“We have heard of an interesting arrangement in the English navy. All the ropes of the royal fleet, from the strongest to the weakest, are spun in such a way that a red thread runs through them all, which cannot be removed without unraveling everything, and even the smallest pieces are known to belong to the crown.” (von Goethe, J.W. (1809), Elective Affinities)
Our story begins at a celebration in January 1974: Gisela Daxbök is approached by Karl-Werner Schulte, spurred on by having just earned his PhD. The rest is history worth remembering: 18 months later comes their wedding in July 1976 and their first trip together to Iceland – according to the motto: cold hands, but hot passion. In 1982, her doctorate follows with a thesis on “Ingestive Behavior and Body Weight during Chronic Nicotine Intake and after Withdrawal” at the Westphalian-Wilhelms University Münster. While she was conducting research at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Westphalian-Wilhelms University Münster, their three sons were born in 1983, 1984 and 1986.
In 1990, together with Prof. Dr. Karl-Werner Schulte, she founded the EBS Immobilienakademie, of which she was Managing Director until 2010 (from 2006 as IRE|BS Immobilienakademie). During this time, as head of the examination office, she developed a reputation for two things. Firstly, there was her love for two-seater convertibles, the roofs of which she lowered as soon as the sun was even remotely visible, and secondly, her strawberry punch, which, when served at her sons’ birthday parties, earned her legendary status among their friends.
Together, they were an unbeatable team which had a significant impact on real estate education and training in Germany and internationally. Dr. Gisela Schulte-Daxbök published regularly on real estate economic and academic topics and was a participant at the conferences of the International Real Estate Society (IRES) network; the last of which was, together with Sven-Marten Schulte, on the topic “Meeting Future Challenges: The New Role of Real Estate as Agent of Disaster Risk Reduction” at the 29th Annual Meeting of the American Real Estate Society – a conference at which all five members of the Schulte family were represented with presentations.
Dr. Gisela Schulte-Daxbök passed away on March 2, 2019, at the age of only 66. She lives on in the rose named after her, Gisela’s Delight, the Schulte Collection of historical Icelandic maps from 1500 to 1800, and the Dr. Gisela Schulte-Daxbök Memorial Award for Women in Africa from the IREBS Foundation for African Real Estate Research.
