German billionaire kills himself

[Praxius]

BBC NEWS | Business | German billionaire kills himself

German billionaire Adolf Merckle has committed suicide after his business empire ran into trouble in the global economic slowdown.


In a statement his family said he had been "broken" by the financial crisis, and had taken his own life.

Mr Merckle ran up losses of about 400m euros (£363m;$535m) last year due to wrong-way bets on Volkswagen shares.

He was ranked as the world's 94th richest person in 2008, and his family controls a number of German companies.

The 74-year-old's body was found on Monday near railway tracks in southern Germany. Officials said there was no evidence that anyone else was to blame.

Volkswagen losses

His family, which had reported him missing after he failed to return home, said in a statement: "Adolf Merckle lived and worked for his family and his firms."
"The distress to his firms caused by the financial crisis and the related uncertainties of recent weeks, along with the helplessness of no longer being able to act, broke the passionate family businessman, and he ended his life."


Mr Merckle's business interests included the generic drugs maker Ratiopharm and the cement maker Heidelberg Cement.

In all, his business conglomerate has about 100,000 employees and in 2008 reported 30bn euros in annual sales.

His holding company had recently been in talks with banks to secure credit after it ran up high levels of debt amid the global financial crisis.

The holding company said it had suffered heavy losses on investments in shares of the carmaker Volkswagen, which fluctuated wildly in value late last year as rival car company Porsche moved to increase its stake in VW.

Mr Merckle had helped turn his grandfather's chemical wholesale company into one of Germany's biggest pharmaceutical wholesalers, Phoenix Pharmahandel, in which he held a 57% stake.

He used his wealth, estimated by Forbes magazine last year to be $9.2bn, to take stakes in Heidelberg Cement and Ratiopharm.

Mr Merckle also owned stakes in companies that made a wide array of goods including all-terrain vehicles, software and textiles.
He is survived by his four children.

Well that kinda sucks that people like that, in that position, with all that money and such, think the only option left is suicide when things get tough.

I never got it.... Maybe I never will..... but if I go broke, and I can't support my family, and I loose a bunch of companies and employees.......

..... Go live in the forest or some place off the grid. Choose a simple life, sheish.... no need to go kill yourself.

Crap happens and sometimes it smears your underwear. That doesn't mean you end it all..... pick yourself back up, change your underwear and keep on truckin.

Added:

Oh by the way, did they ever fix that problem of the windows in sky scrapers back in the great depression?

 

[JLM]

BBC NEWS | Business | German billionaire kills himself



Well that kinda sucks that people like that, in that position, with all that money and such, think the only option left is suicide when things get tough.

I never got it.... Maybe I never will..... but if I go broke, and I can't support my family, and I loose a bunch of companies and employees.......

..... Go live in the forest or some place off the grid. Choose a simple life, sheish.... no need to go kill yourself.

Crap happens and sometimes it smears your underwear. That doesn't mean you end it all..... pick yourself back up, change your underwear and keep on truckin.

Added:

Oh by the way, did they ever fix that problem of the windows in sky scrapers back in the great depression?

Yep, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem- but hey, greed will get you almost everytime if you give it long enough. I always figured when you get the first $million, put it away safe (like an account where you can't touch the principal but just draw an annuity) and then you can be as foolish as you like with everything over and above that first $milion.

 

[Scott Free]

I didn't think shape shifting lizard people could kill themselves!?!?!

Now who is going to supply Planet X with gold?

 

[karrie]

It's gotta suck to feel that all you're worth to your family is your bank account. I pity the rich sometimes.

 

[Nuggler]

:-(......Ach, der shnukle.....

Iss Aspertaning hisselffen.

Nein Nein.

Ach mein gott!!

Saddd isst too.

who gives a ****

:jerk:

 

[darkbeaver]

Praxius it should read "former billionaire kills himself". I have mixed feelings, a blend of profound satisfaction and sustaining hope. Now if the rest of the useless pricks would follow suit we would be well served indeed.

 

[JLM]

It's gotta suck to feel that all you're worth to your family is your bank account. I pity the rich sometimes.

You got that right Karrie, just look at all the tragic lives in Hollywood- I doubt if the majority ever feel the real joys of life like being around to see their children and grandchildren play or laugh, it's just a frenzied pursuit of money mixed in with drugs and booze. Maybe poorer folks don't enjoy much happiness but at least they know what it is.

 

[Praxius]

You got that right Karrie, just look at all the tragic lives in Hollywood- I doubt if the majority ever feel the real joys of life like being around to see their children and grandchildren play or laugh, it's just a frenzied pursuit of money mixed in with drugs and booze. Maybe poorer folks don't enjoy much happiness but at least they know what it is.

Makes sense.... when you have everything handed to you on silver, you got maids wiping your arse and everything you ever wanted is as far away as a phone call, sometimes it can just take the little things in life to make one blow it all out of proportion and see no way out simply because they never had to deal with a serious problem before in their lives (or for a long time anyways) and those little things seem so dramatic, that nobody else could ever understand.......

.... it's a frame of mind that some people get conditioned into after so many years. If they go bankrupt, all their helpers are laid off and they then have to fend for themselves...... it's sometimes pretty easy to see what decisions they may take in that situation.

They're out of their element, they never prepared for this situation to occur, all their backup plans were made for other problems...... it's a shock, they see no other way out and sure as heck don't want to be seen on the front page of the tabloids wallowing in their own filth in an alley drunk off mouth wash.......

so some may figure it's better to burn out then to fade away, because they know of no other way.

of course that's just one view.

 

[Said1]

Maybe he thought his family would suffer too much and would be better off without him. A suicidal mind is not rational.