German-Austrian Heiress Distributes Her $26.8-M Assets

A young German-Austrian heiress has realized her plan to redistribute almost all of her assets to organizations that are devoted to protecting the climate, improving education and health care, or supporting gender equality among other issues, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Engelhorn is part of a wealthy industrialist family that sold the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Mannheim to the Swiss group Roche in the 1990s. I Photo: Jan Zappner / re:publica Wikimedia Commons

Marlene Engelhorn, 31, had asked a group representing 50 diverse citizens in Austria earlier this year to decide how her 25 million euros ($26.8 million) worth of wealth should be distributed.

The millionaire argued that assets are unequally distributed in the country and that by sharing her wealth with others, she is trying to help make up for the unfair distribution of wealth in Austrian society.

Engelhorn inherited her fortune from her grandmother. She’s part of a wealthy industrialist family that sold the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Mannheim to the Swiss group Roche in the 1990s.

“A large part of my inherited wealth, which through my birth has elevated me to a position of power that contradicts every democratic principle, has now been redistributed in accordance with democratic values,” she said in a written statement, Austria Press Agency (APA) reported.

“So how does it feel to finally be normal and democratic? Quite fantastic, to be honest,” Engelhorn told broadcasters RTL and NTV on Wednesday. “It feels wonderful to share,” she said.