Successful Woman With Numerous Interests: Dagmar Wöhrl In The Profile

Later, she studied law and worked as a lawyer and entrepreneur after her second state examination in 1987. Her political career began in the 1990s: first she was a member of the city council of Nuremberg, and later she won the direct mandate for the Christian Democratic Party in the German Parliament. 

From 2002 to 2005, Dagmar Wöhrl served as the economic spokeswoman for the CDU/CSU in the Bundestag. After that, she served for four years as a parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology.

Dagmar Wöhrl has been financially secure for a long time. The magazine “Capital” estimated the Wöhrls’ family fortune at around 200 million euros in 2015. Money does not motivate her. But she is much more interested in new experiences.

Non-profit and Aid Projects

In addition to her economic and political career, Dagmar Wöhrl is passionate about culture and social affairs. She is active in many humanitarian bodies, such as the board of directors of UNICEF Germany, Action Germany Helps, or the Bavarian AIDS Foundation. As president of the Animal Welfare Association of Nuremberg for many years, the lawyer and politician founded the first puppy house in Europe. 

After a tragic accident with her 13-year-old son Emanuel, she founded the Emanuel-Wöhrl Foundation to work for children at home and abroad and to give them a fair chance in life. She was awarded the Bavarian State Medal for Social Services, and is also a recipient of the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon and the Bavarian Order of Merit. 

Successful businesswoman

Dagmar Wöhrl has a motivating environment around her: her husband, Hans Rudolf Wöhrl, founded boutiques in English style at the age of 19. In 1970, he and his brother took over the Wöhrl fashion house. Their son Marcus Maximilian was initially also active in politics, like his mother; he was a candidate for the European Parliament in 2004 and 2009. Since 2013, he has served on the board of directors of the family-owned hotel group.

She herself is a representative on the Supervisory Board for the Nuremberg Beteiligungs-Aktiengesellschaft and the Nürnberger Lebensversicherungs AG. In 2017, she founded DGWoehrl Consulting GmbH with headquarters in Berlin, which, among other things, deals with entrepreneurial consulting.

Juror at Dragon´s Den

A successful woman is also active as an investor, especially in start-ups. As a motive, she calls the people, the founders behind it. “In Germany, founding is still treated very stepmotherly, so I welcome anyone who has the courage to go the way to self-employment,” Dagmar Wöhrl told TV station VOX, where she sat on the jury in the programme aimed at start-ups named Dragon´s Den. “For me personally, it is the opportunity to be a strong partner for founders to build a company with them that will continue to be successful in the market for many years. It is like the beginning of an exciting journey.”

Start-ups as a Privilege and Joy

“The daily work with’my’ startups on their ideas and implementation is a privilege and a great pleasure. The great people I met enriched my life and my family business,” says the 69-year-old investor. Up to now, Dagmar Wöhrl has been active at 18 start-ups, as she shows on her website. The most successful was Waterdrop. The flavour drops for water without sugar or preservatives make an annual turnover of over 100 million euros. Omitting the numbers, the ReMoD start-up  is an absolute success. The focus is on an innovative tool that helps patients to improve posture and movement control while wearing it. Together with another German entrepreneur, Carsten Maschmeyer, they invested 200,000 euros for 20% of the shares in ReMoD. 

“At ReMoD we obtained medical approval this year, and the first devices were successfully sold. For me, it is an invaluable success knowing that there are now people who can finally be helped with physical constraints after a stroke. That is not to be counted in money,” the entrepreneur told VOX.