Rainer Zitelmann has written and edited 25 books covering a wide range of topics with a primary focus on history, politics, economics, finance and personal success. He is a sought-after keynote speaker in Asia, the United States and Europe. In recent years he has written articles and given interviews in leading media, including Le Monde, Corriere della Sera, Il Giornale, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Der Spiegel, Focus, Die Welt, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, The Daily Telegraph, The Times,  National Interest, Le Point, Linkiesta and in numerous media in China, South Korea and Vietnam.

Rainer Zitelmann was born in Frankfurt am Main on June 14, 1957. At the age of ten, he published his first school newspaper, writing the articles and securing the advertisements to finance its publication. As a teenager, Rainer Zitelmann was a Maoist and, at the age of 13, he founded the “Red Cell” at his school.

 Rainer Zitelmann – Historian
Rainer Zitelmann studied history and political science at the Technical University Darmstadt and graduated with a with distinction. Zitelmann was then awarded his doctorate with the grade “summa cum laude” under the mentorship of the internationally renowned historian Professor K.O. Freiherr von Aretin. His dissertation Hitler: Policies of Seduction is still regarded as a standard work on Hitler’s worldview. The respected Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte wrote: “Without a doubt, Zitelmann deserves credit for substantively adding to, if not surpassing, all other biographies of Hitler.” And Germany’s most renowned history periodical Historische Zeitschrift wrote: "Rainer Zitelmann has written one of those rare books that makes you wonder why it has taken so long for someone to get around to writing it.” Reviews of Zitelmann’s book on Hitler’s thought processes and objectives can be found here.

From 1987 to 1992, Zitelmann was a research assistant at the Central Institute for Social Science Research at Freie Universität Berlin. During this time, he wrote other historical books and edited several anthologies, including  The Nazi Elite, in which renowned historians from several European countries and the United States wrote about the National Socialist Party’s leading figures.

 Rainer Zitelmann – Publisher and chief editor
In March 1992, Zitelmann became chief editor at Ullstein-Propyläen-Verlag, then the third-largest book publishing group in Germany. He was responsible for the publishing house’s entire hardcover list, with a particular focus on history and political books. Claus Jacobi, one of the best-known journalists in Germany at the time, came across Zitelmann’s work and offered him a position as head of the “Intellectual World” department at the daily newspaper Die Welt.. Zitelmann later went on to head Die Welt’s real estate desk. In just a short time, Zitelmann became the leading real estate journalist in Germany.

Rainer Zitelmann – Company founder
Later than many other entrepreneurs, namely at the age of 43, Zitelmann made the leap into entrepreneurship. During his time as a real estate journalist he had discovered a gap in the market: Germany did not have a PR agency that exclusively served the real estate industry. So, Zitelmann quit his job at Die Welt and founded Dr. ZitelmannPB.GmbH in October 2000. In just a few years, he established his company as the leading PR agency in Germany for real estate and investment companies. He was able to win renowned clients – including almost all of the real estate subsidiaries of the largest German banks and the country’s largest listed real estate companies, closed-end fund initiators, property developers and international brokerage companies. With the money Zitelmann earned as an entrepreneur, he invested in the real estate market.

Zitelmann began buying apartments in Berlin in the early 2000s – against the advice of many experts who thought Berlin was an unattractive market at the time. Between 2015 and 2019, after it became fashionable to invest in Berlin and many national and international investors were buying at high prices, Zitelmann sold most of his properties in Berlin.

Through his entrepreneurial ventures and investments, which brought him high double-digit returns, Zitelmann became a multi-millionaire. In 2016, he sold his PR agency in a management buyout – the company now operates under the name PB3C. “One of my proudest achievements is that I founded and built up a company that remains very successful today, even after I sold it,” says Rainer Zitelmann.

 Rainer Zitelmann, PH.D. – Wealth researcher
While still running his business, Rainer Zitelmann wrote his second doctoral dissertation, this time in sociology. His doctoral mentor was the well-known wealth researcher Professor Wolfgang Lauterbach (University of Potsdam). The dissertation was published as a book in several languages. In English, the book was published as The Wealth Elite. Renowned American and British media such as Forbes, The Sunday Times and the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch all ran articles about the book. The Financial Times wrote: “Rainer Zitelmann’s study of the psychology of the super-rich is an ambitious project. Few could be better qualified for it than Rainer Zitelmann – a historian, sociologist, journalist, businessman and investor. There has been no comparable study and it is a compelling read for all who need to understand the characteristics and motivations of rich entrepreneurs.”

Following the publication of this work, Zitelmann launched an ambitious international research project: In cooperation with the renowned Allensbach and Ipsos MORI institutes, he commissioned surveys in the United States and across Europe to find out about people’s attitudes to the rich. For the first time, Zitelmann investigated how our society views the wealthy and how differently rich people are perceived in different countries. The study was published by the Cato Institute as The Rich in Public Opinion. In 2020 and 2021, the same survey was also conducted in Italy, Spain, Sweden, Vietnam and China and the study also appeared or will be published 2022 in these five anguages.

In 2018, Zitelmann published also The Power of Capitalism. The book also generated a great deal of media coverage and has been translated and published in South Korea, Italy and Spain (it will be published also in Vietnam and Poland in 2022)

Zitelmann – Keynote speaker and publicist
Today, Zitelmann gives lectures in Europe, Asia and the United States. Zitelmann’s books and lectures are particularly successful in Asia. His book Dare to Be Different and Grow Rich has so far appeared in 12 different languages and has enjoyed particular success in India, China, South Korea and Vietnam. The book is also due to be published very soon in Arabic and Polish.
Today, Zitelmann regularly writes for media in the United States, the UK, Italy, France, Sweden, Vietnam and China, Germany and Switzerland.