Legendary Aldi founder
Theo Albrecht was kidnapped in 1971 – so he was saved
The kidnapping of the Aldi founder Theo Albrecht is one of the most spectacular German criminal cases. The nerve war lasted almost three weeks, which began in November 1971.
It is the evening of November 29, 1971: Around 7 p.m., the then 49-year-old Theo Albrecht leaves Aldi-Nord in Herten near Essen. Albrecht is severe. Together with his brother Karl, Theo had set up the discounter empire Aldi after the Second World War.
Karl distracts Aldi-Süd from Mülheim, Theos Reich is Aldi-Nord with the headquarters in Herten. The brothers originally come from a simple background, but as early as the early 1970s they are more than wealthy after the rapid expansion of Aldi, they are part of the German economic miracle.
This legendary wealth has brought two criminals to the idea of a kidnapping-the two criminals are said to have learned from the book “The Rich and Super rich in Germany” from the Albrecht brothers.
Theo Albrecht didn’t look like an Aldi founder
And so the then 47-year-old lawyer Heinz-Joachim Ollenburg and his 39-year-old accomplice Paul Kron lurk to her victim that evening before the then Aldi Nord headquarters.
But is this humble looking man really the super-rich Aldi founder in his simple suit? It is said that Kron, a multi-convicted safe cracker and in the underworld as a “diamond-pack”, first known to show Albrecht’s ID card. Because he was not sure whether they really had Theo Albrecht in front of them – and maybe not the company’s accountant.
Until that evening, the Kidnapper duo is said to have unsuccessfully joined the victim. At first, Theo’s older brothers Karl was said to have been the goal of the gangsters, but the choice of criminals finally fell on Theo Albrecht.
When you are sure that you have the real Aldi founder in front of you, the two kidnappers force him into a car with a pistol held and put it in Ollenburg’s office in the middle of the city of Düsseldorf.
The family of the Aldi founders still may not speak publicly about the kidnapping
The kidnapping is still considered one of the most spectacular criminal cases in German post -war history – and it was a deep cut in the life of Theo Albrecht and the whole family. More than 50 years later, it is a stressful topic for the discount dynasty. So traumatic that none of them may speak publicly about them.
The news agency dpa, for example, tried to get a statement from one of the Albrecht sons on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the kidnapping in 2021. According to a company spokesman, he was 20 years old at the time. But the son rejected, said the agency.
Since the events of late autumn 1971, the billionaire clan has avoided the public as much as possible. On the day of his release, Theo Albrecht said a few sentences to reporters, cameras shot the entrepreneur’s last pictures for many years. Everyii knows Aldi in Germany, but the Albrecht brothers became very quiet after the end of 1971.
Almost three weeks- 17 days- it takes hostage in those November and December days. Theo Albrecht finally comes freely against the payment of at the time of an unthinkable seven million mark ransom, the highest amount that has been paid to the Federal Republic to date.
17 days are a long time. The ransom negotiations with the kidnappers are tough, the gangsters register by letter or telephone. The money is finally brought up by the then Ruhrbishop Franz Hengsbach.
The bishop agrees to hand over the millions in two suitcases on a darker dirt road in Breitscheid near Düsseldorf. After handing over the money, Theo Albrecht remains in the care of the church man for 24 hours, which was agreed with the kidnappers. On December 17th, exactly one week before Christmas Eve, the Aldi founder can finally return to his family. He is – at least physically – unharmed.
Theo Albrecht thanks the police with sparkling wine, beer and schnapps
At the time, the Essen police founded a special commission with more than 160 investigators for the largest search in the Federal Republic to date. After his release, Albrecht thanks the officials with 120 bottles of sparkling wine, two barrels of beer and twelve bottles of schnapps. Albrecht is considered economical.
The perpetrators did not have much time to spend the immense ransom. They were caught quickly. The handcuffs in Mexico clicked for lawyer Ollenburg, and he is said to have returned his share of a good 3.5 million marks to Theo Albrecht.
Ollenburg’s accomplice made himself suspicious because he paid with a 500-mark note that came from the handover of the money. In his arrest, he stated that he had only received 10,000 marks from Ollenburg. He didn’t know where the rest of the money is. To date, about half of the ransom millions have been lost. In 1973, the two criminals were sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for the kidnapping of Theo Albrecht in 1973.
Can you deduct ransom from the tax?
Later Theo Albrecht made it once more into the headlines. In 1979 he complained to the Münster Finance Court because he wanted to deduct the ransom as a operating edition, but was only partially successful.
Because the judges saw the kidnapping as a private matter. However, Albrecht was allowed to claim the disappeared part of the ransom as an extraordinary burden in the tax return.
Theo Albrecht died in 2010 at the age of 88, his brother Karl 2014. The two kidnappers no longer live. The kidnapping of Theo Albrecht is probably never forgotten- it is part of German crime and economic history.
Sources: “”, with material from dpa
Source: Stern
