In Hamburg, wealth is a family matter: these are the city's billionaires

Created: 08/04/2022 15:33

By: Kevin Goonewardena

The new Forbes list is here.

Hamburg billionaires are also represented.

How many billions Klaus-Michael Kühne & Co own.

And where they stand in comparison.

Hamburg – The annual, eagerly awaited “World's Billionaires List” by the US business magazine Forbes is considered to be an inventory of the world's possessions.

Taking first place is seen as a reward for the super-rich and a spur to underperforming competitors.

In addition to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the eccentric Tesla boss Elon Musk or Bill Gates, the usual suspects of recent years, there are also numerous Germans on the list of the world's richest billionaires.

Including a good half a dozen people from Hamburg, reports 24hamburg.de*.

But who are Hamburg's super-rich, how much do they own and what place do Hamburg's billionaires hold in a global comparison?

Richest hamburger: Klaus-Michael Kühne – second place in Germany, top 35 worldwide

The Hanseatic City of Hamburg is Germany's millionaire city.

Nowhere else do so many rich and super rich live.

As expected, Klaus-Michael Kühne (84) came in first among the richest people in Hamburg.

In a national comparison, Kühne is only beaten by Dieter Schwarz (Lidl, Kaufland).

With assets of 37.3 billion US dollars (around 34 million euros), Klaus-Michael Kühne is the 33rd richest person in the world.

According to this, only 32 people own more than the majority owner of the logistics group Kühne + Nagel, which also owns shares in the Hapag-Lloyd shipping company and the football department of HSV.

Metropolis in the north: Hamburg - the millionaire city of Germany.

© IMAGO / up two floors

There has always been speculation in the past that Klaus-Michael Kühne could have had enough of HSV and quit.

In fact, the "Hamburg super-rich" Kühne, who has been investing in the Hamburg sports club for more than ten years, sold off his first HSV shares.

An investment of millions by Kühne recently saved HSV the naming rights to the Volksparkstadion.

In the course of the Corona crisis, Klaus-Michael Kühne's fortune had increased by an incredible 20 billion euros last year.

The Otto family: Hamburg entrepreneurial family represented three times in the Forbes list

A total of nine Hamburg billionaires were able to place themselves on Forbes magazine's current "World's Billionaires List" thanks to their wealth.

Three of them are descendants of the Hamburg entrepreneurial family Otto based in Hamburg-Bramfeld.

Alexander Otto (10.7 billion euros, tenth place in Germany, 198th place in the world) is CEO of the ECE Group, which operates around 200 shopping centers worldwide.

In Hamburg, among other things, the Alstertal shopping center, the Europa Passage and the Elbe shopping center are operated by ECE.

The portfolio of the Poppenbüttel-based company also includes shopping malls in Denmark, Spain, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Austria and Qatar.

Alexander Otto's half-brother, Michael Otto, is also on the "World's Billionaires List".

He had expanded the Hamburg company into one of the world's leading mail order companies.

8.9 billion US dollars make Michael Otto the 13th richest man in Germany.

Michael Otto from Hamburg is ranked 230th worldwide thanks to his wealth.

His son Benjamin Otto comes to 2.4 billion US dollars.

According to Forbes, he still ranks 60th in Germany. In the global ranking of the super-rich, Benjamin Otto ranks 1053 in the "world ranking of the rich".

Billionaires in Hamburg: Otto, Herz, Fielmann, Bauer – wealth is a family matter in the Hanseatic city

In Hamburg, wealth seems to be a family affair: with the exception of Klaus-Michael Kühne, only Hamburg families are on Forbes magazine's "World's Billionaires List".

In addition to the Otto family, there are the Herz family (Tchibo, Michael and Wolfgang Herz, each 4 billion US dollars), the family of and around Günther Fielmann (4.7 billion, Germany ranked 34th, worldwide ranked 601st - founders of the optician -Imperium) as well as father Dieter and son Stephan Schnabel (Helm AG).

The heiress to Bauer Verlag, Yvonne Bauer, has also secured her place on the "World's Billionaires List".

With a fortune of 1 billion US dollars, Stephan Schnabel just made it onto the Forbes list (Dieter Schnabel: 1.7 billion), while Yvonne Bauer is the only woman on the list among eight Hamburg men.

She can call $2.4 billion her own.

(Germany place 63, global 1163)

Forbes list: These are the richest people in the world - a total of 87 fewer billionaires

Because of the Corona crisis and the Ukraine war, the number of billionaires worldwide fell by 87 people.

The undisputed leader of the "World's Billionaires" ranking is Tesla boss Elon Musk with an estimated fortune of 219 billion US dollars.

Long-time leader and founder of internet giant Amazon, Jeff Bezos, is in second place with 171 billion, ahead of French entrepreneur Bernard Arnault (158 billion).

Arnault heads the French luxury goods group LVMH Moët Hennessy, which includes the Louis Vuitton brand and the champagne manufacturer Moët.

Arnault is considered the richest European.

While some super-rich oppose or avoid high taxes, there are also millionaires who advocate higher taxes.

"Tax me now" is the name of an initiative that advocates higher taxation of the rich and super-rich by the state.

In Germany, 36 millionaires have signed a corresponding demand.

*24hamburg.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.