Matthias Hartmann

Matthias Herbert Hartmann (21 March 1965 – 26 August 2020) was a German Professor of Business Administration and the Dean of the Department of Economics and Law at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW – University of Applied Sciences).

He attended college-prep high school in Bavaria: from 1975 to 1984 at the Dominicus von Linprun Gymnasium in Viechtach.In 1984, he became a reserve officer in Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr; trained as a combat and airborne engineer, later became a consultant for strategy and operations in the Federal Ministry of Defense; and finally, as Colonel of the Reserves, he served until his death as Department Head of the Bundeswehr's Operations Command in Potsdam.

This combination of theory and practice was the basis of his activity in all areas, whether academic instruction, company management, or the athletic challenges of volleyball, underwater rugby, skydiving, or triathlon, in which he repeatedly completed an Ironman.

Precisely implementing the principles of military leadership doctrine in combination with his practical experience as a leader of soldiers and with aspects of employee motivation and successful company strategies shaped his way of thinking and operating.

Matthias H. Hartmann was appointed Professor of Production & Logistics at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW – University of Applied Sciences) in October 2000 and held the position until 2020.

[6] His academic work was characterized by research guided by theory and strongly oriented toward practice and by system-theoretical influences like those of Niklas Luhmann and the epistemological and theory-of-science considerations of Karl Popper.