The Steel Rebel Willy Korf

"D-IGSW,Innsbruck, do you read me? Innsbruck here. D-IGSW, do you read?"

The radio message goes out over the airwaves again and again, but there is no human response above the crackle of atmospheric noise. On the evening of November 21, 1990, the worst fears gradually turned into tragic certainty: D-IGSW, with German steel industrialist Willy Korf on board, had crashed into the Tyrolean Alps in Austria.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Willy Korf was flying high. He loved life, was generous with his wealth, cultivated connections in the highest circles of politics and finance, and presided over steel mills on three continents. A famed communicator, his fleet of planes regularly transported him worldwide to negotiate with presidents, revolutionary leaders, and royalty.

Korf was the 'Baden steel baron', the 'Napoleon of the steel industry', a disruptor who created a corporate empire out of nothing. He challenged the traditional industry giants who tried to thwart his ascent at each step - and using every means available to them. However, with his charisma and strategic thinking, the self-taught, self-made Willy Korf prevailed against his established rivals.

But after the steep rise came the long fall: at the beginning of 1983, Korf's intricate company network - like cascading dominoes - went bankrupt within weeks. He lost most of what he had built over decades. It was one of the biggest bankruptcies to date in German post-war history.

While Korf blamed the billion-dollar government subsidies paid to his competitors, this biography draws on meticulous research, exclusive interviews with those who knew him, and previously unpublished documents to show that some causes of the Korf-Stahl AG collapse lay closer to home.

It also charts his rise from the ashes of bankruptcy, describing how Korf was again able to find effective partners and financiers, enabling him to grow an international network of engineering and steel companies for a second time.

Willy Korf ignited two fires in his life: one in the steel furnaces, and another in an industry frozen with inertia. Both are still burning today. Here, for the first time, his life story is told.

The author

Oliver Driesen was born in 1966 and has worked as an economics editor for several German trade journals. As a writer, he specializes in portraits of people who shape the economy. While this background gave him access to prominent figures in politics, banking, culture and industry, he also spoke extensively to Willy Korf's business and private circles in researching this book.