Erhard Goldbach

Erhard Goldbach (born June 25, 1928 ; † 2004 ), also known as the oil king of Wanne , was initially a coal trader , then owner of the gas station chain Goldin and Sport patron .

Goldbach began his career as a coal trader in Wanne-Eickel . In 1956 he got into the gasoline trade and founded an independent gas station chain called Goldin . He expanded greatly; At the end of the 1970s he operated over 260 gas stations and also owned car dealerships and a large tank farm. At his gas stations, he usually undercut the prices of the competition by two pfennigs . What was initially seen as skillful management turned out to be a fraud . In mid-1979 the tax debts amounted to around 60 million D-Marks . However, payment was granted. In the following year, the backlog was already a good 300 million. Goldbach probably went into hiding abroad in spring 1979, but was arrested in Boppard in early 1980 . That same year he was sentenced to six years in prison for fraud. On April 3, 1985, he was sentenced to twelve more years in prison for tax evasion . The sports club Westfalia Herne , supported by Goldbach until his company went bankrupt, was downgraded by the DFB from the 2nd Bundesliga to the Oberliga Westfalen .

In 2010 the new owner of Goldbach's house discovered a secret safe that had been hidden until then, but it was empty.

“It is still the biggest German tax scandal today. Nobody has cheated the state out of more money, nobody was in jail longer for an economic crime; and it is simply the greatest Herner story ever "

- Ralf Piorr , historian

Literature and TV documentary

Money in the suitcase . In: Der Spiegel . No. 7 , 1980, pp. 48-50 ( online ).
TV documentary: The great petrol fraud (WDR, first broadcast April 15, 2011, 45 minutes)

Individual evidence

↑ Oil & Coal, Natural Gas, Petrochemical in the Google Book Search
↑ See Wolfgang Berke / Jan Zweyer: Really criminal. The spectacular falls from the Ruhr area . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8375-0705-8 , p. 39f.
↑ Arne Poll: On the hunt for the Goldbach millions , WAZ / Funke Mediengruppe, October 11, 2010, accessed on January 1, 2019.

personal data
SURNAME	Goldbach, Erhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German coal trader, then owner of the Goldin petrol station chain and sports patron
DATE OF BIRTH	June 25, 1928
DATE OF DEATH	2004

[1] Oil & Coal, Natural Gas, Petrochemical in the Google Book Search

[2] See Wolfgang Berke / Jan Zweyer: Really criminal. The spectacular falls from the Ruhr area . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8375-0705-8 , p. 39f.

[3] Arne Poll: On the hunt for the Goldbach millions , WAZ / Funke Mediengruppe, October 11, 2010, accessed on January 1, 2019.