27 Facts About Dietrich Mateschitz

Dietrich Markwart Eberhart Mateschitz was an Austrian billionaire businessman.

Dietrich Mateschitz founded Red Bull GmbH in 1984 and launched it in Austria in 1987.

Dietrich Mateschitz's company acquired or founded several sports teams around the world, including five-time Constructors' Champions Red Bull Racing and sister team AlphaTauri in Formula One, and association football teams including FC Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig.

Dietrich Mateschitz was born on 20 May 1944, in Sankt Marein im Murztal, Styria, Austria, to a family of Slovene or Croatian ancestry.

Dietrich Mateschitz attended the Hochschule fur Welthandel, where after ten years, he graduated with a marketing degree in 1972.

Dietrich Mateschitz was keen and passionate about extreme sports at an early age.

Dietrich Mateschitz subsequently moved to Blendax, the German cosmetics company, where he worked on, among other things, the marketing of Blendax toothpaste.

Dietrich Mateschitz owned Seitenblicke, Austria's top society magazine, but avoided the celebrity circuit and watched most Formula One races on TV despite owning two teams.

Dietrich Mateschitz founded Media House in Austria in 2007 by providing various digital entertainment and thousands of hours of images to interested broadcasters.

In May 2016, Dietrich Mateschitz announced he would shut down the channel as his employees had requested to form a works council; he changed his mind when no such council was formed.

Dietrich Mateschitz's brands are consistently marketed as associated with the physical and mental attributes needed for various types of extreme sports such as surfing, skydiving, cliff diving, winter sports and mountain biking through commercial sponsorship.

In November 2004, Dietrich Mateschitz bought the failing Jaguar Racing Formula One team from its previous owners, Ford, and he renamed it as a full-blown Red Bull Racing team for the following season in 2005.

In September 2005, Dietrich Mateschitz joined forces with his close friend and former Formula One driver, Gerhard Berger, to purchase the Italian-registered Minardi team from its Australian owner Paul Stoddart.

Dietrich Mateschitz owned the ice hockey clubs EC Red Bull Salzburg and EHC Red Bull Munchen, which were acquired and rebranded in 2000 and 2012, respectively.

Dietrich Mateschitz was co-founder of the Wings for Life foundation that supports spinal cord research together with Heinz Kinigadner.

Dietrich Mateschitz personally donated 70 million euros to Paracelsus Medical University for a research center on spinal cord injuries.

Dietrich Mateschitz initiated the World Stunt Awards, an annual fundraiser to benefit his Taurus Foundation, which, according to its website, helps injured stunt professionals.

Dietrich Mateschitz never married; he had a son named Mark, who was born in May 1992.

Dietrich Mateschitz rarely gave interviews, and refused to answer questions about his son.

Dietrich Mateschitz remained a reclusive figure maintaining low profile despite his heavy involvement with Formula One.

Dietrich Mateschitz was known for his simplicity of dress, often being seen wearing casual clothing, including denim pants and sunglasses.

Dietrich Mateschitz was in a relationship with the mother of his son for two years, and later had a long-term partner named Marion Feichtner.

Dietrich Mateschitz held a pilot's licence and enjoyed flying a Falcon 900 and a Piper Super Cub.

Dietrich Mateschitz had his own hangar with a collection of old planes, including the last Douglas DC-6B ever produced, and which once belonged to Yugoslav Marshal Josip Broz Tito.

Dietrich Mateschitz went on to strongly criticize both the Government of Germany and the Government of Austria for their policies during the 2015 European migrant crisis.

Dietrich Mateschitz spent millions to acquire and conserve houses and castles in the Austrian Alps, saying "I want to enjoy these places myself, but I want to take care of them".

Dietrich Mateschitz died following a long period of treatment for pancreatic cancer, at his home in St Wolfgang im Salzkammergut on 22 October 2022, at age 78.