Medium-sized company is now the German market leader in the luxury business center segment

Berlin, March 28, 2017 – The story of the medium-sized company Satellite Office is also the story of its founder Anita Gödiker. A German success story. To be more precise: an Emsland…

When the company was founded in 1997, Helmut Kohl was the current German Chancellor, the local currency was the German mark, Jan Ulrich won the Tour de France and Siemens launched the first cell phone with a four-color display. The computer has replaced the typewriter. The Internet slowly finds its way into everyday office life.

Over the last twenty years, both the economy and politics have experienced a great deal of turbulence and change. Satellite Office, founded and managed by Anita Gödiker, was right in the middle of it all. The stars of the late 1990s were SAP, Mannesmann and Deutsche Telekom, and the new market was booming. Anita Gödiker brought the idea of office sharing back to Germany from a job in the USA. Knowing that not every American idea would work in Germany, she wanted to realize her very own idea of business centers. Today, twenty years later, it is fair to say that she has succeeded.

1997-2000 – “Wild times, early days”

Everything begins with a first step. Anita Gödiker, born and raised in Emsland, founded a business center in Berlin for Emsland companies in 1997. She called it the “Emsland Haus Berlin”. Her idea: numerous Emsland companies helped to build the “new Berlin”. “But how did they do that with a functioning office on site in Berlin? From a hotel room? Light years away from today’s digital possibilities, temporary project assignments and the main office hundreds of kilometers away were almost pioneering work,” says the entrepreneur. Gödiker rented the first 800 square meters in one of the new office palaces at Checkpoint Charlie. And set up first-class offices that were ready for occupancy and fully functional in just a few minutes. Including telephone, internet, secretaries and conference rooms with service. An absolute novelty at the time.

Office sharing and coworking as it is written in the book. At a time when these words were still unknown in Germany.

Anita Gödiker is 39 years old in the year Satellite Office is founded and receives the “Ambassador for Emsland in Berlin” award. Based on her own start-up experience, she launches the “Business Founder Award for Berlin”. “The prize was an office at Satellite Office for 6 months followed by a free virtual office for another 6 months. I couldn’t really afford that at the time. However, I ran into so many closed doors during the start-up process that it was important to me to support and promote women starting their own business. And it still does today.

2000- 2008 “Growth, charity, prosperity”

The good 1990s were followed by a difficult period in the German economy from 2000-2003 with major losses. The turnaround was not achieved until spring 2003. Anita Gödiker had to steer Satellite Office through stormy seas and had more than one sleepless night. Despite everything, social commitment is still very important to her today, and not just in good times. “Nothing was given to me and yet, or perhaps because of that, I want to give something back in life. I am very committed to all aspects of child protection.” From 2002 to 2006, Gödiker founded the representative office in Berlin for Innocence in Danger e.V., an association that campaigns against the spread of child pornography on the internet. Gödiker also supports the German Child Protection Association. She was even on the board of the Berlin section of the child protection association until 2009. In 2006, the entrepreneur initiated and organized the “Children’s Holidays” project. Disadvantaged children from Berlin’s Wedding district were able to travel for the first time – spending a vacation on a farm in Emsland. DophineAid e.V., which helps traumatized people through dolphin therapy, is also supported by Gödiker. In the meantime, the Germans had accepted the euro as a means of payment, and an upswing put the stock markets in a jubilant mood. Satellite Office now operated four Business & Conference Centers in Berlin and had established itself on the market.

2009-2015 “The first steps outside Berlin”

In 2009, Gödiker took another entrepreneurial risk and expanded to Munich. Gödiker knew the Bavarian metropolis very well and was able to draw on an existing network. Nevertheless, she changed her concept for the first time: she specifically looked for a listed property in a prime location and integrated public coworking areas and a small bistro for the first time. She found a suitable property, converted it and opened the first Satellite Office outside Berlin in 2010. In 2013, her path led her to Hamburg with the same concept. In a prime location with a direct view of the Binnenalster, she opened a 1500 m² Business & Conference Center with spacious open spaces. In the same year, she launched the “Egg for Innocence” campaign. Eggs were sold in all reception areas – hard-boiled and made of chocolate. Every euro went to Innocence in Danger e.V. Gödiker wanted to set an example with the campaign, as a senior politician had been suspected and later convicted of child abuse. Known for her liberal, political stance, she could not leave this scandal uncommented.

2016 “The year of expansion abroad”

Gödiker took her first step into other European countries in 2016, when she moved to Switzerland in the midst of the recent debate about “letterbox companies” and opened a Business & Conference Center in Zurich’s upscale Bahnhofstrasse, the only one of its kind. “At 646 sqm, this small but very fine center with a fantastic view of Lake Zurich and the mountains and an excellent location between Paradeplatz and Bürgliplatz cannot be topped and is very close to my heart,” enthuses Gödiker. At the same time, Gödiker opened further locations in Munich and Berlin. By the end of 2016, Satellite Office had seven locations. In the same year, Satellite Office received the “Best Business Center in Germany” award from Manager Magazin.

2017 “Satellite Office turns twenty years old”

In 2017, everything is under the motto “20 years of Satellite Office”. Further locations are being planned, long-standing customers are invited to various events and more and more people are working for Satellite Office. At the beginning of 2017, Gödiker receives what is probably the most important award of her career: she receives the “Honorary Oscar” from her employees for twenty years of passion, innovation and trust. A German success story in the heart of Berlin.