One of the dreams of many people is to become millionaires. Therefore, they spend their lives trying to earn more money, in order to live better; others choose to leave their luck in the hands of chance and play the lottery or Euromillion; and to others it simply comes to them as if it had fallen from the sky. This is what happened to Marlene Engelhornwho received a million-dollar inheritance and, instead of keeping everything to live in peace and spend it on whatever she wanted, she decided to start a movement with which to donate a large part of the inheritance.
This 31-year-old is a descendant of the founder of the pharmaceutical company BASF and Boehringer Mannheim. Thus, after the death of her grandmother, the Austrian has received an inheritance for a large amount of money, specifically, the figure amounts to 4.2 billion dollars, that is, a little more than 3.8 billion euros. However, the Austrian surprised everyone when she announced her intention to give up 90% of this money as a matter of “social justice.” “I don’t need all that money,” she explained. Now, she has decided to go one step further and distribute that part of her grandmother’s inheritance that she does not want to keep. To do this she has asked for help and advice from her Austrian compatriots. But how is she going to distribute such an amount of money?
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In order to distribute his inheritance, Engelhorn will have 50 people, who will present their ideas with the only requirement that they must be “beneficial for society as a whole”, to which he will allocate a high amount. In order to find the beneficiaries, it has organized a type of casting, from which 10,000 randomly selected citizens will emerge (all of them over 16 years old), who will participate in the process. Of them, 50 will be chosen, along with 15 substitutes, to attend meetings that will take place in Salzburg between March and June.
But why does he do this? Engelhorn explained that the goal of this initiative is to see wealth redistributed even in the absence of effective political action. That is, one of the purposes is to denounce the “failure” of governments to stop growing inequalities. “Given the failure of the government, it is up to us to repair,” he stated. Additionally, he hopes to form a diverse board that represents different age groups, social classes and backgrounds so that the money can be used for good causes.
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The 31-year-old has been an activist for years for higher taxes on the rich. She has participated in events such as “Millionaires for Humanity” that took place in Amsterdam in August 2022. This is why Marlene Engelhorn has launched the initiative to donate her fortune as a measure to respond to the abolition of the tax. on inheritances in Austria since 2008. A decision that he considers unfair.
As for their family, the Engelhorns were known not only for the duels of the chemical company BASF and Boehringer Mannheim, but also for their philanthropy, supporting young scientists with archeology centers and music programs.