There is little to complain about in Klaus Gehrig's lifetime achievement: He is Mister Lidl.
When Dieter Schwarz poached him 45 years ago from Aldi, his company had 33 stores, today the Schwarz Group, headed by Klaus Gehrig, is the fourth largest food retailer in the world.
It is logical that someone who builds such an empire has an almost unstoppable thirst for action and a will to power.
Now Gehrig is leaving, and Dieter Schwarz as patriarch expressly expresses his attachment to him.
The end of Mister Lidl is by no means an elegant finish.
In recent years, the stories that have leaked out from the management floor have become more and more curious.
The last time there was a big bang in May, the only 30-year-old Melanie Köhler, who had made a meteoric rise under Gehrig's wing, was bid farewell.
That looks like a lot of unpredictability and arrogance - and that at the top of a group with half a million employees and 125 billion euros in sales.
Even if it may be painful for Gehrig: It is good if there is a little more calm and more professionalism in the decisions.