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Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Germany’s richest woman. How the heiress to the BMW car company is developing the family business
March 9, 2027
Image: Freepik/ArthurHidden
Susanne Klatten is the heiress to the BMW car company and the richest woman in Germany. In 2026, Bloomberg estimated her fortune at $31.3 billion.
She is one of the ten richest women in the world. Klattens owns 19.2% of BMW shares and heads the company's supervisory board. However, she is not only the owner of the family fortune, but also actively participates in the development of the business, which earns billions annually.
Her path is not the story of a businesswoman who built a huge fortune from scratch, but an example of how the responsibility and dedication of an heiress helps the business of several generations of a family to develop and grow.
A privileged start
Susanne Klatten was born in 1962 in Bad Homburg, Germany. Her father is German billionaire and industrialist Herbert Krupp, who saved the German car company BMW from bankruptcy in the 1960s and made it profitable again.
The Quandt family began building their wealth at the end of the 19th century. At that time, the head of the family, Emil, created a thriving textile company. His son, Günther, took over the company before World War I and, having made his fortune supplying uniforms to the German army, began engaging in mergers and acquisitions. He acquired the battery manufacturer Varta, as well as shares in BMW and Daimler-Benz.
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The Quandt family has two golden rules: the family business must constantly expand, and control over it must always remain in the hands of family members. From childhood, Klatt was raised and educated with the idea that one day she would have to manage the family assets.
After earning a degree in business finance, the young Klatt honed her skills at the Young&Rubicam advertising agency in Frankfurt, where she interned from 1981 to 1983. She then continued her education, studying marketing and management at Buckingham University and earning an MBA from the IMD business school in Lausanne, Switzerland.
After her studies, Klattten worked at Dresdner Bank, the Munich branch of the consulting firm McKinsey, and Bankhaus Reuschel & Co.
Management of BMW and Altana AG
In 1982, Klatt's father, Herbert Quandt, died, leaving his daughter 12.5% of BMW shares and 50.1% of shares in the chemical and pharmaceutical company Altana AG.
Under Klatt's leadership, Altana AG reached a new level and demonstrated significant growth. It entered the list of the 30 largest pharmaceutical companies in Germany. Experts praised Clatten's contribution and called her strategy for developing Altana AG effective.
In 2006, Altana AG sold its pharmaceutical business to Nycomed for €4.5 billion. This amount was paid to shareholders as dividends, and the company continued to specialise in the production of speciality chemical products.
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In 2009, Klatt became the sole owner of Altana AG by buying out the remaining shares. She became deputy chair of the board with an annual turnover of just over $2.5 billion.
In 1987, Klatt began working at BMW and, after ten years with the company, joined the BMW Supervisory Board in 1997 alongside her younger brother Stefan Quandt. She played a decisive role in implementing an appropriate risk management system at BMW and was responsible for regular reporting to the Supervisory Board and representing BMW's external interests.
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