Michael Peter begins the conversation with a question. The question of what about him is interesting for a journalist. "I'm a developer and builder, there are more exciting topics," he says, and not for a moment would you think that might be coquetry. He is genuinely interested. Those who know Michael Peter describe him as a modest person - in his demeanor, not in his pretensions, that is of course a difference. The Mayor of Fürth, Thomas Jung, called him reserved on the occasion of the award of the Golden Citizen's Medal 2022 - and paid tribute to his "gigantic achievement", as Jung said: the P&P Group had "decisively and sustainably shaped Fürth". As a real estate investor and developer, the group with its headquarters in Fürth is highly visible in the cityscape; it has long since grown far beyond Franconia and has locations in Munich, Frankfurt am Main and, more recently, in Berlin and London.
Photo: Edgar Pfrogner / VNP
But if you want to know how it all began, you'll arrive in the village of Diebach near Neustadt an der Aisch, which has 70 inhabitants. As a young man, Michael Peter himself lavishly renovated a small house there - "in bright blue," as he says. It was his first home of his own, and he spent every weekend at the construction site. Hard work, perseverance, discipline, concentration: he values these virtues. But he reached his limits; to this day, says Peter and laughs, "I can't lay tiles. He is probably not particularly skilled in this respect, he says, and the yes to the question of whether he admires the craft comes out very emphatically. With the "inner drive to want to build something, I've always had people around me who have helped me." The fact that he would manage a company with 130 employees and a transaction volume that now exceeds three billion euros was not in his life plan.
"The old dishes from the first household are still in the office".
"When you're young," says Michael Peter, "you don't see a common thread, you discover yourself first. Michael Peter was born in 1971 in Waiblingen, Swabia, and grew up in Uffenheim, Franconia. Like his grandfather, his father was a pharmaceutical wholesaler. He vividly remembers his grandfather, "the wrought-iron gate in front of his house, which seemed so huge to us"; he accompanied his father on business trips. "An early childhood imprint," he says, was "to feel entrepreneurship - and a sense of security, a primal trust." Urvertrauen: There can be no better gift for a child.
After graduating from high school, Michael Peter began a shortened apprenticeship in construction. He was still "relatively disoriented," but his father had told him that he would still have time to study later. After a second apprenticeship as a draftsman, he wanted to enroll in architecture, but his father died when he was only 54 years old - and Michael Peter began his professional life at the Würffel engineering firm in Neustadt an der Aisch, "as a suitcase carrier," as he recounts: "And I noticed: I learn quickly in practice - I took some things with me and left some things there." The basic trust: At the age of only 24, Michael Peter started his own business, "rather naively", he says, "but at that age you don't have much to lose". As a house builder in Diebach - "I like the Swabian way of wanting to create something," says the native of Waiblingen - he had already experienced what would fascinate him from then on: To revive, to revitalize old things "that were once beautiful." Vita, life, "I like this word very much," says Michael Peter. "The feeling when life moves in again..." - he pauses for a moment, "yes, that makes me happy".
In his Fürth office, in addition to an old dining table lamp from Diebach, there is also the breakfast crockery from the first household, orange in color; a broken cup is still a small loss. If you build something, you also have to want to preserve something - and, if you have to, take a step back once in a while. "You can pace yourself, but not three steps at a time," he learned early on. Growth: It's still a favorite word of Michael Peter's, "what's healthy grows," he says, and then he's back in the agricultural Franconia of his childhood, at the growth nodes in the stalks of grain. Barley, wheat, "a beautiful picture," he says: "You don't always see the growth, there are phases of regeneration and phases of sprouting." Growth without substance, growth for growth's sake: That's the unhealthy growth, he said, growth that doesn't create value - "companies that explode but never make money." Anyone who talks to him gets to know a very attentive man.
He listens, asks questions, and when he talks about values, he also talks very openly about self-doubt, about a "phase of exhaustion" that he once experienced, about doubts about what he was doing, about "losing focus on the meaningful. "The thought that we pay taxes" then helped him, he says. Michael Peter collects art. "Give and take" is the name of a sculpture by the Spanish artist Lorenzo Quinn; it stands in his office, two hands on a hemisphere, one giving, one taking - Peter calls it "a great statement" and "a good way to live.
Half a million euros for aid in the Corona crisis
In 2011, the family man with two sons aged 13 and 15 founded the P&P Vita Foundation, which supports disadvantaged children and young people - wherever P&P invests, "that then also pushes the district forward". Give and take: "It's a cycle," says Peter, and, no, he doesn't see himself "as a do-gooder" for that reason. He doesn't tell us that the foundation donated half a million euros to institutions in the metropolitan region at the start of the Corona pandemic, and only later, when you look at your notepad, will you notice that he didn't even use the word social responsibility. "Making helps," this sentence of his is underlined in the notepad, he had said it about his beginnings as an entrepreneur - but it is probably two words that describe Michael Peter well.
After three decades, Eva-Maria Zurek now heads P&P's German business, a woman - in an "unfortunately still very male-dominated industry," as Michael Peter says: "It's really a gift to have such an energetic power woman in the business." He himself is currently building up the UK site, and the investment platform Rivus Capital, as a lender and partner for young companies, has its sights set on sustainable urbanization: Environment, Social, Governance, or ESG, as it is called in business German and means environment, social, corporate governance. "Michael Peter calls it "fascinating" to deal with air filters and water cycles, "existential topics. Vita, life, his drive, he learns every day. "I'm just getting started in London," he says. "No one knows me, the dimensions are mind-boggling.
Peter feels reminded of the years when it all began; you can tell he enjoys the new things. He also calls it "a cycle: Doing something meaningful brings joy, and joy is the most beautiful motivation. "Germany, Franconia, Fürth, the region to which we owe everything: That will remain our backbone," says Michael Peter - for a long time to come. The founder sees the P&P Group as a "cross-generational company," but he is not talking about his sons, who should "live according to their passion." No, the company should "live out of itself", sustainable, independent of the economy, "all decisions are oriented to this vision". Michael Peter smiles. "The foundation, too," he says, "will outlive me."
From Fürth via London into the wide world
His favorite place in Fürth? "The flair," says Michael Peter. With his P&P Group, he has transformed the hard-to-place former City Center into an attractive shopping and leisure destination with 60 stores. It took "strength and energy," says Peter, but he is pleased to see that the concept is working.
The list of Fürth P&P projects is long: the Carrera building, around 60,000 square meters of former Quelle properties, the building department in Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse, the former Otto school with the city museum and many more, currently including the Hornschuch campus on the city border with Nuremberg.
P&P invests in companies, properties and projects in which it believes it can add "real value. Sustainability, says Peter, is "part of our DNA". In the future, the P&P Group will be "much more broadly positioned than before" - with offices now also in Berlin and London. P&P will "open up further to the capital market" and "become an international player" with the Rivus Capital brand through equity investments, says Peter. He is "firmly convinced" that internationalization is "one of the most important and best decisions in our company's history.
Source: "Machen hilft" - Hans Böller, newspaper article in the Nürnberger Nachrichten, 28.06.23, page 3