With a fortune of 35 billion euros, the Reimanns are the richest Germans. This results in the estimation of the wealth of the 1001 richest German citizens, published by the manager magazin for the 19th time.
The assets of the Reimanns, who had taken first place in 2017, have increased by an estimated 2 billion euros. Although the beauty company Coty ran so bad that the JAB Holding, the investment company of Reimanns, 2018 even had to report a loss of nearly one billion euros. In the first half of 2019, however, Reimann Holding once again reported a book profit of five billion euros.
Share of Reckitt Benckiser largely sold
The former owner family of the Ludwigshafen-based chemical group Benckiser continues to pursue an aggressive strategy under JAB Chairman Peter Harf (73). In just a few years she has worked with Keurig. Pepper one of the largest beverage companies in the world created - from coffee to soda, they give everything.
Various luxury brands and perfumes are also part of their portfolio with Coty. In addition, she has recently invested nearly $ 5 billion in veterinary clinic chains in the United States. However, the Reimanns have almost completely sold their assets, their share of British consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser, with brands such as Calgon, Clearasil, Kukident or Sagrotan.
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Photo gallery: These are the richest Germans in 2019The Reimann family consists of Renate Reimann-Haas (67) and Wolfgang Reimann (66), their half-brothers Stefan (56) and Matthias (54) Reimann-Andersen and their ten children. When it became known in the spring that their ancestors were pacting with the Nazis during the Nazi era, the family expressed their regret and Harf said the clan ancestors had "passed away" and "actually belonged in jail".
With a fortune of 27.5 billion euros, Dieter Schwarz (80) ranks second for the first time. His discounter Lidl is still developing more dynamically than the businesses of his arch-rivals Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd, which are owned by the descendants of the founding brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht. The black-controlled retail group, which also includes the supermarket chain Kaufland, realizes more than one hundred billion euros.
200 billionaires in Germany
Lost back in third place are last year's front runners Susanne Klatten (57) and Stefan Quandt (53). Their assets fell by 7.5 billion euros to 26.5 billion euros. The siblings own 47 percent of the shares of BMW. That earned them a dividend of just over one billion euros (gross) for 2018. But as the share price of BMW fell within twelve months by more than 20 percent, their share package lost over five billion euros in value.
Equity was calculated for the ranking with the closing prices of 13 September.
The biggest losers after the Quandt siblings are Georg (54) and Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler (78), owners of the rolling bearing manufacturer of the same name, headquartered in Herzogenaurach, and major shareholders of the Hanover-based automotive supplier Continental. Both companies are suffering from poor business performance and lower share prices, so that the assets of mother and son Schaeffler fell from 17 to 13.4 billion euros.
All in all, the time in which the fortunes of the richest Germans seemingly grew effortlessly is over for the time being. On many world stock exchanges, prices no longer rise, real estate prices and company valuations have passed their peak.
According to estimates by manager magazin, there will be 200 billionaires in Germany in 2019 - the same number as in 2018. This number includes individuals as well as large families who have a corresponding fortune in common. In the first list of the richest Germans in 2001, there were 69 billionaires, and in 2010 - after a slight decline due to the financial crisis - already 102. In the past ten years, the number of billionaires in Germany has more than doubled.
The Top 1001 list also identifies which high net worth individuals have contributed their businesses or their shares to foundations. In the top 10 this applies to four billionaires. In addition to the Albrechts and Dieter Schwarz, the Hamburg dealer family Otto has also founded a family foundation that manages its company shares and provides families with distributions.
The full list of the 1001 richest German 2019 can be found on manager magazine premium. (free trial subscription)
