From simple employee to double-digit billionaire in a single working life: Heinz Hermann Thiele (1941 to 2021) has made it. The entrepreneur turned his Knorr-Bremse Group into a global market leader and a profit machine. His family is one of the lesser-known on manager magazin's list of the richest Germans.
Thiele has managed his rise with a great hardness towards himself. But he did not spare his employees and family either.
He has optimized his business to the utmost, but he has failed in his succession. He drove away his son, who had been warming up at Knorr-Bremse for a decade. He postponed the plan to put his assets into a foundation to save taxes until it was too late.
For the heirs, his daughter Julia Thiele-Schürhoff (52) and his widow Nadia Thiele (47), this means that they will have to pay around five billion euros in inheritance tax – which is likely to be a historic record in this country, but in any case it is a surprising blessing for the taxpayer.
In the billion-dollar Knorr-Bremse corporation, however, there is a power vacuum and the daughter and widow are attacking each other with lawyers. Simone Salden, deputy editor-in-chief of manager magazin, talks to editor Christoph Neßhöver about how bitter the dispute over one of the largest inheritances in the republic is and what this means for the billion-dollar company.
Enlarge image
Photo: Lena Woehler / manager magazin
In five special episodes of our podcast "Das Thema", manager magazin takes you on a journey in the footsteps of the super-rich. Editor-in-chief Simone Salden and editor Christoph Neßhöver explain where the assets come from – and where they are going.
If you are a subscriber to manager magazin, you can listen to all episodes here.
If you're not already a subscriber, you can find the other episodes on Tuesdays and Fridays on Spotify, Apple, Deezer and Google. Or you can take out a discounted subscription here.
Noc