Madeleine Schickedanz (born 20 October 1943) is a German heiress and philanthropist. She is the daughter of Gustav and Grete Schickedanz, the founders of catalog retailer Quelle Versand, which was merged with

Karstadt Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH was a German department store chain whose headquarters were in Essen. Until 30 September 2010 the company was a subsidiary of Arcandor AG (which was known until 30 June 2007 as KarstadtQuelle AG) and was responsible w ...

to form

Arcandor Arcandor AG was a holding company located in Essen, Germany, that oversaw a number of companies operating in the businesses of mail order and internet shopping, department stores and tourism services. It was formed in 1999 by the merger of Kar ...

, a company listed in Germany's Mid Cap DAX stock index until its 2009 bankruptcy.

Biography

Schickedanz was born in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

. She interrupted her studies in business economics after two semesters. She is married to her third husband, Leo Herl. The pair splits their time between

Fürth Fürth (; East Franconian: ; yi, פיורדא, Fiurda) is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division ('' Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the ...

and St. Moritz as they wish. Schickedanz has four children, two each from her former marriages to Hans-Georg Mangold and Wolfgang Bühler, both of whom were Quelle managers. After her daughter Caroline successfully overcame

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

in 1990, Schickedanz founded the ''Madeleine Schickedanz KinderKrebs-Stiftung'', a charity that supports children who suffer from cancer. She was the 13th-richest woman in the world, and the 142nd richest person in the world, according to Forbes in 2007. However, as of 9 June 2009, she has declared insolvency after the bankruptcy of her holding company Arcandor. She and her husband claimed to live on only €600 per month in the aftermath of the insolvency. In January 2010, she sold two of her villas in St. Moritz for 68 million USD to pay down the debt. In 2014, she sued her former advisor Josef Esch of the Sal. Oppenheim bank for undertaking risky investments. She was supported in her claim by Thomas Middelhoff.

References

External links

Homepage of ''Madeleine Schickedanz KinderKrebs-Stiftung''''Madeleine Schickedanz: Hinten in der Villa''

Handelsblatt The ''Handelsblatt'' (literally "commerce paper" in English) is a German-language business newspaper published in Düsseldorf by Handelsblatt Media Group, formerly known as Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt. History and profile ''Handelsblatt'' was es ...

, 8 Mai 2006
"Madeleine Schickedanz: Die Versandhaus-Diva"
manager magazin, 27 February 2004
''Die Weihnachtsfrau''
Cicero, December 2005 People from Nuremberg 1943 births Female billionaires Former billionaires Living people 20th-century German businesswomen 20th-century German businesspeople 21st-century German businesswomen 21st-century German businesspeople {{Germany-business-bio-stub