MERKUR SPECIAL
technician with a general importer of American Wurlitzer jukeboxes from Coesfeld near Münster, where he immediately doubled his salary to 600 D-Marks, but at the same time had to work much harder. In his rare free time, Paul Gauselmann nevertheless devoted every spare minute to realising his own ideas. With success: the development of a remote selection box with a telephone dial for a new German jukebox production, which up to then could only be found on American jukeboxes, was to mark the formative start of his future career and beyond for the young technician.
As early as November 1956, he offered this
invention to the Bergmann marketing company in Hamburg, which referred him to the Harting manufacturing company in Espelkamp. He so impressed the technical director, Dr Voelkel, that the latter immediately offered him a position in the development department. This remote selection box made entrepreneurial history for the young technical visionary as his first invention and first patent, several hundred more of which were since to follow. With a high degree of industriousness and zeal, innovative spirit and entrepreneurial foresight, Paul Gauselmann was appointed head of coin-op vending machine development at the age of 26, after his mentor and promotor Dr Voelkel left to found Deutsche Wurlitzer GmbH, which held the rights to use the name Wurlitzer jukeboxes until 2006. His tasks included further development of jukeboxes and he also masterminded the development of the first electric cigarette dispensing machine produced in Germany.
In 1957, Paul Gauselmann took another bold
step in his life when on top of his normal 48- hour week he started up a sideline installing jukeboxes with 17 Bergmann/Harting jukeboxes and 100,000 D-Marks in crossed bills of exchange. Thus the foundation stone for the Gauselmann Group was laid.
Even then, he could rely on the support and backing of his family. A good year later, his brother Willi joined the business, followed in 1962 by his brother Eugen. Despite the burden of holding down two jobs and the financial pressure, Paul Gauselmann’s dedication remained boundless. After seven years, in 1964, Paul Gauselmann ventured into full self- employment. At that point in time, he already had 15 employees. The focus of the fledgling company, apart from installing slot machines in many hundreds of pubs, was converting US jukeboxes with a typically German-style cabinet, which he called ‘the new outfit’. “During my apprenticeship with ‘Telefonbau und Normalzeit’ and my subsequent activities, I
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gradually acquired the basic know-how and perseverance to venture into the entire coin-op machine business – from development and manufacturing, to sales and operating. The wealth of experience I gathered during my youth was decisive for the diverse corporate success of the Gauselmann Group,” the entrepreneur says, explaining the rapid corporate success.
amusement and gaming industry and its 70,000-plus employees across all echelons of the industry. But his commitment to the industry goes back much further. Paul Gauselmann became a member of the German AWP Association “Deutscher Automaten- Verband” (DAV) in North Rhine-Westphalia as early as 1966. Only four years later in 1970, he was appointed as Chairman of this association and at the same time as Vice President of the German Operators Association “Zentralorganisation der Automatenunternehmer” (ZOA). “Only when the industry is doing well is it possible to participate in its success” he contends.
As Management Board Chairman of a
Today, the Gauselmann Group is industry leader in Germany and also a force to be reckoned with on international gaming markets. In the space of just seven years, Paul Gauselmann went from being an armchair and weekend entrepreneur to full self-employment and the company from a one-man business to one of the biggest coin-op vending machine manufacturers and arcade operators worldwide.
Apart from his own corporate success Paul Gauselmann is always mindful of the prosperity of the coin-op amusement and vending machine industry as a whole. Through his commitment he has decisively shaped industry policy in the associations since the 1960s – especially against the background of the sometimes difficult political situation in Germany. The federal and state regulatory framework strongly impinges on the commercial scope of this sector of the economy.
For the past 36 years, Paul Gauselmann has
chaired the “Verband der Deutschen Automatenindustrie e.V. – VDAI” (German Amusement and Vending Machine Industry Association). Since 1981, he has campaigned in this position for the future of commercial gaming and the interests of the German
Behind the successful entrepreneur is also a
strong and loyal family. Paul Gauselmann has been able to rely in most situations on the support of his wife Karin, his four sons and in the meantime nine grandchildren, for which he is very grateful.
globally operating empire with regional roots, Paul Gauselmann stands for entrepreneurial responsibility and at the same time demonstrates social, cultural and sporting engagement – with a focus on the Altkreis Lübbecke district, but also beyond. Thus among others the entrepreneur sponsors the Espelkamp-Mittwald e.V. (TVE) tennis club, with which he became German champion in 2010 as a member of the Men’s 65 team, and the TuS N-Lübbecke handball Bundesliga team. The Gauselmann family also take their social responsibilities very seriously. Paul Gauselmann is involved as a long-standing board member of the “Schlaganfall’ – Neurologische Klink Minden e.V. Förderverein” (charitable trust for the Minden Stroke – Neurological Clinic). Furthermore, on the occasion of his 65th birthday, Paul Gauselmann founded the present-day Paul and Karin Gauselmann Foundation with current endowment capital of 10 million euros, which specifically promotes and supports social and cultural causes in the region.
For his outstanding social commitment, as
well as his untiring efforts on behalf of the German amusement and gaming machine industry, Paul Gauselmann was decorated with the German Federal Cross of Merit in 1993 and a decade later he received the higher-graded First Class Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Furthermore, on the occasion of his 70th birthday the towns of Lübbecke and Espelkamp made the entrepreneur an honorary citizen in 2004 in recognition of his unerring efforts to promote the interests of the region.
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