Aldi founder Albrecht remains richest German

Karl Albrecht, the founder of discount supermarket chain Aldi, remains Germany’s richest person, according to Forbes magazine rankings published on Thursday.

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The 90-year-old Albrecht’s $23.5 billion (€17.3 billion) means he was also the tenth wealthiest person worldwide. The man behind Germany’s successful yet unglamorously cheap grocery stores has less than half the pile of cash of Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, who is the planet’s richest person with $53.5 billion.

Four other Germans made it into Forbes’ top 100 richest people: mail-order mogul Michael Otto came in 21st with $18.7 billion, Karl’s brother Theo 31st with $16.7 billion, BMW shareholder and Quandt-family heiress Susanne Klatten 51st with $11.1 billion, and banker August von Finck 99th with $7.3 billion.

Germany had 53 people among the magazine’s 1,000 ranked billionaires, but Albert von Thurn und Taxis had to give up his title of being the world’s youngest person to belong to the billionaire’s club to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The 26-year-old German blueblood is worth $2.2 billion whereas the US tech tycoon has $4 billion in the bank.