Aristotle died onassis: ships, women and the big money 50 years ago

If Hollywood had come up with the idea of ​​inventing a figure like Aristotle Onassis (1906-1975), every producer would have rejected the script as too unbelievable. And yet this man was real – a businessman who succeeded one highlight after the other and which the women fell in rows. The shipowner died in Paris 50 years ago.

Onassis can be described as the first real super billionaire long before tech giants like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos entered the stage. His biography reads like a novel: on January 15, 1906, born in the then Greek city of Smyrna (now Izmir), he fled in 1922 at the age of 16 from the Greek-Turkish war. “I only had $ 60,” he later recalled his arrival in Argentina.

But it shouldn’t stay that way, because onassis’ extraordinary business sense showed up early and a short time later he had multiplied this $ 60. In Buenos Aires he started as a plate washer, became a phone call – and finally earned his first $ 100,000 with the import of Greek tobacco. When the global economic crisis broke out in 1929, Onassis saw no catastrophe, but an opportunity. He bought cargo ships from an insolvent shipping company at low prices – the beginning of his shipping empire.

While Europe was in ruins after the Second World War, Onassis was one of the first to recognize the potential of German shipbuilding. When the local shipbuilding industry was on the ground, the shipowner commissioned the shipyards in Hamburg, Kiel and Bremen to build super tankers. He surrounded the Allied ban on shipbuilding through a brilliant move: he had existing ships “rebuild” at the Kiel Wowaldswerke instead of building new ones. His first marriage to Tina Livanos (1922-1974), the daughter of a mighty Greek shipping family, consolidated his stand in the industry.

At the Wowaldtswerke in Hamburg, the world’s largest tanker in 1953 went off stack: the “Tina Onassis”, named after the first wife. At that time, over 80,000 spectators attended much more than an industrial event – it was a symbolic act of rebirth for German industry. “You had stepped back into the light from the dark,” said Gerrit Menzel, historian in the International Maritime Museum Hamburg. With this, “Ari” onassis played a crucial role for the German economic upswing after the Second World War.

In the mid-1950s, more than half of the German ship production from Onassis’ orders were deployed. He had a total of 18 tankers built in Germany and created one of the largest tanker fleets in the world. Exclusive contracts for Saudi Arabia’s oil transport earned him the nickname “tanker king”.

However, his business tactics were not undisputed. His whaling fleet ignored international agreements and chased unscrupulously threatened species. His business with Saudi Arabia was interspersed with bribery, as was later uncovered. And his workers – often German seafarers – allegedly worked for his wealth under hard conditions. Onassis cannot be measured with today’s moral standards, but even for the situation at that time, he apparently often moved in ethical gray areas.

On the other hand, what the public perceived was Ari Onassis’ excessive jet set life. The symbol for his wealth and lifestyle was his luxury yacht “Christina” – named after his daughter – which was also rebuilt in Germany. A Hamburg architect had transformed the former Canadian frigate into a masterpiece of the nautical extravagance, with marble wheels, bar counters from centuries -old shipwood and a mosaic swimming pool, the soil of which could be lifted to become a dance floor at night.

The “Christina” became the meeting point of the international high society. Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and numerous other celebrities were guests here. Onassis steered his world empire from his floating residence, which, in addition to shipping, also included airlines, banks and real estate. At the same time, she was his office and his theater, his home and his status symbol.

It was also the yacht on which it must have sparked between him and Maria Callas (1923-1977). When the singer came on board in 1959, two marriages broke shortly afterwards: her with Giovanni Meneeghini and his with Tina Onassis, with whom he got two children. The opera diva and the Tycoon – two Greeks who had conquered the world – found the perfect partner into each other. The world press electrified its stormy relationship. There was only more turmoil when the billionaire surprisingly did not Callas, but Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994), the widow of the murdered US President John F. Kennedy, to his second wife.

“Jacqueline was an icon, a saint. And that she should marry a foreigner shocked the Americans over all dimensions,” said the journalist and onassis expert Jim Hougan. The marriage to Jackie Kennedy was probably his ultimate demonstration of power for the hard -rich. In a way, Onassis said the world: “Look, I can even win the American queen.” For Jackie, the connection meant financial security at a time when she feared her privacy and the security of her children. For Onassis it was undoubtedly a question of status.

The turning point in Onassis’ life came in 1973 when his son Alexander died in a plane crash at the age of only 24. “Since then he has been another person,” said contemporary witnesses. The death of his firstborn crashed the billionaire into deep depression.

A year later, Onassis suffered from Myasthenia Gravis, a rare muscle disease. He died on March 15, 1975 in a hospital in Paris, while the divorce from Kennedy was still running. He is said to have described the marriage as the “greatest mistake of his life” during his lifetime. His much -quoted words “I was just a Greek child who had learned to calculate”, and “a rich man is often only a poor man with a lot of money”, on the other hand, reveal a lot about his self -image.

With his death, his empire fell gradually. There were also other tragedies in the family: In 1974, Onassi’s first wife committed suicide, in 1988 his daughter Christina died under mysterious circumstances at the age of 37, apparently she had a heart attack as a result of acute lung edema. Aristotle onassis’ granddaughter Athina (40) is the last remaining family member.

The Alexanderonassis Foundation remained in Athens of his once gigantic assets, named after his son, and a heart hospital. “Anyone who claims that everything is possible with money only proves that he never had any!” Onassis is said to have said shortly before his death.

At the moment, the figure Aristotle Onassis has become more public awareness of the anniversary of his death: In the film “Maria” with Angelina Jolie staged by Pablo Larraín in the leading role as Maria Callas, he plays a central role. The strip, which has been running in German cinemas since February, illuminates the last days of the big opera riva, whose heart onassis once broke. The film draws him as a charismatic Casanova, who left Callas in favor of Jackie Kennedy and thus made a significant contribution to her tragic descent. Aristotle’s onassis’ life and love story remains up to date 50 years after his death.