurried through a side entrance.

Ex-Hapag-Lloyd boss Michael Behrendt (71) and wife Cornelia came with a friend Friede Springer.

Ex-UNO director Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker (83) attracted attention with a colorful butterfly tie, while pianist Justus Frantz (78) trumped with a red vest on the red carpet.

Worked hard in love: star chef Cornelia Poletto (51) with ex-Bahn boss Rüdiger Grube (71).

Guido Maria Kretschmer (57, all in black with a black bow tie) successfully designed furniture for Otto: he joked with husband Frank Mutters (67) and actress Monika Peitsch (86, “Traumschiff”, “Großstadtrevier”). All in pink with a feather stole: Marion Fedder.

Mail order heiress Janina Otto (48) and her boxing star Ismail Özen (42) surprisingly brought their children Noel and Malila (almost never in public) from their first marriage.

The economy waited patiently in line, including Deutsche Bank boss Christian Sewing (52), the ex-economic senators Ian Kiru Karan (83) and Thomas Mirow (70, SPD). And Sebastian Klauke (43), who is being traded as a possible new Otto boss.

Ex-preses and shipowner Nikolaus Walter Schües (87) came with his wife Christa (had a black and white fur coat). He, quite a businessman, to the photographers on the carpet: “Can we get money for this?”

But instead of money, the only answer was a thunderstorm – it came from dozens of lightning bolts.

Despite all the happiness (including the preview of the new Thalia piece “Barocco” by Kirill Serebrennikov composed exclusively for Otto and a future piece of music by “The Young Classics” and “Fridays for Future”) – there were also warnings about climate change.

Otto condemns the actions of the climate stickers, but stands behind the “Fridays for Future” movement. The unfold “public pressure”.

He and guest authors point the way to ecology in his recently published book “The Michael Otto Principle”.

Some of the authors, such as former Federal President Prof. Horst Köhler (80), North Bishop Kirsten Frehrs (61), Culture Senator Carsten Brosda (48, SPD), celebrated in the evening.

And how do the Ottos recover from party stress?

Christl reveals BILD: “We sit on our terrace and look at the Elbe.”