Mario Frank

[2][3] Mario Frank was born in Rostock, a major port city on the north coast of what was at that time the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

He spent most of his childhood in Switzerland, but by the time he was due to undertake his military service he did so in West Germany, at Landshut.

After that he took a position as a referendary (loosely: "legal trainee") at the Berlin high court ("Kammergericht"), and then at the German-South African chamber of commerce in Johannesburg.

In 1988 he received from the University of Regensburg[4] his doctorate of laws in exchange for a dissertation on developments at the East German Ministry of Justice[5] In 1987 Frank embarked on a professional career in the media sector, employed as an assistant to Mark Wössner [de], who at that time was the chairman of Bertelsmann.

In 1994 he was appointed chief executive ("Geschäftsführer") at the "Dresdner Druck- und Verlagshaus GmbH & Co. KG" (printing and publishing business) which included in its portfolio the "Sächsische Zeitung" and the region's version of the "Morgenpost" (newspaper).