After the death of his father in 1918 Otto took over the company in its second generation, due to the difficult economic situation the business was suffering.
Otto Bernheimer was forced to purchase a rundown coffee plantation in Venezuela from a relative of Hermann Göring.
In August 1945, Otto Bernheimer returned to Munich,[4] rebuilt the war-damaged commercial building and his company again and fought for the restitution of the family property.
Through his initiative the "Deutsche Kunst und Antiquitätenmesse" was founded in Munich in 1956 at the beginning of the economic miracle years and Bernheimer was elected president of the German art trade association.
[1] In addition to the office building at Lenbachplatz in Munich, the Bernheimer-Haus, Otto Bernheimer owned a villa in Feldafing at Lake Starnberg, which in 1912–13 was built by architect Max Littmann in the Höhenbergstraße.