think their ranking on rich lists is too low, American tycoons fume. German ones kick up a fuss when theirs looks suspiciously high, explains Heinz Dürr. When a magazine called him a billionaire a few years ago, Mr Dürr rang the editor to remonstrate. The reporters had double-counted his ownership of Homag, a maker of wood-processing machines that Dürr, his family’s mechanical-engineering firm, bought in 2014.
Several factors account for this anonymity. One is the nature of the tycoons’ businesses. In America many vast fortunes have been made in finance or technology. Many rich Germans owe their success to staid businesses where progress happens not through headline-grabbing disruptive leaps but unremarkable incremental tinkering. Over half the riches of the country’s billionaires comes from dull endeavours such as retailing, manufacturing and construction.
As in other countries, many German journalists are left-leaning and display instinctive hostility towards plutocrats. In March, a weekly magazine, published a cover story about the “Shamelessly rich”, illustrated with a gold spoon and arguing that Germany’s wealthiest 5% try to protect themselves against a redistributive welfare state by lobbying for lower taxes and hiding their wealth offshore.
Werner Bahlsen, the current head of the Bahlsen biscuit empire, said the family will hire a well-known historian to examine their Nazi past after Verena, his 26-year-old daughter, recently blurted in response to a question about Bahlsen’s exploitation of forced workers that they were treated well.
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Wtf, they are all fking rich
Another great bias test.....Replace 'german billionaires' wt 'Tom Steyer'.... Feel the same? If not, you might be a democrat, oops no,..... i meant a hypocrite
'Disliking the rich' is not an inborn prejudice. Research into how wealth is obtained and kept inevitably leads to that conclusion.
NASA all truth comes to light
Why because the answer is Jews..they dominate the world..Jews hate Germans..am I right?.