parliamentary elections in the region coming up soon in september and if the f.t. does well here and there it could really cement this far right party as one of the the means fixtures of the german political landscape. reporter aaron tilton we thank you very much for that and if you. and you're up to date now on d w news stay tuned for a shift to living in the digital age omarion evans for me and the entire team here thanks for watching. so if you have to get through the bundesliga break without a football thanks again. for the women's world cup and it's weeks of excitement set in motion. some. swings in 90 minutes. the results here on t.v.

. germany's super rich no other european country has as many billionaires and while their fortunes are growing more and more germans are living under the poverty line set by the organization for economic co-operation and development the o.e.c.d. . the press frequently reports on the country's high income inequality and low social mobility but little is known about the super rich the truth see it sure money attracts success and success attracts money so i do believe that and i've experienced myself how you can suddenly connect with people previously out of reach for the kind of shows you how to. germany's super wealthy how do they live and how do they see the country they live in. the way wealthy people in germany are

talked about bothers me because it sensationalizing and sycophantic and and in no way reflects what wealthy people have done and continue to do for this country for this long clothes on but. i need a creates this impression of rich people being like scrooge mcduck that they have these money bins in which they wallow in their coins. and scrooge mcduck wants more more more that's not my world mind if. i like earning money but not swimming and. we thought. we wanted to get closer to the discreet world of germany's ultra rich of company owners and as with millions we wanted to find out what makes those on top of the world take.

every year an exclusive event takes place in the schlosser take on balcony a friend 1st to which the public is not invited. it's the annual hall of fame evening for the business monthly manager magazine partly any other occasion in germany draws as many wealthy business onus. the air gets a lot out of steam to presenters did jury members steer ladies and gentlemen welcome to manager magazine's hole of fact. when we 1st founded the hall of fame in 1902 we wanted to take a stand for excellence and unconditional entrepreneurship and against faint hearted ness and averageness. we begin our nominations today with a moment and his company united internet is valued at around 11000000000 and on our list of germany's richest people the ranks 25th with a personal wealth of 4500000000 euros for months once the midfield. electively the

guests at this elegant evening are worth billions of euros. this is the face of wealth in germany main email and although we're close to the super rich here there will remain somehow also for each. hand the home to manage a magazine's parent company the speaker group hardly any publication keeps close a tabs on germany's ultra rich every year the magazine's team gathers information on wealthy germans and using the forbes model makes a special edition with a list of germany's 1001 richest people. it's painstaking work. with how many billionaires are video of the

$480.00 of the 198 last year was $136.00 right no last year it was around $17170.00 ok on that is someone who wants to get on our list of 1001 richest germans needs to have around 100000000 with the cache of collectors and have to be money in the bank most people have it is assets or is property but that's the ballpark we're looking for to be on our list of the richest germans the bison. continent to devise and origin to. editor in chief stephan close one has been around germany's ultra wealthy for years. what does it take to get on the list. as it were among the top i'd say that the top $150.00 spots on our list will always go to company owners and ass even if you're a chief physician you'll need to see a whole lot of patients to become a billionaire as many managers also have a hard time getting that high up here in germany there's

a debate about whether the head surtax company is too much of an index but if you compare it to what people in similar posts in the u.s. the u.k. or china it's peanuts for the wholesale tanya and heena so that alone can't ever make you one of the truly ultra rich i number 2 come dozens and. creating a list of the wealthiest people is especially difficult in germany they're not because there aren't enough of them. to me. that's a huge shock he somehow managed to amass this huge empire a fortune in just a few years it's off his wealth has estimated to be around 4000000000 because he's the least known super rich germans in the home would he let his interview him at home. they prefer to fly under the radar to avoid envy. of the super rich don't like to help themselves so to speak in the midst of this thought no these are home

stories here you can normally only get interviews inside the homes with 2nd tier one there you always get guys who get a kick out of publicity. like mr marsh. getting a good shot of mr marsh myer is never a problem. but the real money keeps itself had to go does this have to help. the super rich will try. to go unnoticed sometimes i even try to hide there are no photos of several people on our list at least you won't find a single picture if you go online and google them because there hasn't been a photo of the hymen sites germany's richest family for decades and for so many stay hidden because they want to live normal lives and think that they won't be able to do so if they're known to be multi-billionaires. and live in can. for months oh interview requests were rejected agreed film sheets were cancelled last minute none of the rich wanted to talk to us about money. finally we got

lucky and the financial help friend face here in a prime location tucked behind the bank city asset management company full come full can manage his german business families fortunes. its chairman christan fanbase the time provided some insight as to why rich germans also shine. detroit if you know many wealthy germans are reluctant about stepping out into the public eye because they're afraid they could be seen negatively. they ask themselves what do i get from showing myself to the public it doesn't give me anything on the contrary it could lead to some crazy person taking notice and breaking into my home or kidnapping one of my children. and those fears are not unwarranted. but then there's also the fact that many errors are inheriting fortunes that are somehow tainted by or related to the 3rd reich. is.

the upper tier of rich germans avoids publicity as if it were the play. but what are they so afraid of. the half of which one i asked a number of my friends whether they'd like to be interviewed for this film and each one said no they'd say it's. someone else can do that better than me i can't do it right and i might come across wrong if they think they'd have much more to lose than to gain leverage because us this was given come. after a loss of back and forth with this press team one ultra rich german did agree to meet us michelle cottle is the chairman of the supervisory board of the auto trader and one of the 10 richest germans. we asked him why and germans are reluctant to show off they well. few people from any

wiring are doing so would lead to envy in the us achievement and wealth are seen in a highly positive way. but here they carry a bitter aftertaste where does his fortune come from or how did he get his wealth that scares some off to the shore and munches by few i think a lot of people find their own welfare little nauseating. i don't know at all i like it mr scott and when he. did cost money grew up poor his mother ran a small drug store and postal had after his son had bigger plans in 1972 the idea of opening the 1st self-service drug store in germany came to him today he's a multimillionaire why was he happy to step into the spotlight. and frank's young if not today in the early years it was just about getting the name rossman on there and you know. where so when i was invited to a talk show on

a small regional channel like going to because i thought on the free publicity for my company or negated by the film. but then 2 or 3 years ago i started to understand that this slightly flabby balding man who has teased aren't perfect but was hungry for recognition himself. back then i thought i was stepping into the limelight to promote the company but everyone rationalizes their motives. and i do this. within 40 years became the most profitable drugstore chain in europe with stores in 6 countries. in 2018 a total of 56000 people working on the chain. osman is active in other business areas as well and he speculates on the stock market.

my work couple of private equity investments the largest 00 you'd have between 80 and 100000000 depending on the stock so it's a fair sun there are also shares in different industries it would. be boring to the. venue if you're still referred to as n s m e because small medium enterprise why do you think that's so. i don't really know i just think of them with 55000 employees you're not really a medium enterprise anymore you're in another league. we're back at manager magazine in hand. with the special issue of being selected. a list of the richest germans includes a notably high number of company otherness from the so-called medium sized businesses. it's a german peculiarity and it's not the only one. a cover story for this current

issue is that last year money rained down on germany's super rich. here we have the chef loves the matriarch and her son who now owns 80 percent mom has kept only 20 scheffler subpoena at the top of our list for many many years i would have to check exactly how much they're worth but around 20000000000 give or take a bit. you know down here we have missed partial tasks in the head of the henkel class she's the 1st and so far only woman chairman of the supervisory board of one of the 30 tax companies. germany's economy is still extremely mild dominated and what's interesting is if you compare our list here with a list of the ultra rich in the us that we have a lot of old money old companies that have been around for decades in the us you have all those lads from facebook google snap chat and so forth a lot of bubbled up to the top of the list we don't have that type of thing here.

and compared with other countries germans are very reticent about showing their wealth the very few germans sail around in boats like this consistently foreigners and then usually that's american and russians chinese and so on once i hear you don't really show your money you might have various houses villas and such but there's likely to be a spark and parked out front of. it seems the average ultra wealthy german israeli conspicuous unlike in the u.s. athletes actors and t.v. personalities rarely make it onto the german list. even though we put a great deal of love and sweat into estimating his fortunes are probably much bigger than the tide or especially if we're talking about urban real estate where prices have exploded over the past 10 years a lot of people have doubled their property assets so if you started with 5000000000 in that market you're likely to have 10 or 15000000000 today that's enough of them. money makes money but well rich germans fortunes have exploded

since the financial crisis due to the increase in value of real estate stocks and assets those with average incomes have had to swallow losses. even liberal economics institutes are concerned about social inequality in germany how do the super rich see this disparity. my headline in the newspaper reads the rich are getting richer and richer which is true the rich are getting richer yes it's true but it's also false. there are 20000000 citizens in germany who have assets worth between 100001 1000000. so millions of people are getting richer. now the rich are getting richer even faster because one factor is probable they can dedicate much more time to increasing their wealth it's beautiful the ugly . question of the left party would likely say split up your wealth but my response

is i also do things for the world which i live in i don't just take or i'm not a socialist i can only do things because i have things. auto is one of the great his wealth has increased he successfully transitioned his mail order business into a digital enterprise over 20 companies now belong to the. we wanted to know how to seize the debates about rich and poor. do the rich understand the worries of the poor. and. when people talk about those on top who don't understand those at the bottom i wouldn't say that applies to me. because i was not born rich . i came to hamburg as a refugee from west prashant and my father had to start from scratch and my father out of. that's why i absolutely do understand people living in poverty today.

on the other hand i'd also say that if germany is getting more and more millionaires meaning people with small or medium sized businesses because generally the millionaires in question did go into business they now run then i think that's great. then this is because they're the people creating jobs for me that's what should matter in this debate we should focus on that and not rich versus poor that is. ensuring that the wealth of rich families can increase despite current 0 interest rates is the mission of the times company. with. each day he and his employees send out. investment opportunities from banks and other entities given exclusively to his wealthy clients and that this is a way to present an author to just a handful of valued clients and focus on this he does and that.

is it said that rich germans are able to increase their wealth while the rest of the population gets left behind. the biggest to get they think it's difficult to apply terms like equity and fairness to the distribution of wealth and i would say that here in germany we're better off than ever before and people here living above average circumstances like nonetheless we have to make sure the gap between rich and poor doesn't get too wide because we don't want social conflicts like in the u.s. or latin america to happen here in america. from best of times company people come is a so-called multi-family office family office has take care of the needs of very wealthy families managing and increasing their assets it only makes sense to use family offices if your wealth is upward of 30000000 euros who can afford such

a thing. so. this is cause and well of a family office like ours and obviously can't discuss its clients so we have well known german business families that's our typical client profile of the class of. someone who we have or was a company owner thinks differently to someone who has spent their life as one for you think of you. more they are families who have had money for a long time saw so wealth is so to speak in their genes. that is that it wasn't. good for me and then there are families who have just come into their wealth who are still pumping with entrepreneurial energy guys to their usually quite different from heirs from carter i see it as a total. my son for. china seems to have plenty of this entrepreneurial energy his company is not fit europe's largest fitness studio chain. its head courses are in an all baking factory in berlin.

started off small but today his wealth is valued at 250000000 euros. and they're from but i was born here. up in a small village and normally in villages you do the sports available and when i was around $1516.00 my role models were arnold schwarzenegger and stallone that's how i came to the fitness world for my son i went from secondary school to computer salesman to print to ship and became the many tales 3 supermarkets then he decided to start something new. for the for me. when i was 25 this but i decided to switch to the fitness industry my idea was to open a gym where anyone could train no matter his or her income god that was the initial idea and i had big goals i wanted to be number one in europe but that's all i had i didn't have financing. it was 997 when shall i opened his 1st fitness studio

in this book close to his home village he made use of some unusual methods. on the monetary sure if it was a big step for me i opened my 1st business studio there under the slogan now also inverts book which people saw through as a marketing gag because customers came to me and asked where else we had studios and the common good so i gave it some thought and came up with the next marketing gag soon also in the thing that did the job and also put me on track to going from goats blog to spend then it grew from there. 10 years later i never should have reached his goal he's number one in europe and still expanding . like that now owns 10 fitness companies as well as its own model agency. is getting ready to open fitness studios in the u.s.

. and super is getting to be number one is much easier than staying number one i think if you want to be successful you need to be a bit of an alpha animal inside all. the investor would probably pick a brand and say ok that could work i like it although it's probably 2 steps too far for many. but if someone doesn't want to get involved with us because of it so what . so what you can do it so i. convince that you have an easier time if you want your way to the top and to success the clients feel it and so to partners. i think that's our situation just us but which is why i can also imagine that someone who inherits something or takes over or even has to take over a company in the 2nd or 3rd generation what will happen much tougher time and. a serious. but there are plenty of s.

in germany huge fortunes and thousands of companies have been passed from one generation to the next they don't want to and others who shouldn't take over their parents' businesses succession is hugely important among germany's richest men and harry said the male would accompany it from his father and successfully managed it . from one to can that is this it will be harder for my children though because now the auto group has 123 companies in over 30 countries one of the lines once is when i know every single company either because i was involved when it was founded or because i let the take of a negotiation for money can. my children don't yet know the many companies because . art has children have opted against direct succession of. the finest beasties discipline i think it's important to give your children the option without pressuring them so you don't force them into a wrong i think that mistake is made often and i'd say it's bad for both the

children and the company. name to put. his or her money so i only have one point of sale books. are you a bit tired yes it's koenig's austin couple of days in 10 minutes i'll be fine again it was just bam bam bam bam bam. did crossman also spent a lot of time considering his success would be it's now decided collars last month the younger of his 2 sons will take over as manager of the drugstore chain. called rock do we actually sell much yarn it's not exactly part of a drugstores or a trend sort of over it was big in 2016 already fading in 2017 and it's been stagnating in 2018 but it's not the worst product we have and it still brings in some revenue that's one of the many. runs father had to show him the appeal of being in charge. of the end user when the boys got more engaged i thought oh no we

can't look as if the drugstore business is only about making money so i showed them how we're also active in social issues in africa and so forth i'm. afeared i've always showed my sons that what we do isn't just about making money but it's also about being responsible for others i mean for mentioning. as a child i wanted to become a film director that was always my dream it still is today you know how do you make it happen then you might be thinking you know i don't want to be a director film i want to own the company so i said i want to go ahead and become a director. but being a director of such a big company is also exciting and i did manipulate him a bit. just but what if you could find i'm often asked whether i feel competitive toward my father and sure he built up this big company that i will only take over but it's really difficult to keep something

going these days as the founding period has its own challenges and just having the idea of founding a self-service drugstore was hugely innovative not succumbed but the fight to survive has gotten tougher and that's the one i'm in. is called also. everyone in my family wants to be good at sports. my father and i battle each other in tennis. you know we all compete with one another. and that's also shaped our view of life or mine at least depict as a tremendous minor. despite their competitiveness the last month family reached a home only his agreement with regard to succession. is sure that just like playing against trouble wipes me out are normally prefer playing doubles that's much more appropriate for men my age i miss him if i'm

starting to worry a bit about you you worry about me. with your own arrogance i wouldn't be looking forward to it. selecting as an successes is usually not quite as amicable as at the hospice. to stand firm based on time has seen many inheritance disputes in rich families it's his job to preserve the family's assets and protected from all sorts of dangers. and from moving to a host maintaining a family fortune over several generations is incredibly difficult because it's under threat from being divvied up through inheritance from well just humans from expropriation from wars or simply from stupidity in the most families will have one or all of these happen to them and only a handful of families have managed to stay more or less afloat over centuries but those right on top have been switched out again and again. these wouldn't you know

we go escapes. from time speaks from personal experience his own family's history dates back 900 years it's like i have a horribly long name at least on my birth certificate my 6 given names christiane lot i look big villa him and maria as a good catholic. followed by a horn from malcolm hi i'm best friends hi i'm what it work i'm normally called mr for investors time and at social events baron or lord baron. their income based has time isn't in direct success some of the focus the richest family in germany has trained. winters well to begin to hear it's received if you're asking me at what point i consider someone to be a truly really is i would say over a 100 yards. up i'm glad we're all in but. if you could different definitely not rich.

people who play but i'm comfortable you go in your family is comfortable because and i'm certainly not complaining in the long view when you have a family history as long as. your family has seen everything. near bankruptcy. years overflowing with money. and side and years when a lot was lost in the war the news. he takes us to the hunting lodge shop the best time family in tilling and. it looks like the laws have been lost for ever tearing the division of germany. holes where the author house was built an 892 was a hunting lodge for my great great grandson calls. it's been in the family ever since you can except for a short interval. that was expropriated in 1952 and then restitute it in 1902 and since then i've owned it in mine and visits.

the family's hunting lodge survived expropriation and socialism without much damage . today from place to us time also and hundreds of pictures of forests nearby and regularly invites me. since acquaintances full time. and also total fame many of the trophies or more was all i got several also come from my father. and some from my great grand uncle and leopard down there i didn't shoot him that was my great granddaughter who had been my dog chewed off his ears so he no longer has his former beauty and stickers for it but he's too precious not to keep it. as. a recurring topic in the special issues of the manager magazine the superwealthy snet works. there are larger and smaller networks and there are a lot of them and most even we journalists don't know about in high society there

are certain typical hobbies that horse racing hockey but a tennis though that's almost all schools you know the school my tricycle meets in the boxes at major football stadiums because of course they're all football fan a sense in football he's huge. lots of networking happens there that's not the market place they mingle and meet them more than at so-called parties for the rich as of zubin and i think. that. i have enough and we always are a lot of employees here and we have a lot of friends in the box christian fivers here today germany's most famous criminologist. and not states sometimes you may live for someone from politics comes right because john boehner from between are part of my close or good friends

so there's always lots going on here i think it's something new to be. involved in the kind of china is opening a new club a new branch of a sickness empire. also has become a member in the network of important. people from the sports business and intertainment industries. when you're young you can always i know that. i know you see this because listen this is true it's a close circle that's hard to get into and i'm sure money attracts success and success attracts money i do believe that. the 5 experienced myself how you can suddenly connect with people previously out of reach. i am in a different position to how do you know to shun future in the open. and i was watching with a good definition. in san francisco and that's where this gets bored

i was. to class one is ready to leave his box he wants to celebrate the victory with his friends the billionaire and hearing aid company owner martin kindt. kindt is also current owner and president of kind of in 96 his box is located on the other end of the exclusive v.i.p. area now if i told you we'd win today is that all i could give you yeah i'll be off you know i told him that if we didn't win you pay 10000000 that was the bet right that. would have never served it yet they were here we have it and to a halfway decent guy is there to be given up on the day after never. networks are important for business but do the rich also have political clout can political influence be pulled in germany. will stimulate the best way available for retro

super rich people in germany to exert influence is the number of employees working in a company as one it's often happen of someone who runs a company with 100000 employees or let's say nash maybe 15000 employees can go to business associations and sang. fineman e go ahead and pass that law but that will cost me or an even better argument is that will cost you 2000 jobs in that area and jobs but there are no super rich people who regularly call up the ministers or ms merkel and say what needs to happen next which tax laws like and so on that's not how things work here in germany france and it is unfortunate. that this is one of the stage managed it is not going to stand by. this time the deadline for the special issue is approaching the heart of it is the ranking of the $1001.00 richest german sports what do the rich think of this ranking. their rankings in those rankings are

for entertainment or scrape together sometimes using stock market corporations but they aren't reliable in any real way and for. the giving of this inch often also coughed. and you know i don't think much of these rankings and i didn't want to be included because it creates this impression of rich people being like scrooge mcduck that they have these money bins in which they wallow in their coins. the fact that i'm at the top of the rankings including of the wealthiest germans does make me feel proud and finish no truly please it's what i'll read manager magazine every now and then but i've never read the ranking i don't know whether i'm in it i don't need that my brother goals. one of these is that hi michelle now wants to open the world's largest fitness center in north rhine-westphalia. and iran is japanese and means the future we think

it's a perfect fit for the whole concept and vision because what we want to create here is truly unique but has never been done before our goal is to become the world's business center for the center. some of the things he's found the perfect location to realize his vision. his rented an old factory complex. at the moment the space is still being used to make steel pots. but before long thousands of customers will be exercising here. magine c.x. its path will be here new officers on top. experienced his most traumatic experience to date in the area. 21 people died and 54 were injured in a stampede at the love parade in. help in the parade. because of the

panic has still not been conclusively determined how does an entrepreneur. deal with that kind of tragedy. an event like that will haunt you always for the rest of your life i got a moral responsibility i was the organizer if i could turn back time i would do it immediately for the scale of what happened but you can't make it and you have to try to deal with what happened. last month has also seen setbacks and crises. in the ninety's or expanded dramatically into the czech republic conquering in poland i was also speculating on the stock markets a little too much and neglecting the company then in 1996 we suddenly had a loss of $12000000.00 marks the banks don't joke around if you're highly indebted and then you come in with huge losses that was critical then i had

a heart attack in $96.00. but everyone knows that life can get tough and things got very tough back then. dialed back a bit including stock speculations i sold them all and thought the only thing on my table now was pulling the last month drugstore business through and up and it was the right move to focus on one thing and not do so many different things. so the. money moves from that crisis stronger than ever he started speculating again but. only with his private wealth it's called more guts form gets so let's see were god's promises. can make a. total i don't have a laptop i normally do this by and be taxed to $54.00. here it

says i guess promise at $375.00 it's true for column i could already sell those now i bought 250000 of those so 250000 times $0.20 that would give me 50000 euros profit what i want so long it's going to rise to 4 euro sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't but i enjoy us but that's not why don't play the lottery because i find that boring but if it. can and large fortune also be a burden. the hope that it does not say that for most people although they wouldn't voluntarily give away their money. the fact that they want to grow can be a burden. they are controlled by their own assets. for example they'll move to switzerland or somewhere to save on taxes and give up their entire circle of friends and basically become a slave to their fortune. in my opinion that's absurd considering the

conditions we currently have in germany. conditions in germany are currently more favorable than ever for the rich they pay significantly less tax than they did 25 years ago. only a minority still feels compelled to immigrate to broome. possible 14 of the german constitution states problem. entails obligations its use should also serve the public could do the rich in germany live up to this responsibility. if it is finished i think it is important if you are successful if you are lucky enough to have reached a certain level of prosperity and wealth to give something back to society for me that's a given for shuttle. mission to as one of germany's biggest donors his money helps

fund the environmental cultural and social sectors like most rich people he prefers to decide himself what he spends his money on rather than leave that to the state. otto like many wealthy german instead they said millions for the construction of the air filter money in hamburg. in germany wealthy people like to donate and this makes important contributions to society and public life but generally they were against the proposal of redistributing wealth by higher taxes for the rich. i don't fault if the german businesses would yield to all the demands of are the same is rotten cash to the left party only been millions of people would be happy and things would be good for a while because millions of people would have more money. but in truth redistribution of wealth has never lead to more social justice in the long term not in any of the political systems that tried it it led to the impoverishment of these countries there's a lot of. stand for. higher taxes on the rich as dangerous

as. i don't think much about the so-called rich tax for 2 reasons because firstly if the terminology alona stigmatizing and we in germany should avoid that and secondly the rich tax wouldn't do any good on the contrary it would cut into the backbone of the german economy because the typical german rich person is a medium sized business owner they make up the backbone of the german economy and if we want to destroy that we have no one to blame but ourselves. liberal of. the special issue is ready things have basically stayed the same the rich have a few 1000000000 a mole the richest one percent of germans now has personal wealth was a quarter of the country's assets while a quarter of adults have no wealth or are in debt. for this report we never really got access to the world of the wealthiest germans they preferred to fly silently under the radar away from the public eye until the next award ceremony.

and. africa. was. not a play time line up north. in ghana merry go rounds are creating electricity and enabling pupils to study as to go. green solutions to

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