Silvia Quandt (born 1937) is a German artist.

Early life

Quandt was born in 1937 in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, the only child of the marriage between a German industrialist and prominent

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

Herbert Quandt Herbert Werner Quandt (22 June 1910 – 2 June 1982) was a German industrialist and member of the Nazi Party credited with having saved BMW when it was at the point of bankruptcy and made a huge profit in doing so. Quandt also oversaw the us ...

, a man who was eventually the major shareholder of

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

, and his first wife Ursel Munstermann. Her parents divorced in 1940 and Silvia stayed with her mother.

Artistic career

She studied at the Academy for Graphic Arts in Munich and then trained as a commercial artist. She has worked as a freelance painter since the 1960s. She received the Burda Award in 1968 and the Swabian Art Award in 1969. Works by Quandt can be seen today at the Bayrischen Staatsgemäldesammlung (Bavarian State Painting Collection) and in the

Haus der Kunst The ''Haus der Kunst'' (, ''House of Art'') is a museum for modern and contemporary art in Munich, Bavaria. It is located at Prinzregentenstraße 1 at the southern edge of the Englischer Garten, Munich's largest park. It was built between 1933 an ...

Art Museum in Munich. Quandt's paintings and graphic works are ascribed to

Fantastic Realism The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism () is a group of artists founded in Vienna in 1946. The group's name was coined in the 1950s by Johann Muskik, and the first exhibition was in 1959 at the Vienna Belvedere. This Austrian movement has similari ...

, characterised by a tendency towards the Surreal and

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

. She has had exhibitions in Munich,

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

''The Silence of the Quandts''

The documentary ''

The Silence of the Quandts ''The Silence of the Quandts'' (German: ''Das Schweigen der Quandts'') is a documentary about the , originally aired in October 2007. See also * '' Nazi Billionaires'' References External links * 2007 films 2000s German-language fi ...

'' described the role of the Quandt family businesses during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It disclosed information about the use of slave labourers in the family's factories during World War II. A later study funded by the

Quandt family Quandt is a surname. In particular, it may refer to members of the notable Quandt family: *Günther Quandt (1881–1954), German industrialist, founded an industrial empire that includes BMW and Altana **Harald Quandt (1921–1967), German industri ...

themselves concluded that "the Quandts were linked inseparably with the crimes of the Nazis". As of 2008 no compensation, apology or memorial at the site of one of their factories, have been permitted.

was not implicated in the report.

Personal life

Quandt lives and works in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. Before her father's death in 1982, she received extensive investments and property which are controlled through various private companies, in particular Silvia Quandt Capital GmbH. While her younger siblings

Susanne Klatten Susanne Hanna Ursula Klatten (''née'' Quandt, born 28 April 1962) is a German billionaire heiress, the daughter of Herbert and Johanna Quandt. As of January 2022, her net worth was estimated at US$23.4 billion, and the richest woman in Germa ...

and

Stefan Quandt Stefan Quandt (born 9 May 1966) is a German billionaire heir, engineer and industrialist. As of December 2024, ''Forbes'' estimated his net worth at US$21.6 billion, ranked at number 89 on Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Early life Quandt was bor ...

(from her father's third marriage) have fortunes estimated in the billions of dollars mostly from substantial large holdings in public companies such

Altana Altana AG (styled as ALTANA) is a German chemical company headquartered in Wesel. It was created in 1977, as a result of spinning off divisions from the Varta Group. The first CEO was Herbert Quandt. The group comprises the divisions BYK (co ...

and

Varta VARTA (; ) is a German company manufacturing batteries for global automotive, industrial, and consumer markets. History VARTA was founded by in 1887, and established in 1904 as a subsidiary of Accumulatoren-Fabrik AFA. After World War I, ...

, Silvia Quandt's fortune is more difficult to estimate as it is mainly controlled through private holding companies.

References

External links

Brief biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quandt, Silvia 1937 births Living people Artists from Berlin German people of Dutch descent German artists

Silvia Silvia () is a female given name of Latin origin, with a male equivalent Silvio and English-language cognate Sylvia (given name), Sylvia. The name originates from the Latin word for forest, ''Silva'', and its meaning is "spirit of the wood"; the m ...

German women artists