According to information from “Bild am Sonntag”, Rainer Schaller boarded a now missing small plane with his family on Saturday night. Debris has now been found off the coast.
Schaller is no stranger to Germany. At the end of the 1990s he founded the fitness studio chain McFit.
As an entrepreneur, however, he has not only celebrated successes. He was managing director of the Lopavent company when it organized the Loveparade in Duisburg in 2010. The event killed 21 people.
McFit founder Rainer Schaller, his partner Christiane Schikorsky and their two children Aaron and Finja are missing. According to information from “Bild am Sonntag” on Saturday night German local time off the coast of Costa Rica, contact with a private plane in which the family was located broke off.
According to the Costa Rican Minister for Public Safety, Jorge Torres, the search for the plane was initially put on hold due to bad weather and the falling night. Now, however, debris has been found off the coast.
The entrepreneur Schaller is no stranger to Germany. In 1997, the 53-year-old opened the first McFit studio in a hall in Würzburg. His company RSG Group also includes the John Reed brand and the Marcell von Berlin fashion label.
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Schaller was not a good student and remained seated
But let’s start at the beginning: Schaller was born in 1969 and grew up with his parents and brother in Schlüsselfeld in Upper Franconia. In an interview with the Handelsblatt, Schaller once said that he was not a good student. He stayed in the ninth grade.
His brother Gerd Schaller, on the other hand, was a high-flyer: he studied medicine and music at the same time and is now a conductor. The fact that his brother was so intelligent shaped his own personality “uncanny”, said Rainer Schaller in another interview with the Handelsblatt.
After ten years, Schaller was already the head of four Edeka stores
He himself did not want to study. Since his mother owned a grocery store, it was clear to him early on that he “wanted to make groceries”. That’s why Schaller dropped out of high school in the tenth grade and completed an apprenticeship as a retail salesman at Edeka.
At some point he became ambitious, but he says he doesn’t know when. After ten years, Schaller was already the head of four Edeka stores. Even then he had fun having something of his own, he said in one of the interviews.
McFit started in Schaller’s parents’ attic
At the end of the 1990s, Schaller came up with the idea of opening the “Aldi of the fitness industry”. He bought some used equipment, set it up in his parents’ attic and charged his friends 15 marks a month to train.
In one of the interviews, Schaller said about his qualities as a boss: “I can’t do much, but what I can do is bring good people together and form a team.”
His strategy worked. What started as a studio for his friends has now grown into one of Europe’s largest fitness chains. Mcfit has more than 250 studios, 1.6 million paying members and generates sales of around 188 million euros (as of 2020). According to estimates from 2019, Schaller’s private fortune amounts to 250 million euros.
However, Schaller has not completely renounced retail. As he revealed in an interview, he still owns an Edeka store in his hometown of Schlüsselfeld.
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Schaller was the organizer of the Love Parade in Duisburg
As an entrepreneur, however, Schaller not only celebrated successes. In 2006 he became CEO of Lopavent, the company that organizes the Love Parade. Four years later, the accident happened at the event, in which 21 people died. Schaller was not accused in court, but was sharply criticized in public.
Shortly after the accident, Schaller said in a WDR interview that he had set up an emergency aid fund with his insurance company. He also offered his help in the form of a letter of condolence to the relatives and those injured.
“I don’t think you can really process that. For me, there is life before the Love Parade and there is life after the Love Parade,” he said in the interview. It is difficult for him to show himself in public.
Schaller does a lot of sport and probably likes to travel
In the meantime, Schaller is appearing more frequently in public again. Photos of him at numerous events can be found on the Internet. He usually poses with his partner Christiane Schikorsky. It is not known how long the two have been dating. In April 2014, Schikorsky posted the first photo together on their public Facebook page.
Not much is publicly known about Schaller’s private life. Schaller lives in Berlin. His hobbies include sports. He goes to the gym himself three or four times a week, he once told the Handelsblatt. “It keeps you young.” He attaches great importance to appearance. He became more body-conscious due to disc damage. Since the incident, he has been specifically training his support muscles.
Apparently, Schaller also likes to travel. For example, in a 2009 interview, he talked about touring the world during his vacations. His partner Schikorsky last published a family photo from vacation on Facebook on October 4, 2022.
