Klaus-Michael Kühne Dies at 89, Leaving $49 Billion Logistics Empire
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Nov 5
Klaus-Michael Kühne Dies at 89, Leaving $49 Billion Logistics Empire
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Nov 5
Summary
Klaus-Michael Kühne, the German billionaire who turned Kuehne & Nagel into a global transport powerhouse, died Aug. 23 in Schindellegi, Switzerland, at 89; the company announced his death.
A fortune estimated at $49 billion made him one of Germany’s richest men, built around a logistics group that became dominant in container shipping by sea, land and air.
Kühne’s legacy remained shadowed by Kuehne & Nagel’s Nazi-era role in expropriating and redistributing belongings from Jewish households whose owners were sent to extermination camps.
His refusal to open the company’s 1933-45 archives to historians fueled criticism, especially as other German firms such as Deutsche Bank and Volkswagen publicly documented their wartime conduct.