HAUB

One morning in April 2018, a man was heading up a ski lift, skis strapped on and a daypack on his shoulder, above the Matterhorn—the iconic half-Swiss, half-Italian mountain in the Alps. He was preparing for a mountaineering race, but he would never return from the slope. Billionaire Karl-Erivan Haub, heir to the German retail empire Tengelmann, was reported missing the following morning after failing to return to his hotel in the Swiss resort town of Zermatt. He was one of the richest men in Europe. Two red-liveried rescue helicopters took off from the Air Zermatt heliport to search for the missing businessman. After a week, Haub’s family gave up hope of finding him alive, and the official search was called off in October. Three years later, the then 58-year-old magnate was declared legally dead. Sometimes, though, death is not really the end.

In the lush landscapes of the Rhineland, where the Rhine River winds through Germany’s verdant valleys, the Haub family emerged as major players in European commerce. Their saga, entwined with the rise of post-war Germany and so-called "Rhenish capitalism," is a textbook case of modern family business: wealth and war. In the late 19th century, amid the throes of industrialization, Erivan Haub—a visionary entrepreneur—founded what would become one of Germany’s most influential business dynasties. The establishment of Tengelmann, a modest grocery store in Mülheim an der Ruhr, marked the humble beginnings of a retail empire.

Erivan was born in 1932, on September 29 (coincidentally the same day as former Italian PM and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi) in Wiesbaden. While his family name came from his father Erich Haub, it was his mother’s side that built the fortune. Elisabeth was a member of the wealthy Schmitz-Scholl family from Mülheim. She was born in 1899 to entrepreneur Karl Schmitz-Scholl. When her father died in 1933, she and her brother Karl Jr. inherited the company. She managed the business for 14 years while her brother was held as a prisoner during World War II — he returned in 1947.

Erivan followed in his mother’s footsteps. Under his leadership, Tengelmann expanded far beyond its local roots, pioneering supermarket concepts that revolutionized German retail. The postwar economic boom—Germany’s “Wirtschaftswunder”—created ideal conditions for Tengelmann’s growth. The company blossomed into a diversified conglomerate spanning groceries, hardware, pharmaceuticals, and real estate.

After World War II, Erivan completed internships in Chicago and California before studying economics at the University of Hamburg. In the 1960s, he returned to the US, living near Seattle with his wife. He officially joined the family business in 1963, aged almost 30, and became managing director in 1969 after his uncle Karl’s death.

When Erivan took the reins, Germany stood at a crossroads between tradition and modernization. A titan of industry, he envisioned expansion across continents. Under his guidance, Tengelmann entered the US market, acquiring A&P stores in the late 1970s—a bold move that brought Rhineland efficiency to America’s urban sprawl. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 created new opportunities in East Germany but also intensified competition with emerging EU economies. Karl’s strategies were put to the test as Tengelmann faced fierce competition from discounters and online startups.

In 1971, Tengelmann acquired Kaiser’s, a major grocery chain, and in 1972, launched the discount grocer Plus. In 1979, the group acquired The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. At one point, Erivan was the sixth richest man in America—just ahead of Bill Gates—with more than $6 billion, although he later dropped to around 250th place. In the early 2000s, he passed the business to his eldest son, Karl-Erivan. The patriarch died almost 20 years later at his home in Wyoming.

The heir’s name combined those of his father and uncle, but unfortunately, he didn’t inherit the best traits of both.

The Haub family’s wealth peaked in the billions. Karl-Erivan’s net worth was estimated at over $3 billion when he disappeared. The family fortune stemmed from Tengelmann, which spanned supermarkets and hardware chains, including the textile discounter KiK and the DIY chain OBI. They also owned prime real estate across Europe and the US. However, their growth was not without controversy. Allegations of labor violations in overseas factories and environmental concerns began to tarnish the group's reputation. Even the internal family dynamics were becoming tense, with the cockpit gradually opened to Karl's brothers, Georg and Christian.

The mystery of Karl-Erivan’s disappearance shocked the business world. His fate remained unresolved, leading to infighting over the company's future—and over the inheritance. But is Karl-Erivan really dead? Investigative journalist Liv von Boetticher uncovered photos, taken in 2021, allegedly showing Karl-Erivan in Moscow—the same year he was legally declared dead. The photos were produced by an Israeli-American firm hired by his brother Christian. The image reportedly had a 90% biometric match.

Born in Seattle, educated in Switzerland, and married with two adult children, Karl-Erivan also had a rumored lover linked to Russia’s FSB. Her name? Veronika Ermilova. It is claimed Karl-Erivan called her 13 times in the days before his disappearance.

In April 2024, a bombshell exploded: Karl-Erivan might be alive. Rumours of a secret lover had circulated since 2020. His wife Katrin publicly clashed with her brothers-in-law while a German tribunal considered declaring him legally dead. Allegedly, Karl-Erivan even held a Russian passport in addition to his US and German ones.

Why stage his own death and disappear? Maybe for the oldest reasons in history: money and love. Millions of euros were transferred from Tengelmann accounts to Russia between 2010 and 2015—was Karl-Erivan preparing his escape all along?

Adding to the mystery, Karl-Erivan vanished just one month after his father’s death on March 6, 2018. Had he been waiting for the patriarch to pass before executing his plan?

In 2021, a German court officially declared him dead. But new evidence reopened the case. The Cologne prosecutor's office launched a criminal investigation into Christian Haub, who had testified he had no reason to believe his brother might still be alive. The investigators’ photos seem to contradict that claim. Yet, for now, the district court has not found the reports to be legally conclusive.

Christian, Karl-Erivan’s younger brother, took over Tengelmann’s management in 2018, just days after the disappearance. The two had run the company together for years. After the incident, a fierce dispute erupted over the family’s multibillion-dollar empire. Christian and Georg quickly petitioned the court to declare Karl-Erivan dead. Georg later withdrew. Katrin, initially critical of the move, joined the petition with her children in early 2021.

Eventually, Karl-Erivan’s heirs agreed to sell their shares to Christian. No purchase price was publicly disclosed, but Christian’s lawyer revealed he had offered €1.1 billion for them by the end of 2021. KPMG valued the company at €4 billion at the time.

Did money buy silence in the Haub family?