Docu­men­ta­ry
´45/´30, SWR, 2019

watch (only in German)

Johan­nes Baron of Bod­man is the oldest of the four child­ren of Baron Wil­de­rich of Bod­man and his wife Maria-Clau­dia. A litt­le over 12 years ago, in his late thir­ties and being the mana­ging direc­tor of an orga­nic far­mers’ coope­ra­ti­ve in Colo­gne, he took over the busi­ness at Gut Bod­man on Lake Con­stance. Fol­lowing the fami­ly tra­di­ti­on, he led the pre­do­mi­nant­ly fores­try and agri­cul­tu­ral busi­ness for many years and mana­ged various houses in the town of Bod­man that belong to the family’s esta­te. Johan­nes should­n’t have taken over the busi­ness, as he says, but he never serious­ly con­si­de­red not doing it. The eco­no­mist, who was stu­dy­ing, see­med too temp­t­ing to turn the Bod­man esta­te into an eco­lo­gi­cal­ly sus­tainab­le orga­nic farm and to bring the slow­ly decaying old houses of the town cen­ter back into new sple­ndor. He suc­cess­ful­ly did all of this. The Bod­man domain has recent­ly been com­ple­ted, inclu­ding the old Hotel Lin­de. Johan­nes Baron of Bod­man is often cal­led the “Green Baron” at the lake — which is cer­tain­ly true with regard to his clear stance on eco­lo­gi­cal agri­cul­tu­re and the impor­t­ance of sus­tainab­le manage­ment and con­struc­tion. But he sees hims­elf abo­ve all as an initia­tor, admi­nis­tra­tor, mana­ger and inves­tor. He pre­fers to lea­ve the agri­cul­tu­ral, fores­try and con­struc­tion work to the “experts”, as he says, with whom he has worked clo­se­ly for many years and who have sin­ce beco­me part of the fami­ly, e.g. his bro­ther-in-law and archi­tect Tobi­as Jaklin, who over­sees and hel­ps deve­lop the nume­rous con­struc­tion pro­jects, or Bert­ram Leder­ger­ber, with whom he is now the lar­gest orga­nic apple pro­du­cer on Lake Con­stance. Johan­nes Baron of Bod­man is a hum­ble and busy visio­na­ry, who not only uses the oppor­tu­nities he has through his noble tit­le and the asso­cia­ted pro­per­ty, but does so suc­cess­ful­ly and future-oriented.