Werner Mauss Came to the District in 1968

Wochenspiegel, 03.06.1998
 
 
Success made him a millionaire
 
Agronomist turned “sleuth” from Essen has been greatly in demand with both companies and governments since the 1970’s.
 
Cochem-Zell (cen). When, in 1963, Werner Mauss opened a small office in the city of Essen and began his career by tracking down unfaithful men on behalf of unhappy wives, no one could have guessed that the inconspicuous private detective would one day become one of the most famous and successful of secret agents, and one whose fame would be inseparable from the legends that would cling to his name. Success brought with it prosperity for Mauss. From modest beginnings, the man from the Ruhr worked his way up to become one of the wealthiest men in the Cochem-Zell area, with a large villa, a private zoo and riding stables. Mauss trained to be a farmer and it was his love of nature and especially of horses that was behind his decision to move to the Hunsrück area at that time. In 1968 he purchased a building shell and 40,000 squares metres of land for 100,000 Deutschmarks. Since, at the time, Mauss himself did not have sufficient funds, an insurance company financed the purchase. He paid 10,000 down, the rest being financed by the insurance company at 4% interest.

The quiet, rural Hunsrück became the base for Mauss’s international operations and he can still very clearly remember his first undercover operation – “the solving of an industrial case.” He was hired by the boss of a company in the Ruhr who had had one of his company’s patents stolen by an employee.
The employee had sold the patent to an Austrian company, which had already made a lot of money out of it. It was up to Mauss to prove that the patent had been stolen. It took him four weeks. The company boss showed his gratitude by richly rewarding him with a fee of several thousand Deutschmarks.

However, more valuable than the fee was the publicity as the company boss spread the word on Mauss’s good work. It guaranteed that subsequently Mauss would not be short of contracts from industry….

By courtesy of the Wochenspiegel SW publishers www.wochenspiegellive.de