Heiress gives £21m to 50 strangers
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When you hear the words “Austrian heiress”, Marlene Engelhorn is not the person who would immediately come to mind.
The cerebral 32-yearold is an activist and a staunch campaigner for fair taxation and equality. In a characteristically unusual move, Ms Engelhorn, a descendant of the founder of chemical company BASF, has launched a ballot to choose 50 ordinary Austrian people to decide what should be done with £21.5 million of her fortune.
On Wednesday, 10,000 randomly-selected Austrian citizens aged over 16 began receiving letters inviting them to take part in her initiative, the Good Council for Redistribution. Of those who sign up – either online or by phone – 50 people will be chosen, as well as 15 substitute members selected in case original participants drop out.
"If politicians don't do their job and redistribute, then I have to redistribute my wealth myself," Ms Engelhorn explained. "I have inherited a fortune, and therefore power, without having done anything for it. And the state doesn't even want taxes on it."
When she inherited her money after the death of her 95-year-old grandmother Traudl Engelhorn-vechiatto in September 2022, Ms Engelhorn said she planned to give 90 per cent of it away. She is in favour of higher taxes on the wealthy – and for Austria to reinstate its inheritance tax, which it abolished in 2008, meaning her entire legacy is tax free.
Ms Engelhorn-vechiatto’s fortune was estimated to be worth more than £3.3 billion. It is not known exactly how much Ms Engelhorn junior inherited.
Christopher Hofinger, managing director of the Foresight Institute that is supporting Ms Engelhorn in her proposal, said the participants, who will attend a series of meetings in Salzburg later this year, will be "from all age groups, federal states, social classes and backgrounds".
There are likely to be people on both sides of the political spectrum, especially in Austria, where support for the far-right Freedom Party of Austria has grown in recent times ahead of this year’s impending elections. Finding a consensus – on anything – could be tricky.
The resulting social experiment would be a good subject for a reality TV show. I’d watch it.
Marlene Engelhorn at the festival for the digital society in Berlin