Here are the strange lives of a few of Germany’s wealthiest citizens!
Dieter Schwarz Dieter Schwarz,
known in the German press as "the Phantom of Heilbronn," is one of the wealthiest human beings
on Earth, and yet, very little is known about him. There are only a handful of images of him online,
and even those are left up to speculation. Details about his personal life are tough to come by.
Dieter owns the largest European retailer, known as the Schwarz Group. Under
the umbrella of his family's multinational retail group,
Schwarz owns and operates two of Germany's most popular stores, the discount grocery store Lidl,
and the hypermarket chain Kaufland. Dieter oversaw the development of the first Lidl store back
in 1973 after being inspired by brothers Theo and Karl Albrecht and their creation of Aldi,
another discount grocery store that has since become an international behemoth. Dieter hoped
to replicate the success of the Albrechts' discount model, and thus, Lidl was born.
When Dieter took full ownership of his family business following his father's death in 1977,
he decided to spread the Lidl love with the rest of the world, opening locations outside Germany.
Lidl now has more than 11,000 locations across 32 countries, including the US. Schwarz's other
major brand, Kaufland, has more than a thousand stores spread across eight European countries.
With the mega-success of the various companies he manages, Schwarz has become a very rich man. He is
worth more than $30 billion, good enough to place him among the 50 wealthiest people in the world.
But why the cloak and dagger about his personal life? Several rumors exist
about the Schwarz family, many of which are explored in an hour-long documentary called
"Die Lidl-Story." While most of the gossip is outlandish and completely untrue, the filmmakers
post one intriguing possibility in their doc as to why Schwarz stays so hidden from the public eye.
Back in the 1970s, several high-profile Germans were kidnapped by a terrorist group called the
Baader-Meinhof gang. One of the people taken was Schwarz's good buddy Theo Albrecht, who was held
captive for 17 days and only released after paying a ransom of seven million German marks.
Could Schwarz be hiding out, fearing something similar might happen to him and his family? While
we speculate, the Phantom of Heilbronn will be - very quietly - enjoying his billions.
Susanne Klatten Not many people have heard of the
heiress to the BMW throne, Susanne Klatten, who inherited 12 and a half percent of her father's
company upon his death in 1982. Her father, Herbert Quandt, a billionaire industrialist,
saved BMW from bankruptcy back in the 1960s. Susanne has since established her
own legacy of savvy entrepreneurship and lives a secretive personal life.
Susanne is also the sole owner of the billion-dollar pharmaceutical corporation Altana,
making her the richest woman in Germany with a net worth of $22.2 billion. But,
despite her riches, Susanne is pretty shy. She tries to keep her personal affairs close
to the vest. She was involved in a high-profile scandal in 2007 after
being blackmailed by a Swiss man claiming to have evidence of the two having an affair.
He also bilked her for $10 Million after fabricating a story about causing a tragic
accident that involved the child of a scary mafia boss. Susanne recorded conversations
in which he blackmailed her, saying he'd release pictures of them together if she
didn't give him more money. She agreed to meet and pay up, but she sent the police instead.
The Swede was arrested along with his accomplice,
who apparently filmed Klatten and her lover with a hidden camera during their secret rendezvous.
Perhaps this very public humiliation was enough to compel Susanne to go
full hermit. Stories from earlier in her life imply she'd always kept quiet about herself.
Even as she was courting her future husband,
Jan Klatten, it's been said that she wasn't honest with him. She kept her
real identity secret from him until they were thinking about getting married. At least,
that's how the story goes. She dawned the alias of Susan Kant. However, her husband has since
denied the story. How could someone not know that they were dating the richest woman in Germany?
Susanne has continued her bloodline's legacy of business excellence,
but she's also continued her family's history of silence.
The Quandt Family Even though they're
to thank for saving BMW, the Quandt family is not without their dark past. As it turns out,
the Quandts held secret ties to the Nazis during World War II and even used
50,000 slave laborers, many of whom passed away while working at the family's factories.
An award-winning documentary called "The Silence of the Quandts" aired back in 2008, exposing the
secrets of the family’s history. The doc created a newfound public curiosity in their personal
lives. However, no modern ties to Hitler's reign of terror have been made to living family members.
The story dates back to Günther Quandt, patriarch of the Quandt family, who joined the Nazi party
in 1933, the same year Hitler came to power. He was put in charge of Germany's armaments
economy and supplied weapons and ammo for the war effort. Those munitions were made in his
factories, where he "employed" tens of thousands of slave laborers.
After the war, Günther was tried and ultimately found non-compliant in the
war crimes of the Third Reich. He was released from prison in 1947
and died on vacation in Egypt in 1954. Since the Silence of the Quandts documentary aired,
modern family members tried to get in front of it, commissioning a 1200 page review of their family
history. The review confirmed everything the doc put forth. However, BMW was not implicated
in any of it. The family does not deny the sins of their ancestors. Gabriele Quandt,
Günther's grandson, admitted his family had been wrong in trying to hide their past.
Theo and Karl Albrecht Remember the Albrecht brothers,
the German businessmen that we mentioned earlier? You know, the ones who were taken hostage by
terrorists? Well, as it turns out, they weren't the only Theo and Karl Albrechts to make a lasting
impact on the grocery store scene. You see, Theo and Karl both had sons who they named after
themselves. So, the second generation of Theo and Karl Albrechts came to be. Theo and Karl,
Jr. were first cousins and ran the retail empire they inherited from their fathers.
Not only do the Albrechts own Aldi, which continues to be massively profitable with
6,500 locations worldwide, they also run another well-known grocery store chain,
Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's was bought by the Albrecht family 1979. Theo and Karl, Jr. are
both very rich, just like their fathers, with two uber-successful supermarket chains to their name.
The Albrecht cousins are worth a combined $35 billion, with Theo, Jr. accounting for roughly
20 billion of that. Like their fathers before them, the German billionaires are
extraordinarily private people. Neither of them make public appearances at store openings or
company functions. They don't own vacation homes or travel the world on their private
jets. They have chosen to live in seclusion with their families and their billions. (show )
Did the kidnapping of Theo's father back in the
70s contribute to the heirs' decision to be so secretive?
Adolf Merckle
Adolf Merckle was born into a rich German family. By the time he was done building
his pharmaceutical empire, he'd become one of Germany's richest people. Though he went to
law school, Adolf was far more interested in being a businessman than being a lawyer. The
biggest boon to his net worth would come in the early '90s, but before that, he made his
riches in the pharmaceutical world by founding Ratiopharm, Germany's first generic drug brand.
He also invested in other companies, like Heidelberg Cement and Kässbohrer,
a German car manufacturer that has since gone downhill. In 1994, however,
Adolf started his most ambitious business venture when he took over
his grandfather's wholesale chemical company and transformed it into Phoenix Pharmahandel,
the biggest drug wholesaler in Germany that still regularly rakes in billions of dollars annually.
Adolf quietly became one of the wealthiest people in Germany, though his aversion to
the spotlight kept him out of the public eye for the most part. He lived with his wife and
four children, running his very successful companies and neglecting to make any noise.
That all changed in 2008. The financial crisis decimated his
business empire. Desperate to stem the bleeding and recoup some of his losses,
Adolf decided to short Volkswagen stock, betting $500 million against the German car
company. The short sale was unsuccessful, though, and Adolf lost all his money.
Shortly after his failed bet, Adolf took his own life by jumping in front of an oncoming train.
Wolfgang Marguerre Wolfgang Marguerre has certainly
made his presence felt in the world, even though not much is known about the man himself.
In 1983, Wolfgang founded the pharmaceutical company Octapharma, which he has since grown
into one of the leading manufacturers of blood plasma products around the globe.
He continues to own and operate the lucrative corporation along with his children,
two of whom sit on the company's board.
In addition to his entrepreneurial pursuits, Wolfgang is a lifelong violinist, having played
since he was six years old. He even released his own album in 2011. He has made an effort
to use the wealth he's accumulated to support the arts whenever possible. In 2008, he donated $17.5
million to help save the Heidelberg Theatre, which was on the verge of closing at the time.
The money was used to renovate the facilities, and a newly built stage was named in Wolfgang's honor.
He's also done his part to help children with blood disorders in underprivileged countries.
He's sponsored a total of 70 kids with these diseases and uses his
company's resources to administer medical aid to these affected areas.
He seems like a real standup guy, right?
Wolfgang mostly keeps to himself, even with his various philanthropic endeavors,
and very little information about his private life is known. Still,
even as he keeps himself out of the headlines, he's been a force for good in the world.
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