He renounces an inheritance of 4 billion euros because “I could not be happy” and for a question of “fairness”. It is the story of 29-year-old Marlene Engelhorn, Austrian and descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, who founded the chemical giant Basf. Her grandmother is ranked 687 in Forbes magazine’s ranking of the richest people in the world and the rejected inheritance represents 90 percent of what she is owed. But Marlene doesn’t care: that’s not what makes her happy. On the contrary.
The girl, who studies German language and literature in Vienna, explained to the German and Austrian media that the refusal of the sum “is not a question of will, but of fairness”. “I did nothing to receive this inheritance,” she pointed out, adding that it is “pure luck in the lottery of the birth.”
For the young woman, too, too much money risks becoming a problem and not an advantage, because excessive wealth can lead to tensions, problems and misunderstandings rather than solutions.
To this is added the ethical aspect: Engelhorn, in fact, together with 49 other heirs of great fortunes ‘Taxmenow’, an initiative according to which the State should manage most of the billionaire assets. Not only does the girl demand greater redistribution of wealth, but she also wants those with more money to pay more taxes for greater social equity.