Karl Ehlerding

Karl Ehlerding (born July 25, 1942 in Wesermünde ) is a German businessman . He is a member of the Supervisory Board of Salzgitter AG and a former major shareholder of the WCM holding company . He has also been referred to as a “self-made millionaire”, “professional speculator” and “corporate hunter”.

biography

Ehlerding was born in Bremerhaven as the son of a shrimp dealer. He is married to Ingrid Ehlerding (* 1948); both have two sons.

As a schoolboy, he was already trading successfully in Volkswagen shares. From 1962 he studied business administration in Hamburg. As a student, he invested an inheritance of 3,000 marks in the Hildesheim-Peiner Kreis-Eisenbahn , a company that was significantly undervalued. In this way, he multiplied his investment.

After further entrepreneurial investments (Jute-AG, Spar-Handels-AG ) , he took a stake in the then insignificant WCM AG in 1984 and turned it into an important company for real estate and investments. At the beginning of 2000, WCM was worth seven billion euros on the stock exchange. Ehlerding, who together with his family belonged to the main shareholders, temporarily rose to become a billionaire and was one of the richest Germans.

In 1998 a consortium in which WCM was involved bought 30,000 apartments owned by Deutsche Bahn . In the same year Ehlerding gave the CDU one of the highest private party donations in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany with the equivalent of around three million euros. A committee of inquiry was set up to examine the possible connections in more detail. The initial assumption that this was the misuse of donations as a means of influencing political decisions could not be confirmed by the evidence of the investigative committee. Since Ehlerding's donation to the CDU was an officially recorded donation and had been published in the CDU statement of accounts, there was also no violation of the party law.

At the beginning of the 2000s, WCM got into economic turmoil in connection with the attempted takeover of Commerzbank. Ehlerding and his family subsequently gave up their holdings in the company.

His private debts of more than 680 million euros were canceled by the creditor banks in 2004 in settlement negotiations. Karl Ehlerding works in the real estate business and u. a. Member of the supervisory board of Salzgitter AG, which is temporarily listed in the DAX .

Foundations

Ehlerding and his wife Ingrid Ehlerding (born February 4, 1948) are committed to the fields of youth, culture, the environment, science and research through their Ehlerding Foundation . For her social commitment and the rescue of the Barkhausen school campus, Ehlerding was made an honorary citizen of the city of Bremerhaven alongside his wife . In 2000, the Ehlerding Foundation emerged from the Ehlerding Foundation for the Promotion of Science (1993) and the Pro Jugend Foundation Ingrid and Karl Ehlerding (1994). The Ingrid Ehlerding Foundation also emerged from the joint foundation in 2000. With the “mitKids” project, she particularly takes care of children and their godparents who do something together.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Börsen-Zeitung, December 18, 2008
2. ↑ Frank Binder: Bribe: Ehlerding rejects allegations. In: welt.de . December 16, 1999, accessed October 7, 2018 . 
3. ↑ boerse.ARD.de ( Memento of the original from October 26, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Wirtschaftswoche  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ^ Ingrid Ehlerding: Two celebrations for the 70th birthday