Universities
Whoever studies here will (possibly) billionaire
In Germany there are around 130 people who have more than one billion euros. Which university you studied and where a particularly large number of super rich come from.
Who wouldn’t like to be a billionaire? In 2024, 130 people in Germany knew how it is. According to a report by the aid organization Oxfam, the number of German super rich last year rose by nine. Its total assets grew by $ 26.8 billion.
Germany is thus the European country with the highest concentration of billionaires and takes fourth place worldwide. They came to their assets in various ways.
The information portal “Studying in Germany” took a closer look at this. The three richest Germans-Dieter Schwarz (35.9 billion USD), Klaus-Michael Kühne (34.5 billion USD) and Reinhold Würth ($ 32.6 billion)-completed an apprenticeship before they had their career in the family business started.
According to the research on the portal, 40 of the German billionaires completed a degree at a university in Germany. Engineering and business administration were the most popular subjects.
Three universities have produced a particularly large number of super rich:
Technical University of Munich (TUM)
The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is not only one of the most renowned universities in Germany, but also the university with the most billionaire graduates. Five German billionaires studied at TUM:
- Georg Nemetschek, founder of the Nemetschek Group, studied civil engineering at TUM. His company is one of the largest software companies in Germany, and its assets are $ 4.9 billion.
- With a fortune of $ 2.6 billion, Hans Langer, a former TUM physics student, is also a super rich. He founded the EOS Group, one of the most successful 3D printing companies in the world.
- The three young founders of Celonis, one of the world’s leading companies for process mining software, also studied at TUM. Bastian Nominacher (1.2 billion USD), Alexander Rinke (1.1 billion USD) and Martin Klenk (1.2 billion USD) met at the university. Your company was created as part of a study project.
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
The University of Freiburg is another popular place of education for billionaires in SPE. Three German super rich studied here:
- The German surgeon and entrepreneur Lutz Mario Helmig studied medicine at the University of Freiburg. His assets are estimated at $ 3.0 billion.
- Another known medical student at the university is Andreas Strüngmann, a doctor and entrepreneur with a fortune of $ 11.4 billion. Together with his twin brother Thomas, he founded the generic hexal and was an early investor in the pharmaceutical giant Biontech.
- Dr. Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller (USD 1.8 billion), President and CEO of Trumpf, a market leader for machine tools and laser technology, studied German studies and English in Freiburg and later received her doctorate abroad.
Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich (LMU)
The Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich (LMU) chose three other later billionaires in Germany for their studies:
- Hubert Burda, owner and publisher of Hubert Burda Media, studied art history at the LMU. He took over the family business and expanded it into a media empire. His assets amount to USD 3.5 billion.
- Another publisher who studied at LMU is Stefan von Holtzbrinck. After studying law and literature, he did his doctorate in media law. As CEO of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, its assets are USD 4.9 billion.
- Julia Thiele-Schürhoff, member of the supervisory board and daughter of the former CEO of Knorr-Bremse AG, also studied law at the LMU. Your assets are estimated at $ 2.9 billion.
Oxfam sees billionaires as a problem
The aid organization Oxfam has a more critical view of the billionaires in Germany and elsewhere. She says: Increasing individual wealth and extreme social inequality also massively endanger democracy in Germany.
In Germany, the billionaires are less in the front row than, for example, in the United States. In the background, however, they also practiced power to influence politics in their favor, criticizes Oxfam. The organization cites lobby associations such as “the family entrepreneurs” or the “Family Business Authority and Politics”, which effectively taxed the rich with a lot of money.
And apparently with success: “Germany is now also a high tax country for people who work for their money, but a low -tax country for super -rich who can have their money work for themselves,” writes Oxfam. Families from the middle class paid for more taxes on their work income than super -rich, which also refer to income from other sources such as capital gains and company profits.
Source: Stern
