Susanne Klatten, née Quandt - this is how the German entrepreneur and the richest woman in Germany lives

Created: 01/29/2022, 19:52

Susanne Klatten © Sven Hoppe / dpa

Susanne Klatten is the daughter of Herbert and Johanna Quandt.

All information about your CV, your company investments, your family and the inherited assets.

Bad Homburg – Susanne Klatten was born on April 28, 1962 in Bad Homburg.

After the death of her father Herbert Quandt in 1982, his fortune fell to three parties: Susanne Quandt, her brother Stefan Quandt and her mother Johanna Quandt, who had died in the meantime.

Through the inherited shares in the Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) and other lucrative company holdings, Susanne Quandt gradually rose to become the richest woman in Germany.

During one of her professional positions, Susanne Quandt met her future husband, Jan Klatten, and took his name after the wedding.

Entrepreneur Susanne Klatten: Her CV

The CV of the entrepreneur Susanne Klatten includes, among other things, her professional training. The first station was the training course to become an advertising saleswoman, which led Klatten to Frankfurt / Main. Between 1981 and 1983, the Bad Homburg native trained as a marketing specialist in the Hessian financial metropolis. The company Young & Rubicam was in charge at the time, and their advertising slogans (including “Fruchtzwerge: As valuable as a small steak”; “Milka: The tenderest temptation since there was chocolate”) are still present today. This was followed by studying business administration in Great Britain. After Klatten's return to his homeland, he trained in management and worked at Burda Verlag in Munich.Internships at Deutsche Bank and at the BMW branch in Regensburg complete Susanne Klatten's curriculum vitae.

Kidnapping prevented at the last minute

At the latter station, she remained incognito and, using the name Susanne Kant, learned about automobile law.

A private side effect of the stay: a connection was formed with Jan Klatten, who was also stationed in Regensburg, and whom she married after a preliminary phase of several years.

Susanne Klatten's cautious approach to public and private affairs is rooted in a traumatic experience Klatten faced at the age of 16.

A gang of 14 tried to kidnap her and her mother in 1978.

The act was thwarted by the police at the last minute.

At the time, the gangsters wanted to extort 10 million Deutschmarks from Herbert Quandt.

Entrepreneur Susanne Klatten: Which companies she has a stake in

The entrepreneur Susanne Klatten owns shares and shares in various companies.

As is generally the case in the high finance sector, your capital is spread out for reasons of risk minimization.

Holdings in the following companies are known:

• bmw

• Altana

• DataCard

• Nordex

• SGL Carbon

BMW is the Bavarian Motor Works, which belongs to the Munich BMW Group.

The British car manufacturer Rover was once part of the group.

The sale of the Rover division in 2000 aroused considerable (media) interest.

As a shareholder at BMW, Susanne Klatten played a key role in the sale of the loss-making division.

Klatten is also the main shareholder and a member of the Supervisory Board of Altana AG based in Bad Homburg.

In 2002, together with CEO Nikolaus Schweickart, she listed the chemical company based in her native town on the New York Stock Exchange.

Smart cards, wind power and carbon

DataCard is an American company specializing in the production of smart cards.

Susanne Klatten is also actively involved here, as she holds 40 percent of the shares.

Together with her family's holdings, it's even 100 percent.

That leaves SGL Carbon and Nordex SE.

The latter company takes care of the manufacture, construction and maintenance of wind turbines.

The planning of wind farms is also part of the Hamburg-based company's core business.

The headquarters of SGL Carbon are in Wiesbaden.

Carbon-based products are high on the agenda of the Hessians, where Klatten heads the supervisory board.

Waste oil and environmental protection

In addition to the companies mentioned, Susanne Klatten has holdings in other companies and sectors. For example, she is involved with the waste oil treatment company Avista. The Lower Saxony are targeting the re-refining of waste oil and also produce lubricants. Susanne Klatten is said to have a 30 percent stake in Avista. Klatten is also involved in the business of Landa Digital Printing. The Israeli employer focuses on the topics of digital printing and nanotechnology. Environmental protection also plays a role at Klatten. Funds flow into water treatment plants or to the manufacturers of the corresponding equipment. In addition, Susanne Klatten attaches great importance to financial support for selected start-up companies,which were founded under the umbrella of the Technical University (TU) Munich.

Entrepreneur Susanne Klatten: Her family

Internals from the family of the entrepreneur Susanne Klatten are not known, as they keep a low profile in this regard.

Consequently, only general facts are available.

Accordingly, Susanne Klatten was born in 1962 as the daughter of Herbert and Johanna Quandt.

For Herbert Quandt it was the third marriage.

The son of the industrialist Günther Quandt had a total of six children.

The youngest are Susanne Klatten and her brother Stefan Quandt.

Herbert Quandt died in 1982 at the age of 71.

His widow Johanna Quandt died in 2015. She was 89 years old.

Stefan Quandt is the younger brother of Susanne Klatten.

Like his sister, he is an entrepreneur.

Among other things, he owns numerous shares in the Bavarian Motor Works (BMW).

Separation after 28 years of marriage

Susanne Klatten was in a relationship with Jan Klatten for around three decades.

Of that, 28 years are related to their marriage.

The couple, who met at a joint employer in the 1980s, have three children together.

They split up in June 2018.

Since then, Susanne Klatten has lived alternately in her hometown of Bad Homburg and in the Bavarian capital of Munich.

Nothing is known about their current relationship status.

Entrepreneur Susanne Klatten: Her fortune

There are only assumptions or estimates about the fortune of the entrepreneur Susanne Klatten, but no reliable figures.

Nevertheless, every year she is included in the list of the 100 richest people in the world.

Klatten is usually found in the middle of the ranking.

The list drawn up by the US business magazine "Forbes" for 2021 ascribes a fortune of around 30 billion US dollars to Susanne Klatten.

That's enough for 53rd place.

Klatten sees himself 14 places further behind in the "Bloomberg Billionaires Index".

According to the New York news agency, the German brings it to 26 billion US dollars, which entails rank 67.

Entrepreneur Susanne Klatten: who blackmailed her

The blackmailing of the entrepreneur Susanne Klatten made headlines in 2008 and 2009.

The background was an extramarital affair with Klatten and the Swiss-born fraudster and imposter Helg Sgarbi.

Klatten and Sgarbi met in a Tyrolean hotel on Lake Achensee, where the Swiss gradually gained the trust of the German billionaire.

While it was love for Susanne Klatten, Helg Sgarbi only had the business side in mind.

From the beginning he was only interested in the money of his gullible victim.

Klatten fell for the scam and "supported" her admirer with seven million euros.

When he wanted to negotiate another 48 million for a secretly made film with sexual content, Susanne Klatten filed a complaint.

affair with consequences

Helg Sgarbi was arrested when the money was faked at a rest stop and sentenced to six years in prison for fraud and extortion.

Although Susanne Klatten received her 48 million euros back, the seven million previously paid to Sgarbi have disappeared to this day and, according to the police report, "cannot be found".

The case, classified by the gossip press as a scandal and exploited across the board, was soon exploited in television.

On November 11, 2014, the TV film "In the case" was first broadcast on ARD.