August von Finck Jr. (11 March 1930 – 28 November 2021) was a Swiss-based German

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

businessman. When he died, his net worth was estimated at US$8.8 billion. Von Finck Jr. supported political parties and initiatives in the

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

and

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

partys, groups and persons throughout his life.

Early life

Von Finck was born in 1930 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, the son of August von Finck Sr., and the grandson of

Wilhelm von Finck Wilhelm von Finck (born 6 February 1848 - 4 April 1924) was a German entrepreneur and banker. Finck was a co-founder of the German companies Allianz and Munich Re. Life In Frankfurt am Main, he was a student at the Hasselsche Institut. He work ...

, who started a private bank in 1870 that became Merck Finck & Co.

Career

In February 2020, Von Finck sold the majority of his stake in Switzerland's SGS SA, one of the world's largest testing and inspection companies. He sold 960,000 shares valued at $2.4 billion. According to

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

, he had a net worth of US$8.8 billion when he died.

Other interests

The German state government of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

authorized the sale of an incunable about Medieval history to him in 2008. The price was about Euro 20 million.

Supporter of Far-right party

The shy billionaire supported political parties and initiatives in the right-wing and libertarian milieu throughout his life. In the 70s and 80s he supported

Franz Josef Strauß Franz Josef Strauss ( ; 6 September 1915 – 3 October 1988) was a German politician. He was the long-time chairman of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) from 1961 until 1988, member of the federal cabinet in different positions between ...

(

CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social Un ...

). At the beginning of the 1990s he supported the first anti-euro party, the League of Free Citizens, with 4.3 million euros. He later financed the “Citizens' Convention” project around today's AfD politician

Beatrix von Storch Beatrix Amelie Ehrengard Eilika von Storch (née Herzogin von Oldenburg; 27 May 1971) is a German politician and lawyer, who has been the Deputy Leader of the Alternative for Germany since July 2015 and a Member of the Bundestag since Septembe ...

with a sum of millions. It is likely that Finck was a financial supporter of the German far right party AfD. An agent of the billionaire was apparently involved in the conception of the AfD-affiliated newspaper “Deutschland Kurier”.

Personal life

Von Finck was married to Francine. They had four children and lived in Weinfelden Castle in

Thurgau Thurgau (; french: Thurgovie; it, Turgovia), anglicized as Thurgovia, more formally the Canton of Thurgau, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital is Frauenfeld. Thurgau is part ...

canton, Switzerland. His eldest son is

August François von Finck August François von Finck (born 2 May 1968) is a German businessman and the son of August von Finck, Jr., thus grandson of August von Finck, Sr. August François von Finck's great-grandfather Wilhelm von Finck was the co-founder of the private ...

. He died on 28 November 2021, at the age of 91.

References

1930 births 2021 deaths German bankers German billionaires German untitled nobility German expatriates in Switzerland Finck family People from Weinfelden 20th-century German businesspeople 21st-century German businesspeople {{Germany-business-bio-stub