Notice the building on your right. This is the home of Web.de, a titan of the early German internet. Its origins are a classic tale of unexpected leaps. Back in the 1990s, this all started as a company making technical equipment for movie theaters. Enter the Greve Brothers. Matthias handled the business side, while Michael was the brilliant, tech obsessed nerd in the background, and together they pivoted their cinema tech company into a sprawling internet directory that went online in 1995.
During the dot com boom of the year 2000, a period of frantic investment in early internet startups, the web was expanding faster than anyone could organize it. Web.de was growing so relentlessly that they were desperate for hands on keyboards. Their solution to the staffing shortage was wonderfully blunt. They simply bought an entire advertising agency called Websolute, pulling all 45 employees into their ranks overnight just to acquire their talent.
But building an empire is very different from running one.
The brothers had a fierce grip on their creation. When they brought in an outside executive named Hans Wachtel to act as Chief Operating Officer, a role meant to streamline the business and rein in costs, the culture clash was spectacular. Wachtel wanted to outsource ad sales to save money. The Greve brothers, terrified of losing control, refused. Wachtel threw in the towel after just eight months, frustrated that a massive, publicly traded corporation was still being micromanaged like a garage startup.
This tight grip sometimes led to rather stubborn corporate realities. For years, the company faced harsh criticism from consumer advocates over some very aggressive tactics. Younger users, in particular, would receive an email wishing them a happy birthday with a digital gift box. A single click to open the gift would quietly enroll them in a premium club, which automatically turned into a paid subscription if they did not cancel in time. Unsurprisingly, German courts eventually had to step in and put a stop to the birthday traps.
There were also some wild misadventures in trying to expand. In 2002, they bought into a regional television network called B.TV. It was a complete financial disaster. The network went bankrupt within months, opening the door for the station to be bought by an eccentric media figure who turned it into a bizarre channel of esoteric call in shows.
But the most dramatic pivot of all belongs to Michael Greve. He poured massive resources into a project called ComBOTS, an ambitious software meant to combine email, text messages, and phone calls using animated comic avatars. It flopped disastrously, outpaced by simpler tools like Skype.
That failure became a profound turning point. Realizing that no amount of tech could stop the biological clock, Michael abandoned the internet entirely. He took over 300 million euros of his tech fortune and became one of the world's leading investors in rejuvenation biotechnology, funding research to literally cure human aging by repairing cellular damage. From sorting web links to fighting death itself, it is quite the career shift.
If you are here Monday through Friday between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM, you will find the building open for regular business hours. For now, let us keep moving. We are heading toward the striking HfG building, leading us right to the Karlsruhe University of Art and Design, which is just about a four minute walk away.
