It is popularly said that money rules the world.
When it comes down to it, these Germans have a lot to say.
In the following ranking we present the 20 richest Germans in 2020:
20th place: Andreas von Bechtolsheim
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© Bettina Grachtrup / picture alliance
With an estimated fortune of 7.7 billion euros,
Andreas von Bechtolsheim
just made it into the top 20 richest Germans.
The computer scientist co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982.
Andreas von Bechtolsheim - one of the first investors at Google
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© Jeff Chiu / picture alliance
Von Bechtolsheim
was also one of the first investors in
Google in
1982
.
Today he lives in the American Silicon Valley and continues to earn money as an investor and entrepreneur.
19th place: August von Finck
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© imago images / Weißfuß
August von Finck
had inherited many holdings from his father.
Gradually, the former banker sold these and concentrated on investments in companies in Switzerland.
Von Finck
lives there
today too.
August von Finck attracted attention through generous party donations
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© imago images / Weißfuß
Born in Munich, he is considered media-shy, but involuntarily hit the headlines in 2008 and 2009 when he donated 1.1 million euros to the FDP.
Von Finck
also supported the AfD financially.
His fortune is said to be 8.35 billion euros.
18th place: Nikolaus Knauf
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© imago images / Wolf P. Prange
Nikolaus Knauf is
just ahead of von Finck
.
The shareholder of the
Knauf Group
, which today is one of the leading manufacturers of building materials with more than 150 production sites, is likely to have assets of 8.5 billion euros.
Nikolaus Knauf is Honorary Consul of Russia
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© Robert Schlesinger / picture alliance
Knauf
(center), who supports many cultural and social institutions, is a bearer of the Bavarian Order of Merit and even Honorary Consul of Russia.
17th place: Friedhelm Loh
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© Jens Kalaene / picture alliance
Friedhelm Loh
heads the
Friedhelm Loh Group
and has come a long way with the group of companies.
Today, many corporations belong to the conglomerate, for example from the IT, steel trade and electrical engineering sectors.
Friedhelm Loh is Vice President of the BDI
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© Ole Spata / picture alliance
The business economist, who has been Vice President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) since 2006, has assets estimated at 8.9 billion euros.
This brings
Loh
17th place in the ranking of the richest Germans.
16th place: Heinrich Deichmann
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© DEICHMANN / Rüdiger Fessel / picture alliance
The
Deichmann
shoe group
is now run by the third generation.
The boss is
Heinrich Deichmann
.
The brand has now risen to become Europe's largest shoe retailer.
It all started with a small shoemaker's shop
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© Rolf Vennenbernd / picture alliance
Deichmann's
grandfather had a small shoemaker's shop in 1913.
Today the shoe retailer makes billions of dollars a year.
Deichmann's
fortune is said to be around 9.5 billion euros.
Places 15 and 14: Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann
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© HEXAL_AG / picture alliance
The identical twins
Thomas
and
Andreas Strüngmann
(Thomas Strüngmann can be seen in the picture on the right) have come
a long way
together in the
pharmaceutical industry
.
After joining their father's generics company in 1979, they sold them seven years later for 100 million Deutschmarks.
A generic is a drug whose active ingredients are similar to those of a previously approved drug in terms of the active ingredients.
It is usually sold cheaper than the original product.
Thomas and Andreas Strüngmann invested in Hexal
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© Frank Mächler / picture alliance
They immediately reinvested the money and founded the
Hexal
company in Holzkirchen, Upper Bavaria
, which grew to become Germany's second largest generic manufacturer.
In 2005 the
Strüngmanns sold Hexal
for around 7.5 billion US dollars to Novartis.
Together, the twins have an estimated fortune of over 20 billion euros
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© Arne Dedert / picture alliance
Today the two hold larger shares in companies in the medical sector.
This also
applies to
50 percent of the biotechnology company
Biontech, which was
founded in 2008
.
Each of the brothers is said to be in possession of more than ten billion euros.
Rank 13: Jacob's family
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© Kraft_Foods_Deutschland / picture alliance
Every coffee lover knows
Jacobs
.
As early as 1895,
Johann Jacobs
opened
a shop in Bremen where he
traded in
tea, cocoa and
coffee
- the hour of birth for one of the most popular types of coffee in Germany.
The Jacobs family now earns their living in other ways
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© imago images / Eckhard Stengel
Jacobs
has since been sold in several ways.
Today, the family earns their living with stakes in companies in other industries.
But not bad.
The assets are said to be 11.2 billion euros.
12th place: Georg Schaeffler
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© Daniel Karmann / picture alliance
Following
the death of his father in 1996,
Georg Schaeffler
became the heir of a company of the same name that is still family-owned today.
As a partner, he holds 80 percent of the shares in the supplier for the automotive and mechanical engineering industries.
Georg Schaeffler does not live in Germany
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© Julian Stratenschulte / picture alliance
Although
Schaeffler
studied law and worked as a commercial lawyer for several years, he later concentrated on the family business again.
His assets are said to be around twelve billion euros.
He lives in the USA.
11th place: Udo and Harald Tschira
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© imago images / Sven Simon
Klaus Tschira
(pictured) founded
SAP
in 1972 with four colleagues
.
Today it is impossible to imagine the world without the group with its software.
After
Tschira's
death
in 2015, his sons
Udo
and
Harald
inherited
his fortune.
Udo and Harald Tschira barely make it into the top 10 richest Germans
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© Michael Bermel / Eibner-Pressefoto / imago images
And that is now considerable.
Together, the brothers have total assets of more than 13 billion euros.
But that's just not enough for the top ten richest Germans.
Place 10: Heinz Hermann Thiele
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© AFP PHOTO / KNORR-BREMSE AG
Heinz Hermann Thiele
made the Munich company Knorr-Bremse one of the leading manufacturers of braking systems for commercial and rail vehicles.
He joined the company in the late 1960s.
Thiele's company went public in 2018
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© imago images / Hannelore Förster
In 2018 Knorr-Bremse dared to go public.
In 2020, the fortune of
Thiele
and the family is estimated at 14 billion euros.
That brings the entrepreneur tenth place.
9th place: Klaus-Michael Kühne
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© Axel Heimken / picture alliance
Football fans know
Klaus-Michael Kühne
as a patron.
The entrepreneur invested a lot of money in the football club Hamburger SV.
But Kühne also formed a huge logistics group.
Bold fortune is almost 15 billion euros
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© Axel Heimken / picture alliance
Kuehne + Nagel started out as a family business; today the company is one of the world's best with over 60,000 employees in more than 100 countries.
Bold
fortune is estimated at 14.8 billion euros.
8th place: Hasso Plattner
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© Soeren Stache / picture alliance
Hasso Plattner
is another of the five founders of the IT company
SAP
.
Until 2003 he was CEO of the software company.
Since then he has been head of the supervisory board.
Since he left ...
Hasso Plattern is known as a patron
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© imago images / Martin Müller
...
Plattner acts
as a patron
from day-to-day business
.
It promotes science in Germany, the USA, Romania and South Africa.
In addition,
Plattner is
considered an art sponsor.
His fortune is said to be almost 15 billion euros.
7th place: Stefan Quandt
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© Thomas Lohnes / picture alliance
Stefan Quandt
(2nd from left) is the son of the
BMW heirs
Herbert and Johanna Quandt.
With his 23.7 percent stake, the entrepreneur is a major shareholder in the well-known German car manufacturer.
Stefan Quandt lives withdrawn
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© Frank Rumpenhorst / picture alliance
Quandt
, who shuns public appearances and is therefore not familiar to everyone, lives withdrawn, is a lover of art and also supports it financially.
Quandt's
fortune is estimated at around 15.35 billion euros.
6th place: Dietmar Hopp
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© UWE ANSPACH / AFP
With
Dietmar Hopp
there is another founding member of the software company
SAP
sixth of the richest Germans.
He has since withdrawn from day-to-day business.
Since then, has been mainly active as an investor.
Dietmar Hopp is known as a patron of the Bundesliga soccer club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim
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© Uwe Anspach / picture alliance
But
Hopp also
distinguishes himself as a philanthropist and patron.
He
enables charitable projects
through his
foundation
.
Climate protection is also a major concern of the multi-billionaire, who also supports TSG 1899 Hoffenheim financially.
His fortune is said to be 15.7 billion euros.
5th place: Reinhold Würth
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© imago images / Manfred Siebinger
The entrepreneur is new to the club of the ten richest Germans in 2020.
Reinhold Würth
, who became a billionaire with screws, rose to fifth place with a fortune estimated by Forbes of 16.9 billion euros.
Reinhold Würth: In 2015 his son was kidnapped
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© Marijan Murat / picture alliance
The kidnapping of his mentally disabled son in June 2015 caused a stir.
A
little later,
Würth was
able to
hug
the then 50-year-old unharmed again.
A suspect was arrested, but was acquitted during the November 2018 trial because the court could not unequivocally identify the accused as the kidnapper.
4th place: Theo Albrecht Junior
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© Roland Weihrauch / picture alliance
Because
Theo Albrecht junior is
considered to be public shy, there is no new image in the media.
He is the eldest son of Theo Albrecht senior, who
founded and ran
Aldi Nord
.
Theo Albrecht junior is also a co-owner of another grocery chain
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© imago images / Rüdiger Wölk
Albrecht Junior
is also a co-owner of the US grocery chain
Trader Joe's
.
His fortune is estimated at a good 18 billion euros, which brings him fourth place in the “Forbes” ranking of the richest Germans.
3rd place: Susanne Klatten
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© Sina Schuldt / picture alliance
Susanne Klatten
is also a
BMW heir
, but clearly leaves her brother Stefan Quandt behind when it comes to wealth, even though she holds fewer shares.
It comes to an estimated 20.5 billion euros and thus on the podium.
Susanne Klatten was the victim of a blackmailer
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© Matthias Balk / picture alliance
In 2007 and 2008,
Klatten was the
victim of blackmail.
She had an affair with a gigolo.
The man filmed the meetings and claimed millions after the affair ended.
He was later sentenced to six years in prison.
2nd place: Dieter Schwarz
Lidl boss Dieter Schwarz: The Phantom of Heilbronn #SZPlus https://t.co/gQ5vwy4vzG
- Süddeutsche Zeitung (@SZ) May 20, 2019
There
are also very few pictures
of
Dieter Schwarz
(center).
Only a reporter from the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” caught the Lidl founder at a public appointment with his smartphone.
Dieter Schwarz is considered the richest individual in Germany
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© Matthias Balk / picture alliance
The owner of the
Schwarz Group
, to which the discounter
Lidl
and
Kaufland
belong, is considered to be the richest individual in Germany with an estimated fortune of 30.2 billion euros.
Schwarz
lives completely withdrawn in his hometown Heilbronn, where he can even go shopping without being recognized.
1st place: Beate Heister and Karl Albrecht Junior
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© imago images / Petra Schneider
The children of Aldi-Süd founder Karl Albrecht Sr. have the greatest fortune of all Germans.
That is why
Beate Heister
and
Karl Albrecht junior are
at the top of the ranking with an estimated 35 billion euros in assets.
Beate Heister and Karl Albrecht junior control the discounter empire from the background
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© Christoph Hardt / imago images
For
Heister
and
Albrecht junior
,
too
, modesty and seclusion are trumps.
The two control
the discounter empire
via the family foundation, which
holds
all of the assets and the trademark rights to
Aldi Süd
.
