Karl Albrecht, the billionaire German grocer who took his mother’s humble corner store and expanded Aldi supermarkets to nearly every corner of the globe, has died at 94. He was the richest person in Germany with an estimated $25.9 billion fortune.
His wealth was the result of industrious Spartanism. Albrecht, who was injured on the Russian Front fighting for Nazi Germany, stepped behind the counter of his mother’s shop in the years following World War II, a time when conflict-weary West Germany was desperately poor. By the 1950s, Albrecht and his brother, Theo, had a chain of stores after expanding up and down the Rhine River from their start in the old industrial region of Rhur. Further growth, Albrecht realized, would require them to run their business on the cheap—and price their goods with the same frugal mindset, Forbes informs.
