Friedrich Karl Flick (3 February 1927 – 5 October 2006) was a German-Austrian
industrialist
A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...
and
billionaire
A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...
.
Early life
He was born in Berlin,
the youngest son of
Friedrich Flick, an industrialist and convicted Nazi war criminal, and Marie Schuss. After his studies, he worked in his father's company. In 1972, when his father died, he inherited the major part of the family business.
Career
As the sole owner of the Friedrich Flick Industrial Holding (Industrieverwaltung), he had interests in major companies including
Daimler-Benz
Mercedes-Benz Group AG (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler, and Daimler) is a Germany, German Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive company headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is o ...
,
WR Grace, Gerling Insurance,
Buderus,
Dynamit Nobel
Dynamit Nobel AG is a German chemical and weapons company whose headquarters is in Troisdorf, Germany. It was founded in 1865 by Alfred Nobel.
Creation
After the death of his younger brother Emil Oskar Nobel, Emil in an 1864 nitroglycerin expl ...
, Feldmühle and others.
In 1975 he sold his part of Daimler-Benz to the
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.
...
for more than $1 billion.
Major tax liabilities were avoided through "cultivation of the political landscape",—a process that turned into the
Flick Affair in 1983 when it became apparent that about $25 million had been paid to German political parties in return for tax cuts and favorable rulings. Although Chancellor
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as chancellor of Germany and governed the ''Federal Republic'' from 1982 to 1998. He was leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to ...
benefited from the dealings, he claimed he had "no recollections", while others resigned from their posts. In 1985 Flick sold off the remainder of his companies. When Deutsche Bank announced that it had bought his holdings for about $3 billion
German mark
The Deutsche Mark (; "German mark"), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later of unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it was typically c ...
s, Flick retired in Austria, where he became a naturalised citizen.
In March 2006, his estimated net worth was $6.1 billion.
Personal life
Flick married three times and had two children from his second and third marriages. At the time of his death, he was the wealthiest person living in Austria.
He died on 5 October 2006 at his villa in
Auen on the
Wörthersee
Wörthersee (; Slovene: ''Vrbsko jezero'', ) is a lake in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia. The bathing lake is a main tourist destination in summer.
Geography
Wörthersee is Carinthia's largest lake. It is elongated, about long and ...
, Austria.
In November 2008, it was reported that an oak coffin containing his remains was taken from his family's
mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...
at a cemetery at
Velden am Wörther See
Velden am Wörther See (Slovenian language, Slovene: ''Vrba na Koroškem'') is a market town in Villach-Land District, in the Austrian state of Carinthia (state), Carinthia. Situated on the western shore of the Wörthersee lake, it is one of the co ...
, in what
Austrian Federal Police
The Federal Police (, ) is the national and principal law enforcement agency of Austria.
History
In 2005, the Federal Police replaced the Austrian Federal Gendarmerie, which policed most of the country, and the ''Polizei'' which policed Austri ...
believe may be an attempt to extort money from his widow. His widow Ingrid Flick, his third wife, inherited an estimated £4bn. She and his children are now under police guard. The body was returned in 2009.
See also
*
List of billionaires
''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking of people who are billionaires, i.e., they are considered to have a net worth of US$1 billion or more, by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March 1987. ...
*
Flick family
The Flick family is a wealthy German family with an industrial empire that formerly embraced holdings in companies involved in coal, steel and a minority holding in Daimler AG.
Friedrich Flick (1883–1972) was the founder of the dynasty, establis ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flick, Friedrich Karl
1927 births
2006 deaths
Businesspeople from Berlin
German billionaires
20th-century Austrian businesspeople
21st-century Austrian businesspeople
20th-century German businesspeople
21st-century German businesspeople
Friedrich Karl