Georg W. Claussen was born on June 5th, 1912, the grand nephew of company owner, Dr. Oscar Troplowitz, in Hamburg-Eppendorf. After school he studied business at the Swiss company, Doetsch-Grether, and the American chemical company, Petrolagar Lab John Wyett, in Great Britain. In 1938 he came to Beiersdorf as a young man, received power of attorney in 1948 and in 1952 became an acting and then a full member of the Board of Beiersdorf AG. After the death of his father Carl Claussen, he became the Speaker of the Board in 1954 and CEO in 1957. In these 22 years that he was active at the top of the company, he built Beiersdorf into an international company. Sales during this time grew nearly thirtyfold.