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by sgberlin 3216 days ago
Look up the founders of ALDI and Lidl, among the richest people in the world and there are barely photos of them.
1 comments

Well as many people in Germany know, ALDI is a contraction of "Albrecht Discount". Theo Albrecht (who founded Aldi Nord and Trader Joe's) was kidnapped in 1971 for ransom so it's obvious why they'd rather want to keep out of the public eye. Theo Albrecht died in 2010, his brother Karl (who founded Aldi Süd) died in 2014.

Dieter Schwarz (who owns Lidl) is still alive and currently the richest man in Germany. Technically Lidl started out as the Schwarz-Gruppe, founded by his father. Interestingly none of the people involved in Lidl were called Lidl. His father bought the naming rights from a man called Lidl who had no further affiliation with him or his company.

Germany has strict privacy laws so it's not as easy to publish photographs without consent.

As the legend goes, Theo Albrecht's kidnappers forced him to show his ID to make sure they actually got him.