Schaller completed his training as a
retail salesman in Schlüsselfeld.[5] He supplemented this with further training to become a business and retail specialist. At the age of 22, he took over his first
Edeka supermarket, and shortly afterwards three more in his home region.[9]
Fitness industry
In 1997, he switched to the fitness industry and opened his first studio under the McFit brand in
Würzburg, Germany.[9] He tapped into the
discount segment of the market with this brand.[10] By mid-2006, McFit was operating 62 fitness studios in Germany with a combined 400,000 members and 1,000 permanent employees.[8] In 2011, McFit was considered the largest fitness studio operator in Europe, with more than 1 million members.[11][12] Schaller gradually
diversified his business to reach different target groups.[13] In 2018, Schaller appointed Vito Scavo to oversee operational management of his
holding company.[14] In August 2019, the McFit Global Group holding company was renamed RSG Group and encompasses twelve fitness chains (including
McFit,
John Reed Fitness, High 5).[15] In 2020, Schaller acquired
Gold's Gym,[16] which was in bankruptcy (
Chapter 11 proceedings) due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.[17] By the end of 2020, Schaller's group of companies employed 41,000 people in 48 countries,
managed 17 different brands and more than 1,000 studios.[18]
Love Parade
In 2006, Schaller became managing director of Lopavent,[19][8] which organized the
Love Parade until 2010. The aim was to use the event to promote McFit's studios.[9] The Love Parade went off without incident, under Schaller's direction, for three years.[20][better source needed] In 2010, however, he came under fire[21][22] for the
Love Parade disaster in Duisburg, which left 21 people dead and 652 injured.[23] Schaller testified as a witness in the court proceedings on the accident in 2018, accepted moral responsibility, but was not charged.[24]
Disappearance and death
On 21 October 2022, a
Piaggio P.180 Avanti plane carrying Schaller, his partner Christine Schikorsky, their two children, a 66-year-old Swiss pilot and another German passenger crashed into the
Caribbean Sea near
Limón,
Costa Rica, while on a flight from
Palenque,
Mexico. The bodies of one adult and one child were recovered, but not initially identified.[25][26] On 4 November the remains of the two bodies were identified as those of Schaller and his son.[1]