and just reminder the top story we're following for you here today on d.w. there's a german chancellor merkel has condemned an attack on a synagogue in the eastern city of call that showing solidarity with the jewish community by attending a vigil here in berlin this is specter the gunman killed 2 people and seriously wounded 2 others. you're watching the news coming up next our documentary serious adult film focuses today on the lives of the super rich. thanks for being with us attorney. unity and justice and freedom the 1st words of the german national lampoon and the 3 central values that form the foundation of this country have these values developed in congress for more interested parties it is hard to reduce principles to want. our germany starts october 21st on t

w. gemini'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 that i do believe that i've experienced myself how you can suddenly connect with people previously out of reach for a kind of shows how to. gemini's superwealthy how do they live and how do they see the country they live in. with the way wealthy people in germany.

talked about bothers me because it sensationalizes him sycophantic and in no way reflects what wealthy people have done and continue to do for this country for this long. but the only 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 what world minded are like earning money for us but not swimming it because. 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 corn back in the a friend feds to which the public is not invited. it's the annual hall of fame evening for the business monthly manager magazine. any other occasion in germany joins as many wealthy business as. the again. steamed presenters did jury members steer ladies and gentlemen welcome to manager magazine's whole effect. 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 you rank 25th with a personal wealth of 4500000000 euros for months once they hit feel like me are.

collectively 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 their world remains somehow out of reach. hamburg 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. close to them how many billionaires are video of

a $481.00 the $190.00 noids last year was $136.00 right no last year it was around $17170.00 ok there is someone who wants to get on our list of 1001 richest germans needs to have around 100000000 with their cash and quite as in 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 an. editor in chief stephan close one has been around germany's ultra wealthy for years. what does it take to get on the list. the top i'd say that the top 150 spots on our list will always go to company owners and asses even if you're a chief physician you'll need to see a whole lot of patients to become a billionaire 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 i think 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 law and also tanya and heena so that alone can't ever make you one of the truly ultra rich. doesn't. creating a list of the wealthiest people is especially difficult in germany they're not because there aren't enough of them and. that's when people try to somehow manage to amass this huge empire and fortune in just a few years it's over his wealth is estimated to be around 4000000000 he's the least known super rich germans in the home to get his interview him at home. they prefer to fly under the radar to avoid envy by any means the super rich don't like to help themselves so to speak. out of the. home stories here you can normally only get

interviews inside the homes with 2nd tier ones of you there you always get guys who get a kick out of publicity. like mr marsh mile in search. getting a good shot of mr maschmeyer is never a problem. but the real money keeps itself had to be guilty as this has to hurt. the super rich will try. to go unnoticed sometimes i even try to hide there are no photos of several people on our list and you won't find a single picture if you go online and google them because there hasn't been a photo of her 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-billionaire yeah. new haven can for months 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 her friend face here in a prime location tucked behind the bank teller as city asset management company full come full can manage his german business families fortunes. its chairman kristin 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.

the upper tier of rich germans avoids the blysse as if it were the play. what are they so afraid of. the. i asked a number of my friends whether they'd like to be interviewed for this film and each one said no they 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 the 1st few courses this was given come. after a loss of back and forth with this pristine one ultra rich german did agree to meet us michelle cottle is the chairman of the supervisory board of the auto critic and one of the 10 richest germans. we asked him why and germans are reluctant to show off their wealth. if you do you can fool any

wiring or 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 once you buy fuel i think a lot of people find their own welfare little nauseating. i don't at all i like it mr scott when he. did cost money grew up poor his mother ran a small drug store and postal had after his son had bigger plans and $972.00 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 thanks to the in the early years it was just about getting the name rossman on there. was so when i was invited to a talk show on a small regional channel like going to because i thought 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 teeth 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 did this. within 40 years became the most profitable drugstore chain in europe with stores in 6 countries. in 2018 a total of 56000 people were working on the chain. osman is active in other business areas as well and he speculates on the stock market.

i need. my work couple of private equity investments the largest israel europe between 80 and 100000000 depending on the stock so it's a fair sum there are also shares in different industries it would definitely be poor. little. 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. 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 a 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. cover story for this current issue

is that last year money rained down on germany's super rich. but he said up here we have the chef lowers the matriarch and her son who now owns 80 percent mom has kept only 20 scheffler subpoena 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. down here we have mr barger old trafford in the head of the henkel clan she's the 1st and so far only woman chairman of the supervisory board of one of the 30 dax companies. germany's economy is still extremely male dominated what's interesting is if you compare our list here with a list of the ultra rich in the us if we have a lot of old money old companies that have been around for decades in the u.s. you have all those lands from facebook google snapchat and so forth that have 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 . very few germans sail around in boats like this. usually that's americans russians chinese and so on ones like hey you don't really show your money you might have various houses villas and such but there's likely to be a compact 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 his love and sweat into estimating his fortunes are probably much bigger than the tide is specially if we're talking about going real estate 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 it'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. tied to. a 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 but for the fall the ugly times aren't cashed up the left party would likely say split up your wealth but my

response is i also do things for the world which i live and i don't just take or i'm not a socialist. i can only do things because i have things. i think of but how the. 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 us a group. we wanted to know how to see is 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 on 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 many people with small or medium sized businesses because generally the millionaires in question who did build a business they now run then i think that's great. then that's a look 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 right it is. ensuring that the wealth of rich families can increase despite current 0 interest rates is the mission of christan fund company. and that. would be. 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 offer to just a handful of valued clients and focus on this leaders and that you.

know there's a 3rd. and 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 us or latin america to happen here in america. from based on 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 up would of 30000000 euros who can afford such a thing. as. this is causing well over

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. someone who we were was a company owner thinks differently to someone who has spent their life is going to tell you. more they are families who have had money for a long time so wealth is so to speak in their genes. is that. for me and then there are families who have just come into their wealth who are still pumping with entrepreneurial energy they're usually quite different from heirs. for. hina seems to have plenty of this entrepreneurial energy his company is max 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 $200.00. and there from by i was born near bombay up in a small village normally in villages you do the sports available and when i was around 1516 my role models were arnold schwarzenegger and stallone so i came to the fitness world for my son i went from secular school to computer salesman apprenticeship and became the many tales 3 supermarkets then he decided to start something new. for the for me. when i was 25 this by 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 china opened his 1st fitness studio

inverts book close to his home village he made use of some unusual methods. on the monitor 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 so i gave it some thought and came up with the next marketing gag soon also in atlanta to get people that did the job and also put me on track to going from both blog to and then it grew from there. 10 years later i shall have reached his goal he's number one in europe and still expanding. mexico now owns 10 fitness companies as well as its own model agency. meanwhile china is getting ready to open a fitness studios in the u.s. . is getting to be number

one. it's 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. think an offense that you have an easier time if you want your way to the top and to success. clients below it and so to partners. i think that's our situation over distance 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 will have a much tougher time and was of 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. there are areas who don't want to and others who shouldn't take over their parents' businesses succession is hugely important among germany's richest men in harry said the male would accompany it from his father and successfully managed it. for money can there 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 france is with. every single company either because i was involved when it was founded or because i let the take i have a negotiation for money can not my children don't yet know the many companies because. us has children have opted against direct succession to. be finished just when i think it's important to give your children the option without pressuring them so you don't force them into a row i think that mistake is made often and i'd say it's bad for both the children

and the company. on the income. put. his or her mama so now we have one point of sale. are you a bit tired yes it's one exhausting couple of days and it's always in 10 minutes i'll be fine a unit was just bam bam bam bam boom boom boom. did cost money also spent a lot of time considering who his successor would be it's now decided collars last month the younger of his $2.00 sons will take over as manager of the drugstore chain. 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. and money. father had to show him the appeal of being in charge. then using 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. after my always showed my sons their what we do isn't just about making money it's also about being responsible for others about me in film mention. as a child i wanted to become a film director that was always my dream it still is today and how do you mean by good and then you might be thinking you know i don't want to be a director phil moment i want to run the company like that so i said i want to go ahead and become a director but being a director of such a big company is also exciting i did manipulate him a bit. as little as he could find often asked whether i feel competitive toward my father and sure he built up this big company that i'll only take over but it's really difficult to keep something going

these days 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 it. has come also. bought me everyone in my family wants to be good at sports you could my father and i battle each other in tennis. well 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 home only is agreement with regard to succession. as show that struggling against trouble wipes me out are normally prefer playing doubles that's much more appropriate for men my age i miss having it i'm starting

to worry a bit about you you worry about me with your inheritance i wouldn't be looking forward to it. selecting as an successes is usually not quite as amicable as at the hospice. to stand for 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 movements $100.00 the 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 it's always 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 would remove the goals. from based on time speaks from personal experience his own family's history

dates back 900 years so it's long and i have a horribly long name at least on my birth certificate there's my 6 given names christiane lawton luke big villa him and maria as a good catholic followed by malcolm hi i'm best in time what it work i'm normally called mr fun best of the time and at social events baron. or lord baron. baron from base does time isn't in direct success some of the focus the richest family in germany history. went as well to begin for you prince receives if you're asking me at what point i consider someone to be truly rich. i would say over a 100 yards. up i mean christ really really all and it's hard. if you could. definitely not rich. but i'm

comfortable you go in your family is comfortable because and i'm certainly not complaining in the long term when you have a family history as long as i'm honest or your family has seen everything. near bankruptcy. and yours overflowing with money. inside and years when a lot was lost a lot more than. he takes us to the hunting lodge off the best time family in tilling and. it looks like the laws have been lost for ever tearing the division of germany. assholes who are the us a house was built in 892 was a hunting lodge for my great great grandson calls. it's been in the family ever since except for a short interval. it 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 the time also and hundreds of pictures of forests nearby and regularly invites business acquaintances for hundreds. and also total fame many of the trophies or more was all i got several also come from my father. i'm from my great grand uncle and leopard down there i didn't shoot him that was my great grand uncle who had been my dog chewed off his ears so he no longer has this 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 other superwealthy is networks. 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 school my tricycle meets in the boxes at major football stadiums because of course they're all football fan a sense info police huge. lots of networking happens there that's not their marketplace they mingle and meet them more than at so-called parties for the rich as of zubin and i think part. of. that would. have enough to do we always have a lot of employees here and we have a lot of friends in the box christian pfeiffer's here today germany's most famous criminologist b.c. i'm not sure it's sometimes you may lurk for someone from politics comes by because turnbull from between are part of my closer girlfriends so there's always lots

going on here i think it's something new to be. involved in the finest china is opening a new chapter a new branch of his fitness empire. also has become a member in the network of important people from the sports business and intertainment industries. the only kind of visit that. i hope you see. 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 the 2 to sean future in the band. was this i heard you probably think the one i have any all i want to do with a good laugh and a few. in san francisco. that's all there is it gets bored. by

god was. declasse one is ready to leave his box he wants to celebrate the victory with his friend the billionaire and hearing aid company owner martin kindt. kent is also co owner and president of kind of a 96 his box is located on the other end of the exclusive v.i.p. area that i turn to we're going to do that why did you do you know i told him that if we didn't win you pay 10000000 that was the bet all right that was my idea of it would have never served there yet here we have it to a half way decent 30 given up on the day after jeffords. networks are important for business but do the rich also have political clout can political influence be pulled in germany. stimuli the best way available for richer or 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 owns a company with 100000 employees well let's say less maybe 15000 employees can go to business associations and say finding go ahead and pass that law school that 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 isn't pushing. it is someone of that statement and i was not this is not true when i stand by this technique classes this time the deadline for the special issue is approaching the heart of it is the ranking of the 1001 richest german the stores what do the rich

think of this ranking. their rankings in those rankings are for entertainment or scrape together sometimes using stock market. but they aren't reliable in any real way and for. the giving of this interesting can also cost position and here 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 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 will read manager magazine every now and then but i've never read the rankings and i don't know whether i'm in it and i don't need that my brother goals. one of these is that hi michelle and now wants to open the world's largest fitness center in north rhine-westphalia. arise

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 and has never been done before our goal is to become the world's fitness center for the sense. of things he's found the perfect location to realize his vision in. his rented an. 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 in the fast lane deal with that kind of tragedy. for 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 it 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 numbers critical and 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 are sold them all and thought the only thing on my table now is 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 so he shows us only with his private wealth it's called us from gets so let's see we're gas promise. can make a. joke i did i don't have a laptop i normally do this guy and be taxed to 54 yet. here it says i just promise at $375.00 i could already sell those now i bought 250000 of

those so 250000 times $0.20 that would give me $50000.00 euros profit what i want so long it's going to rise to 4 euros sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't but i enjoy the us does not try to play the lottery because i find that boring but if it . can and large fortune also be a burden. i hope it does so you might say that for most people although they wouldn't voluntarily give away their money all 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 been terminated. because. 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 abroad. possible 14 of the german constitution states. entails obligations its use should also serve the public could do the rates in germany live up to this responsibility . if it is free 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 as one of germany's biggest don't is 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. also like many wealthy germans donated millions for the construction of the ed for 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 a higher taxes for the rich. i don't fault the near future my businesses would yield to wall the demands of tax a ms bargain cash to the left party and we've been millions of people would be happy and things would be good for a while yes that is 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 to the limit of what. to 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 the terminology alone a 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. well there were sure 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 recourse we never really got access to the world of the wealthiest germans they prefer to fly silently under the radar away from the public only until the next award 70.

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the bombs occurred. on w in our. play . this is news live from berlin germany chancellor shows her solidarity with germany's jewish community at a pivotal in berlin after a failed anti semitic attack on a synagogue in the eastern city all had suspected me of a nazi attack that chinese guns on others killing 2 people and injuring another 2 also coming up. civilians females in syria as turkey intensifies.

against kurdish militants fish forces say turkish shells have hit civilian areas and a prison.