German billionaire Adolf Merckle committed suicide by throwing himself under a train, "broken" as his business empire crumbled under a growing burden of debt, his family said. Merckle, whose holding company owes banks about 5 billion euros ($6.7 billion), owned stakes in HeidelbergCement AG and drug wholesaler Phoenix Pharmahandel AG. He had been seeking emergency financing for more than two months from a group of more than 30 banks led by Commerzbank AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg.
Merckle, whose holding company owes banks about 5 billion euros ($6.7 billion), owned stakes in HeidelbergCement AG and drug wholesaler Phoenix Pharmahandel AG. He had been seeking emergency financing for more than two months from a group of more than 30 banks led by Commerzbank AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg.
German billionaire Adolf Merckle has committed suicide after his business empire ran into trouble in the global economic slowdown. In a statement his family said he had been "broken" by the financial crisis, and had taken his own life. Mr Merckle ran up losses of about 400m euros (£363m;$535m) last year due to wrong-way bets on Volkswagen shares. He was ranked as the world's 94th richest person in 2008, and his family controls a number of German companies. The 74-year-old's body was found on Monday near railway tracks in southern Germany. Officials said there was no evidence that anyone else was to blame.
German billionaire Adolf Merckle has committed suicide after his business empire ran into trouble in the global economic slowdown.
In a statement his family said he had been "broken" by the financial crisis, and had taken his own life.
Mr Merckle ran up losses of about 400m euros (£363m;$535m) last year due to wrong-way bets on Volkswagen shares.
He was ranked as the world's 94th richest person in 2008, and his family controls a number of German companies.
The 74-year-old's body was found on Monday near railway tracks in southern Germany. Officials said there was no evidence that anyone else was to blame.
Officials said there was no evidence that anyone else was to blame.
For the death? or the collapse of the companies? Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
He seemed to have been playing with his own money rather than his companies' money, so cannot be accused of endangering anyone but himself and family, it would seem. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
I'm peeling an onion in order to express the appropriate emotion as I type
So this is now officially worse than the crash of 29!!! Most economists teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless. -- James K. Galbraith
