Munich He was still the godfather of his hometown Munich, but hardly anyone knew it. The outer insignia of power were gone, the well-known companies associated with August (“Gustl”) von Finck junior: First of all, the large private bank Merck Finck, the Löwenbräu brewery or the Isar-Amperwerke energy supplier.
The family entrepreneur, who worked here in the third generation and so vehemently advocated nuclear power, sold everything many years ago. Also a reminder that August’s grandfather was once a co-founder of the insurance groups Allianz and Münchener Rück at the end of the 19th century, which for a long time were considered the “Siamese twins” of the German economy.
What remained for the senior, who had a “junior” in his name, was the most extensive real estate property. Entire blocks and rows of houses in a prime Munich location belong to his association, which is controlled by a Custodia Holding SE. The dynasty had already secured meadows, forests and fields early on, when Bavaria’s state capital still had its immense growth ahead of it.
The inconspicuous one with his latifundia only became conspicuous when a popular restaurant had to make room on a large area near the cathedral – for “FC Bayern World”, the merchandising temple of the local soccer record champions. The traditional “Franziskaner” parlor on Residenzstrasse will soon have to give way to luxury shops in the Von Finck property. Football and fashion promise significantly more returns and increased value.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
All in all, however, August von Finck junior had long outgrown the role of a Bavarian business magnate. He was now an international shadow tycoon who built shopping malls in the world’s metropolises, traveled by helicopter or his own long-haul plane, who resided with his wife Francine, protected from all too painful tax access, in Weinfelden Castle in eastern Switzerland, where curious loopholes and Drawbridge expected.
He was an economic cosmopolitan with a national feeling who had his places all over the world, for example in Uruguay, but also in Munich of course, as well as in London, where he died last Sunday, November 28th, at the age of 91 .
Finck ruled the old fathers custom
With his patriarchal, ultra-conservative manner, the tall baron, who could smile so friendly, had fallen out of time. Today’s standard formulas used by business leaders such as transparency, “diversity” or sustainability were completely alien to the dynast. He stayed as far away from interviews as he did from guest comments or any window speeches. Just no public! Reputation management? A junk. He didn’t have a chauffeur, a taxi was enough. Porters or waiters, however, were treated in a friendly manner.
Finck ruled the old fathers custom with a handful of loyal followers, all of them a bit old (i.e. in the seventies). So a great empire was worked, in which the sun of money never set. Strategy and maneuvering work was carried out in the headquarters on Munich’s Promenadeplatz in the Parcus-Haus, built in 1887, with Ernst Knut Stahl as one of the main activists, who had already been the intimate of August von Finck senior.
Power has the smell of clandestine here.
(Photo: imago / Weißfuß)
Internally, people cheered over the usual asset estimates by the US magazine “Forbes”, which has calculated more than seven billion euros. Or about the ranking of the “Manager Magazin”, where it actually only landed in 32nd place. In truth, there are billions more that come together.
The house philosophy of the central value of concrete gold and real gold bars makes it possible. With an internal logic, Degussa Goldhandel was acquired and the precious metal is for sale in big city shops. On his Uruguayan ranch, Finck had even stored 17 gold bars and 1000 Krugerrand coins in the bedroom, apparently for reassurance, which only became known because the gang of thieves was caught, albeit without loot.
August von Finck junior was, if you will, not a gray, but an ice-gray eminence who lived on conservative values, a true one-of-a-kind in times of “anything goes”. If he felt injured, he defended himself by all means, including a lawsuit against the “Handelsblatt” worth millions, which had no consequences.
Here acted the advocate of consistent economic liberalism, a libertarian who saw himself in the tradition of the economists Friedrich August von Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, and accordingly also generously supported the Mises Institute.
Donations to the CSU and FDP
Hadn’t he once cultivated a very close relationship with the CSU superfather Franz Josef Strauss, whose party he repeatedly made generous donations in the struggle for freedom or socialism? What has remained from that time is a close connection to the Christian Socialist Peter Gauweiler, a top-tier attorney, from whom he obtained advice for more than twelve million euros between 2008 and 2015. One of the joint projects was the campaign before the Federal Constitutional Court against the federal government’s European policy, i.e. against the perceived sell-out of the nation-state.
In 2008 and 2009, for example, the FDP, in triplicate, received a major donation of 1.1 million euros, which then went down in the annals as the “Mövenpick tax”. After all, the Liberals and the CSU, which was also well-funded with von Finck money, successfully advocated a reduction in VAT for hotel stays in the coalition negotiations in 2009.
It benefited – there are coincidences – the Swiss Mövenpick Group, which at that time still belonged to the Finck empire, whose restaurants in 2014 and hotels in 2018 were then sold by the enterprising baron.
The multi-billionaire’s penchant for market radicals, but also for right-wing populists and national liberals, was so great that aid money was poured in over and over again. For example, in the 1990s for the Bund Free Citizens of the right-wing FDP dissident Manfred Brunner, he was also a staunch anti-euro guerrilla.
Or in 2000 in the environment of the then FPÖ hero Jörg Haider, where an entrepreneurial initiative fought with money against the threat of EU sanctions for Austria. Or in 2003 for the “Citizens’ Convention” by Meinhard Miegel and Gerd Langguth, who advocated the deregulation and privatization of old-age provision and health protection.
But that the establishment of the AfD was financed, as the “Spiegel” and the Konrad Adenauer Institute of the CDU have suggested, is strictly denied internally in the Finck empire. It should be correct that Finck’s loyalties contributed mild gifts to and around the party.
No direct successor built
It is clear that August von Finck has not established a direct successor. The fortune is likely to be shared among the four children who are placed accordingly. The eldest son, August François, takes care of the Swiss mechanical engineering group Von Roll as well as the Zurich Bank Von Roll that was created around it and the Staatliche Mineralbrunnen AG from Bad Brückenau in Lower Franconia. The youngest son Luitpold Ferdinand, on the other hand, works for the Swiss goods testing group SGS, where they hold shares, while Maximilian Rudolf and Maria Theresia drive their own real estate companies.
Will one of the quartet win through, as the late father once did, who actually wanted to become a farmer but then had to learn to be a banker?
August von Finck junior was initially appointed in a will together with his brothers Wilhelm, Gerhard and Helmut as “sole heirs in equal parts”. But as it is with assets of this size: dispute is inevitable, and the fact that blood is thicker than water, as the bon mot goes, only means here that one quarrels down to the blood.
The radically authoritarian ancestor August von Finck senior (1898-1980), who sponsored Adolf Hitler well in the “Third Reich” and profited from the Aryanization of Jewish banks, disinherited the Filius Gerhard two years before his death. Wilhelm (1927-2003) and August finally bought all assets from their half-brother Helmut in 1985 for just 65 million D-Marks, especially the right to use the previous inheritance.
The then Bhagwan supporter, who was living in the US at the time, has been complaining against the deal for years because he feels duped. Drugs hit him just as much as “picture” stories about his lifestyle. His lawyers argue that today’s horse breeder, long since clean and serious, would actually have conceded a middle three-digit million euro sum. In the course of the trial, which Helmut initially lost before the regional court, the world public at least learned of a passage in August senior’s will, according to which his heirs should definitely hold on to the Merck Finck bank.
The recently deceased August junior was free from such sentimentalities. He also made his money with the lively sale of investments. In 1990 he hawked the family-owned bank to the British banking group Barclays, today Merck Finck is Qatari-owned. In general, the descendants have left no stone unturned to counter the impression that as a businessman they have not inherited their father’s talent.
In 2007, for example, the junior sold a 25 percent package at the Essen-based construction company Hochtief to the Spanish construction giant ACS, which took control against resistance from employees and politicians. The deal brought Finck junior an impressive 571 million euros in profit, of which the tax authorities saw little, as usual, after internal transactions.
Where the laws of capitalism work, there is no place for patriotism. The man they called “Gustl” learned this lesson too.
More: Billionaire August von Finck has passed away