Friedrich Karl Flick, 79; Industrialist Believed to Be Austria’s Richest Man

Friedrich Karl Flick, 79, the billionaire industrialist who was believed to be Austria’s richest man, died of cancer Oct. 5 at his home in Carinthia, in southern Austria.

With a fortune worth $8.6 billion, his great wealth came from the Flick Group’s stakes in Daimler-Benz, Feldmuhle, Dynamit Nobel and other automotive, paper and chemical ventures.

His name was linked to several scandals during his lifetime. In 1947, when Flick was in his 20s, his father, Friedrich, was convicted of subjecting Jews to forced labor during World War II. At that time, the family business involved the steel and coal industries as well as the production of armaments, motor vehicles and other manufactured goods.

Flick’s father was convicted by an Allied war crimes tribunal and spent three years in prison.

Friedrich Flick became embroiled in a political scandal in Germany in 1981 when some of his managers were found guilty of bribing German politicians. Flick denied knowledge of the scheme and was not convicted of a crime. Four years later, he sold the Flick Group to Deutsche Bank.

Flick was born Feb. 3, 1927, in Berlin and studied business economics at the University of Munich before he joined his father’s enterprise in 1957. He was named head of the business in 1975 and built it into a worldwide conglomerate.