By David de Jong – Jan 28, 2013— Bloomberg
In the spring of 1945, Harald Quandt, a 23-year-old officer in the German Luftwaffe, was being held as a prisoner of war by Allied forces in the Libyan port city of Benghazi when he received a farewell letter from his mother, Magda Goebbels — the wife of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
The hand-written note confirmed the devastating news he had heard weeks earlier: His mother had committed suicide with her husband on May 1, after slipping their six children cyanide capsules in Adolf Hitler’s underground bunker in Berlin.
“My dear son! By now we’ve been in the Fuehrerbunker for six days already, Daddy, your six little siblings and I, to give our national socialistic lives the only possible, honorable ending,” she wrote. “Harald, dear son, I want to give you what I learned in life: Be loyal! Loyal to yourself, loyal to the people and loyal to your country!”
Quandt was released from captivity in 1947. Seven years later, he and his half-brother Herbert — Harald was the only remaining child from Magda Goebbels’ first marriage — would inherit the industrial empire built by their father, Guenther Quandt, which had produced Mauser firearms and anti-aircraft missiles for the Third Reich’s war machine. Among their most valuable assets at the time was a stake in car manufacturer Daimler AG. (DAI) They bought a part of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) a few years later.
Lower Profile
While the half-brothers passed away decades ago, their legacy has endured. Herbert’s widow, Johanna Quandt, 86, and their children Susanne Klatten and Stefan Quandt, have remained in the public eye as BMW’s dominant shareholders. The billionaire daughters of Harald Quandt — Katarina Geller-Herr, 61, Gabriele Quandt, 60, Anette-Angelika May-Thies, 58, and 50-year-old Colleen-Bettina Rosenblat-Mo — have kept a lower profile.
The four sisters inherited about 1.5 billion deutsche marks ($760 million) after the death of their mother, Inge, in 1978, according to the family’s sanctioned biography, “Die Quandts.” They manage their wealth through the Harald Quandt Holding GmbH, a Bad Homburg, Germany-based family investment company and trust named after their father. Fritz Becker, the chief executive officer of the family entities, said the siblings realized average annual returns above 7 percent from its founding in 1981 through 1996. Since then, the returns have averaged 7.6 percent.
“The family wants to stay private and that is an acceptable situation for me,” said Becker in an interview at his Bad Homburg office. “We invest our money globally and if it’s $1 billion, $500 million or $3 billion, who cares?”
Wartime Profits
Together, the four sisters — and the two children of a deceased sibling — share a fortune worth at least $6 billion, giving each of them a net worth of $1.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. They have never appeared individually as billionaires on an international wealth ranking
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Right Ring 
Excellent post Bull! I love history and was totally unaware of this story. Seems to be a theme with tyrant dictators that they keep themselves and their very loyal friends in the elite class, while they put the rest of the people into poverty and to work as slaves. I’m sure Chelsea will never have to worry about money and the little Ovomits will no doubt end up multimillionaires if not billionaires. The Muslim Brotherhood sure don’t seem to have any problem moving into the palaces after they kick out the dictators. It’s all about power, control and getting rich.
These bastards always hammer it’s not fair so many have so little and a small percentage have the majority of wealth and it’s their duty to spread the wealth around. They just do it in some really messed up ways where many still end up poor, starving…et al…but the elites just get more elite. I can’t believe folks buy into this crap that these psycho leaders really give a rats about poor folks, except to give them some freebies for loyalty.
Another nice point you brought up reinforces why I have NEVER liked BMW’S!!
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Dave, it was a strange, surreal story. And I don’t know why no one has ever stumbled onto or mentioned it before. Yea, Beamers LOL. Sometimes history can irritate your soul. Sounds like they made their fortune the hard way, doesn’t it? Like what do people say about them, “they come from old money”?
Just like Al Gore’s wealth… following a legacy of its own.(or creating one)
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Bull….”old money”….LMAO! In my home state there is plenty of old money from coal mine owners, the horse racing industry and land development. I know of no old money here from enslaving and butchering a group of people. No wonder many of these Germans chose to keep a low profile.
Al Gore…OMG…the epitome if hypocrite. He jets all around spewing into the air what he claims caused this (so called) man made climate warming. But; like all limousine liberals he buys green bucks to plant trees. Funny how they so easily comfort their souls from the evils they claim mankind created.
BTW; another good shot of hypocrisy with the EnviroNazi’s changing over the mantra from Climate Warming to Climate Change. Gotta change the lie, when there’s zero science to back up the claim. Wonder what name they have planned for the future when the man made climate change farce falls apart. Maybe “Climate Ain’t Right”… 😀
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Dave, names is one of their specialties. They have to be good at that because when one name is ruined they have to find a suitable replacement. But when the climategate erupted, they saw red and their climate went to “pants on fire” hot.
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Bull, when one lie doesn’t ring out they always have another waiting. To think Nixon got kicked out over what he did (which he did lie and ya’ gotta pay the piper), but Billy Bob lied to a grand jury and he gets a pass. The Pharaoh can do nothing but lie and he gets a pass. I wait with baited breathe to see what Hitlery will get away with.
IMO; climategate is the perfect definition for all this crap. If it wasn’t, why does every scientist that supports the farce of man made climate …whatever they’ll call it next…all refuse to debate the climate guru from England?? (sorry…have a brain lapse and can’t recall his name). I think the answer to that question is pretty obvious….
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Dave, or he/she/it would have to consult the diminishing number of fellow travelers before answering a question — makes it hard to debate. Logistics just don’t work out.
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Dave,
You remind me, look at the wealth B/O has generated (or we generated for him) out of thin air. Nothing of substance there at all. Oh, a book with “composites”. And he’ll be on the dole for life — good times.
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Bull, isn’t it amazing it doesn’t matter how shitty a pres they are, but they all end up rich and not to their salary??? This fascination (or perhaps a better word is nosy..or a worshiper) that so many have with wanting to see previous pres give speeches, dine with them, buy their books…et al…blows my mind. The only pres I would have like to have a little chat with over a beer is good ole Ronnie and dat sure ain’t gonna happen now…
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We thought Clinton would be humbled after that, seemed like Lewinsky upped his fees and popularity.
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Bull, isn’t just amazing how much a good Havana cigar can totally change your life?? 🙂
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Bull,
Great historical article. It seems if you are a rotten, dirty killer from the Nazi era, you get to keep all of the profits stolen. I’m sure the BHO family will live in great luxury the rest of their rotten live. God only knows how much he has stolen from us.
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Pepp, if you work for tyrants, you get a pass I guess. Barry did steal exceptionalism from us and he’s after America’s heart.
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Bull, great comment, “….he’s after America’s heart”.
He’s sticking a hot poker in America’s heart every day. I guess that is why we are all on fire and boiling mad.
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Pepp, yea. I’d say there is probably more wrath for him than there was against the king. This guy is right in our country destroying the foundations. He’s personally offended most of us.
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Bull,
I keep praying God will take care of this tyrant one day. And yeah, he called us the “flat earth society” once again while he blubbers on about climate change. As if a mere mortal can do anything about it and it doesn’t even exist. He believes his royal highness is God himself.
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Pepp, That’s funny, he can thank himself for himself. (its a neat little circle)
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What is amazing here is that Obama has a huge, mountain-sized chip on his shoulder. (he has some deep “issues”) I do pray God will foil his schemes because we don’t seem able to.
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Bull, great comment! Obama is a pissed off black, muslim that is taking his psycho anger out on all that oppose his distorted reality. The little shit is Hitler reincarnate just in reverse. Ovomit mainly hates honkeys, Jews and Christians. He’s just better at spreading around his madness than Hitler.
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Dave, uh ha, that’s why the term charismatic always scares the crap out of me.
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Great piece,Bull. It figures the Nazis would be profiting. Much like today’s version of same.
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