The Mohn family owns 17 percent of the shares and controls 58 percent through the Bertelsmann Foundation.

Mohn set up the non-profit Bertelsmann Foundation to promote social and political reform in 1977.

They were addressing a meeting organized by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a private German-sponsored group dedicated to European unity.

The Bertelsmann Foundation, financed by the family's fortune, has become one of Germany's most generous philanthropies.

It owns 17 percent of Bertelsmann's shares directly and controls 58 percent more through the powerful Bertelsmann Foundation.

The Bertelsmann Foundation is active in political, social, economic, educational, cultural and health-related issues.

Mr. Wossner will also leave his post as chairman of the executive board of the Bertelsmann Foundation, the company said in a statement.

Their daughter Brigitte works for the Bertelsmann Foundation.

"The Germans are more open," said Friederike Harmgarth of the Bertelsmann Foundation.

In 2004 he joined the Bertelsmann Foundation in Gütersloh as a project manager.