Gerd Strehle

Gerd Strehle was born on 4 February 1941. His parents founded a small clothing business in Nördlingen, Bavaria, in 1949 under the name Wohlfahrt & Co., later Strehle KG, which made women's coats and suits. His daughter Clara has written that the firm started by recutting army surplus coats for the civilian population, when clothing was protection against the cold rather than a luxury. Strehle grew up close to the business and later said he had seen at first hand how demanding the life of an entrepreneur could be. As a young man he wanted to study music, and his parents allowed him to make his own choice. Where exactly he was born has not been made public in the sources reviewed.

Strehle trained in business. TextilWirtschaft describes him as a 'studierter Kaufmann' (a business graduate), and in a 2011 interview he said he joined the family company in 1967 after finishing his studies. The institution where he studied has not been made public in the sources reviewed.

Strehle joined the family firm in 1967 with the aim of creating a new collection that could grow into a brand. In 1969 he named that line Strenesse, combining Strehle with the French word jeunesse (youth), and the name later became the company's own. He took over the management in 1972. In 1973 designer Gabriele Hecke joined, becoming chief designer in 1975. With her creative direction and his commercial and strategic leadership, the coat maker became a designer house known for clean, understated clothes in high quality fabrics.

In 1990 Strenesse left its niche with a consistent advertising campaign. Shoes and accessories followed from 1992 and the younger line Strenesse Blue from 1993. From 1995 the main womenswear line was shown in Milan, and from 1998 it was called Strenesse Gabriele Strehle. In the strongest years, from the mid 1990s to the early 2000s, sales reached up to about 125 million euros a year. The company opened its own shops from 2000, launched fragrances, designed Lufthansa uniforms for female ground and cabin staff in 2001, introduced menswear in 2002 and showed at New York Fashion Week in 2005. Its campaigns featured Gisele Bündchen, Julia Stegner, Claudia Schiffer and Boris Becker.

From 2006 to 2013 Strenesse dressed the German national football team for official appearances off the pitch, a deal Strehle called a bull's eye. The suits worn at the 2006 World Cup and Joachim Löw's blue cashmere jumper at the 2010 World Cup made the Nördlingen label famous far beyond fashion circles.

From the early 2000s Strenesse made losses. Strehle said the company had been converted into a stock corporation with a private bank as shareholder and main lender, and that the bank went bankrupt two years later. The costly menswear launch and an outside management team he dismissed after a few months added to the strain, and by 2006 the company was close to collapse. Investors around the Strüngmann brothers provided a financial bridge, and Strehle took the helm again himself.

In 2012, after his separation from Gabriele Strehle, she left the company, and Strehle handed the chief executive role to his son Luca after 45 years at the top, moving to the chair of the supervisory board. Strenesse filed for insolvency in self administration in April 2014 and again in 2019. Business operations ended in late 2020. In 2023 the brand rights passed to Brand House Production GmbH in Munich, which relaunched the label.

Strehle was married three times. His first wife was Britta Strehle, the mother of his son Luca and daughter Viktoria, both of whom later worked in the family company. In 1985 he married Gabriele Strehle (née Hecke), the creative director of Strenesse; their daughter Clara was born in 1990. The couple separated in 2012. His third wife was Gila Kesten, with whom he lived between Munich-Schwabing and Bad Wiessee on the Tegernsee. Press reports describe him as a charming gentleman who preferred to stay out of the limelight, and his daughter Clara called him a very private person who kept his personal life largely out of public view.

Strehle was an outspoken believer in the family business. In 2011 he said that being an entrepreneur was 'something fantastic' that required enormous passion, self sacrifice and honesty, and that no one could lead a family company without identifying with it one hundred percent. He insisted that children should decide freely whether to join, as he had. He stressed transparency towards banks and staff and warned against becoming too dependent on outside financiers. Late in life he summed up his rule for a brand: the company must adapt and change, but the brand's radiance must always be preserved. With a wink he said you had to go to bed with the brand and get up with it in the morning.

Alongside Escada, Hugo Boss, Rena Lange and Joop, Strenesse was one of the few German labels of international standing in upscale fashion, and it reached that level from a small town in the Ries rather than from a fashion capital. TextilWirtschaft wrote that under his leadership the traditional coat maker became one of the most important design houses in Germany and abroad. The name he invented in 1969 is still in use under the brand's new owners. His daughter Clara wrote that he left behind more than a name, a brand or a business success story: stories that will be retold and values that live on.

In 1996 Strenesse received the Forum Prize (Mode-Forum-Preis) of the trade journal TextilWirtschaft, presented to Gabriele Strehle in Heidelberg. Strehle also served as a patron in the board of trustees (Kuratorium) of the Deutscher Gründerpreis, the German founders' award, where Strenesse sponsored the start-up True Fruits. Personal state honours for Gerd Strehle have not been found in the sources reviewed.

Strehle gave relatively few interviews. The best known is a 2011 conversation with the business magazine Unternehmeredition titled 'Unternehmer zu sein ist etwas Phantastisches' (Being an entrepreneur is something fantastic). He also spoke at the Industry Insights lecture series at the Bayerischer Hof in Munich, and a video interview with him was published by the Deutscher Gründerpreis. Strenesse fashion shows from Milan and the company's own channel are preserved on YouTube.

Strehle's later years at Strenesse were marked by financial crises rather than personal scandal. In 2015, during the insolvency proceedings, members of the Strehle family tried to remove the restructuring chief Michael Pluta at an extraordinary general meeting, fearing a sale to investors without the founding family; the court appointed administrator rejected the move. Der Spiegel mocked a family backed rescue plan as 'megalomania from Nördlingen'.

Gerd Strehle died on the evening of Saturday 31 October 2026 at the Klinikum Bogenhausen in Munich, aged 85. His son Luca told Bild: 'My father fell asleep peacefully, his family was with him.' He said his father had fought lymphatic cancer bravely for many years, that chemotherapy had greatly weakened his immune system, and that when he caught an infection he could not recover. The death was reported on 4 November 2026. The family planned a burial in the smallest family circle and a memorial service for friends and companions at a later date. His daughter Clara published an open letter of farewell the same day.