Susanne Klatten
 Klatten at the BMW stand of the IAA motor show, 2017. Photo: Olaf Kosinsky, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons
| |
| Net worth | $29.7 billion Forbes 2026 list, March 24, 2026[1] |
|---|---|
| World rank | 79th (Forbes 2026)[1] |
| Source of wealth | BMW, pharmaceuticals (Altana) |
| Companies | Altana (owner); BMW (about 19%, supervisory board since 1997); SGL Carbon (shareholder) |
| Citizenship | Germany |
| Born | April 28, 1962, Bad Homburg, West Germany |
| Education | IMD Lausanne (MBA) |
| Known for | Richest woman in Germany |
| Net worth figures are estimates by the source named and change every day. | |
Susanne Klatten is a German heir and investor, the daughter of Herbert and Johanna Quandt, and the richest woman in Germany.[2] On the Forbes 2026 billionaires list, a snapshot taken on March 24, 2026, she was 79th in the world with an estimated $29.7 billion.[1]
Net worth
- January 2022: about $23.4 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.[2]
- March 2026: $29.7 billion, 79th on the Forbes list.[1]
How the fortune was made
Klatten studied business, worked at the advertising agency Young & Rubicam, and earned an MBA at IMD in Lausanne; she has often worked under the name Susanne Kant.[2] From her father she inherited 50.1% of the pharmaceutical and chemicals maker Altana. Altana sold its drugs business to Nycomed in 2006 for €4.5 billion, and in 2009 she bought almost all of the rest of Altana.[2] Her father also left her 12.5% of BMW, which rose to about 19% when her mother died in 2015; she has sat on BMW's supervisory board with her brother Stefan Quandt since 1997.[2] She also holds a stake in the graphite maker SGL Carbon.[2]
In 2007 the German broadcaster ARD aired The Silence of the Quandts, a documentary about the family's role during World War II.[2]
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Forbes, "Susanne Klatten", 2026 World's Billionaires list (snapshot of March 24, 2026), read November 3, 2026. Net worth is a Forbes estimate.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Wikipedia, "Susanne Klatten", read November 3, 2026. Billionaire Wiki's text is written in its own words; facts are checked against this article and its sources.