Marlene Engelhorn hadn’t given a lot thought to the wealth that surrounded her as she grew up. She at all times thought-about the fortune, inherited from Friedrich Engelhorn, the Nineteenth-century founding father of German chemical large BASF SE, to be her household’s cash moderately than hers.
Then she got here into greater than €25 million ($27 million) from her late billionaire grandmother in 2022. She had already co-founded the group TaxMeNow and found a group in numerous progressive teams for guilt-ridden wealthy individuals like wealth-redistribution advocates Resource Justice and Patriotic Millionaires. However now the 31-year-old needed to grapple with the truth that she was a millionaire in her personal proper.
So Engelhorn settled on an concept: Let 50 strangers determine learn how to give it away.
These strangers, all of whom dwell in Engelhorn’s native Austria, will meet for the primary time this weekend at a lodge in Salzburg. Dubbed the Guter Rat, or Good Council, they have been chosen by a statistical course of run by analysis group Foresight and vary in location, age, race, socioeconomic background and different demographic elements chosen in an effort to be consultant of the general Austrian inhabitants.
Engelhorn’s aim will not be solely to offer away €25 million, but in addition to spark conversations on wealth inequality. She’s pissed off that her windfall wasn’t taxed — Austria eradicated its inheritance tax in 2008 — and doesn’t see conventional philanthropy as an excellent answer as a result of it nonetheless provides her an excessive amount of energy.
“I’m just one brain, I’m just one person and so to me, this is a huge relief knowing that the process of redistribution is much more legitimate and thorough and democratic than I could ever do it,” she stated in an interview. “Nobody needs another foundation.”
Engelhorn’s method is a dramatic instance of the methods by which heirs of dynastic wealth are selecting a unique path than earlier generations. Her ancestor Friedrich Engelhorn left BASF within the late Nineteenth century and invested his fortune within the predecessor to Boehringer Mannheim, which was purchased by Swiss pharma large Roche Holdings AG for $11 billion in 1998. A part of her need to offer her fortune away got here from the tax loopholes her household used throughout that sale, she stated.
“The knowledge of the way wealth was accumulated in these companies, and through them in my family, has reinforced my conviction that extreme wealth as power must be regulated,” she stated.
Residents’ Meeting
Engelhorn grew up going to non-public faculties after which the College of Vienna, the place she studied German literature and language. She got here up with the thought for the Guter Rat after studying about residents’ assemblies, a democratic device that’s gaining reputation in Europe. Within the absence of taxation, it appeared like probably the most egalitarian method to share her wealth.
“Philanthropy is only to be taken seriously when it considers its own abolition,” she stated. “I can’t wait for my government to tax me. They’re not going to do this anytime soon. But we do need this wealth to be redistributed into society.”
The venture was introduced in January, when the Guter Rat group, with the assistance of Foresight, despatched invites to 10,000 randomly chosen individuals throughout Austria above the age of 16. Engelhorn held a press convention asserting the endeavor so individuals didn’t suppose it was a rip-off.
The response was rapid: Inside the first two days they acquired 700 emails from individuals who’d heard concerning the plan, with many sharing their very own concepts on learn how to spend the cash, stated Alexandra Wang, who’s main the venture. (Wang and Engelhorn met when the previous was a fundraiser for a progressive Austrian suppose tank to which the latter was a donor.)
Of the ten,000 individuals the invitation was despatched to, 1,424 registered to take part, which is an unusually excessive response fee, stated Martin Haselmayer, a researcher at Foresight. A fee of 5% to 7% is regular for residents’ assemblies, he stated.
The 50 individuals who have been in the end chosen will meet a complete of six occasions between now and June. The primary two gatherings will likely be primarily instructional: This weekend, after accumulating Guter Rat merch and settling into the Salzburg lodge, members will hear from two economists about wealth distribution. The second weekend will contain a broader philosophical dialog about what a simply society appears like, stated Wang, who hopes the venture will create a highway map for others.
“This is a lighthouse project that I hope will inspire a few people out there to rethink their values,” she stated.
Beginning on the third weekend, the members will actually dig into the destiny of Engelhorn’s cash and intention to determine what to do along with her €25 million by the summer time. If all 50 members can’t agree on the place the cash ought to go, will probably be returned to her, however Engelhorn and Wang don’t anticipate that to occur.
Other than being the face of the venture, Engelhorn is now not concerned within the course of, however she’s going to give a quick speech to thank the members this primary weekend.
“I’m not so fixated on the result,” she stated. “The most important thing to me is the public discussion of wealth and equality.”
