Quandt clan: Who are the BMW heir and where does their wealth? – SPIEGEL ONLINE

She was the head of a family extraordinarily wealthy: Johanna Quandt, who died on Monday at the age of 89 years.

In fact, the Quandt are, according to the wealth ranking of manager magazin with estimated 31 billion euros by far the richest family in Germany – before the two Albrecht Dynasties of Aldi’s founder, the Otto from Hamburg, of the Lidl-founder Dieter Family Black.

The death of the Quandt matriarch now draws attention to a clan, to which not only the wealth is remarkable: Who are these actually Quandt? Resulting in feeding her immense fortune – and how to do it after the death of Johanna Quandt continue now?

What part of the Quandt anyway?

For owned by members of the Quandt family are currently, inter alia

• 46 , 7 percent stake in BMW,
• The specialty chemicals Group Altana,
• directly and indirectly more than 40 percent in SGL Carbon, a specialist in carbon fibers, primarily for the automotive industry,
• 20 percent stake in wind turbine manufacturer Nordex,
• a stake in BHF-Bank

and a number of other investments.

What is the position adopted Johanna Quandt, a family clan?

Johanna Quandt was the third wife of the 1982 deceased Herbert Quandt, who in turn, together with brother Harald in in 1954 became the successor of Günther Quandt. On the diagram of the family tree, this branch can be seen right below

Formal Johanna Quandt was therefore only Head is one of four branches of the family -. However, by far the most important. Because he currently holds the significant corporate investments. The other branches have separated over the decades by most investments or invest in less well-known companies.

Specifically, include the majority of companies share the Quandt especially the two children Johanna: born 1962 Susanne Klatten (BMW, Altana, SGL Carbon, Nordex) and the 1966-born Stefan Quandt (BMW, BHF Bank, Delton-Holding).

What are the power Quandt with BMW?

According to the Annual Report 2014, the Quandt control directly and indirectly 46.7 percent of the voting rights at BMW – concrete Johanna 16.7 percent, 18.4 percent and Stefan Susanne Klatten 12.6 percent.

Although not representing an absolute majority of the voting rights, which means in practice that the Quandt with BMW have the final say: With all strategic decisions – mergers, sales, occupation of the management board – they have the final word.

What is happening now with Johanna Quandt shares in BMW?

The business journalist Rüdiger Jungbluth is one of the best connoisseurs of Quandt, he is the author of Family Biography “The Quandt”. For the planned new edition in September he has amazing researched: Johanna has almost all its shares already paid their children. Accordingly, it has transferred 16.4 percent of BMW ordinary shares tax saving in the years 2003 and 2008 to Stefan and Susanne, only around 0.3 percent they held still. Stefan Quandt confirmed Jungbluth in May 2015, the donations

Jungbluth may also explain why Johanna Quandt involvement in BMW was given until the end but with 16.7 percent. These are the voting rights – only with this must publish changes immediately and prominently a corporation. Although these are usually, but not necessarily with the possession of the actual shares identical.

According to Jungbluth they differ in this case: Johanna gave away the shares, but retained the voting rights – incidentally also not secretly. In the financial statements of various firms involved in the Quandt the transactions were both specified correctly.

How were the Quandt so wealthy?

In 1700 the family emigrated to Netherlands to Brandenburg – and working in the local textile industry. 1883 Emil Quandt bought a textile factory in Pritzwalk, where he was employed until then.

His son Günther (1881-1954) laid the foundations for today’s wealth of the family. For this, the upgrade in the Empire and the First World War contributed decisively – Quandt provided uniforms to the military.

In the Weimar Republic was from the textile manufacturers of the owner of a wide-ranging industrial empire – also because of the consequences of war: In times of extremely high inflation Günther sat on the trading and business investments. So he bought 1922, the AFA, a battery company, which was later renamed after its most famous brand in Varta. The second major acquisition was the German weapons and munitions factories (DMW) -. Quandt is with two companies become one of the main armament industrialist

At the time of the Nazi dictatorship the Quandt benefit enormously from the immense rearmament whether The Second World War made them rich, the bottom line is controversial – not to say that they succeeded to a large extent to save their company ownership in the postwar period. (See more detail below.)

In the Federal Republic of the Quandt had inter alia shares in BMW and Daimler-Benz. Above all, the salvation of the BMW Group 1959/1960, under which Gunther’s son Herbert – husband of Johanna – its share increased this to almost 50 percent, turned out to be a right decision.

What role did the family under the Nazi dictatorship?

It was late leaving the family their Nazi past to investigate scientifically, triggered by the TV documentary “The Silence of the Quandt” which attracted much attention in 2007.

In 2011, put the commissioned historian Joachim Scholtyseck his study before – the Quandt had funded his research, but took no influence, as he confirmed. It is an unsparing study: The Quandt were perhaps not zealous ideologues, but still part of the Nazi regime, stated the historian. From the upgrade they benefited anyway – but they also enriched themselves shamelessly at Aryanization, this initiated partly even. They did not lock themselves against the use of forced labor in their factories, only briefly against the concentration camp prisoners.

Whether they could multiply their wealth through the Second World War, although controversial – after all, they lost some of their factories by expropriation or disassembly. However, they kept most of the located in the Federal Republic of ownership, the currency reform favored them because they devalued the accumulated war debt. Anyway, was owned companies in postwar times the best foundation for high capacity.

Shortly after the war Günther and his son Herbert only classified as “followers” or as unencumbered. In the decades after they were silent persistently to its role in the Nazi era. Only the children born after the war – Johanna himself married only in 1960 by marriage to Herbert in the family, a – to put the past

.