The German billionaire Adolf Merckle, who according to Forbes Magazine was the fifth richest man in Germany and the 94th richest man in the world in 2008, committed suicide on January 5th. The 74-year-old media-shy billionaire left a note to his four kids and wife before he stepped in front of a train in his hometown, Blaubeuren.
The family stated that: ”The desperate situation of his companies caused by the financial crisis, the uncertainties of the of the few last weeks, have broken the passionate family entrepreneur and he took his own life.”
Adolf Merckle’s suicide was the tragic end of a months long fight for his life work. Merckle had originally inherited a chemical wholesale business from his grandfather, which he built to a business conglomerate with over 100.000 employees and 30 billion Euros in annual sales. When the financial crisis hit the global markets, Merckle’s obscure conglomerate with multiple holdings lost hundreds of millions of euros - 400 million alone on Volkswagen shares.
Adolf Merckle was described by many as a humble and folksy man, who did not live in luxury, didn’t throw mundane parties and never travelled first class. For most of the year he even took a bike to work, on colder days he drove his VW Golf. Some former business partners painted a different picture and described Merckle as a a tough business man who operated with sometimes dubious business practices and as a vengeful and greedy man.
His self admitted love for speculation let the business conglomerate, that was built on debt and highly volatile shares, collapse when the value of his stock plunged. Merckle fought for his business. He knew he had to split up his conglomerate, but selling the drug company Ratiopharm as the biggest business in the conglomerate seemed to be difficult in the crisis and it was reported that Merckle needed a credit over 400 Million Euro to avoid shortfalls in payments.
Maybe he didn’t want to live to be treated as a reckless investor - as a “locust”, as the new dreaded term in is Germany now - or maybe he couldn’t bear to see his empire be broken up that he had devoted his whole life to.
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