Austrian Chemical Company BASF Heiress
Usage Decided Through Discussion Among 50 Citizens
"25 million euros (approximately 36 billion KRW), please decide where to spend it."
A woman in her early 30s, the heiress of the German chemical company BASF, has attracted attention by announcing that she will donate her inheritance of 25 million euros (3.6 billion KRW) back to society and leave the decision on how to use it to public discussion.
Marlene Engelhorn (31) recently revealed this plan and sent letters to 10,000 Austrians, asking them to participate in discussions on how to use the inheritance, The Washington Post reported on the 11th (local time). Engelhorn, who currently lives and works in Austria, is a descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, who founded BASF in 1865. The 25 million euros she plans to return to society comes from the inheritance she received from her grandmother.
Engelhorn is a figure who opposes the unequal structure that allows heirs, including herself, to inherit wealth without effort, and has advocated for the restoration of inheritance tax and taxation of the wealthy. Since 2021, she has been active in German-speaking countries by founding and leading a wealthy group called "Tax Me Now," which actively advocates for tax justice. The main argument of this group is to impose higher taxes on the top 1% of the wealthy to achieve tax justice.
She wanted to restore Austria's inheritance tax, which was abolished in 2008, and pay taxes on her own wealth, but after failing to bring about institutional change, she embarked on a new experiment.
In a statement posted on the project’s website, Engelhorn said, "Donating money at will does not solve political failure and gives me power I should not have," adding, "Just because I want to make this society a better place does not mean I have a good plan," emphasizing that "wealth redistribution must be an extended process beyond me as the party involved."
On the 9th, she completed sending invitations to participate in discussions to 10,000 randomly selected citizens. She plans to select 50 participants from among those who wish to join to form a discussion panel. The panel will be open to those aged 16 and older and will be composed considering gender, age, and economic status to reflect Austria’s population structure. The 50 selected panel members will meet six times in Salzburg to discuss how to spend Engelhorn’s 25 million euros.
Once the panel is formed, Engelhorn will lose all authority and decision-making power over the project, and she will not have any veto power over the conclusions reached by the panel.
However, illegal, hostile, or inhumane organizations or individuals, as well as profit-driven institutions, can be excluded. The same applies to paying money to participants or those associated with them. If the panel fails to decide on the use of the funds within the given period, the money will return to Engelhorn.
The proportion of the 25 million euros she has allocated for the project relative to her total wealth has not been disclosed. However, Bernhard Madlener, the project spokesperson, told the NYT that it corresponds to "most" of Engelhorn’s wealth.
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