The richest man in Switzerland. Interesting things on the web! The saddest monument in the world

Date of writing: 03.10.2023

Reading time: 18 minutes

Meet the reader - this is the village of Meggen. What kind of Meggen is this and how much did he pump the author into getting a mention in Morsoblog? Let me remind you that cities such as New York, London and Mogadishu really want it, but have not yet received this honor.

So what did the community in the canton of Lucerne, located on the northern shore of Lake Firwaldstät in the very middle of Switzerland, do?

Beautiful places? Without a doubt. Idyll, pastoral, quiet haven, pocket of time, cozy nest, sleepy hollow, blue lagoon, brokenback mountain, little Switzerland. So, stop, Google! What the hell is little Switzerland? This is the real Switzerland! Not Saxon, not Czech, not Yakut (no, I’m serious, type any other geographical name in combination with the word “Switzerland”, official links will definitely appear!), but the most original fondue-chocolate Switzerland.

It’s a truly beautiful place, but are there still many like it in the country? So why Meggen? And you open the Forbes list. Find Switzerland in it. Soooo. 22 people on the list. Three of them live in an unremarkable, albeit beautiful village called Meggen.

It is clear that there is Zurich or Geneva, where the nerve of the economy pulsates and the country’s wealth is accumulated. There is a chic place to live, a glamorous, luxurious Ticino - there is the concentration of all local and visiting nabobs. But still, three went to Meggen.

The fact is that in the canton of Lucerne, the community of Meggen is the only one that enjoys tax breaks. And Switzerland, as you know, is a country in which taxes are slightly lowered and a crowd of foreign oligarchs immediately forms at the border, clutching their Hermes handbags with stolen billions in excited anticipation.

But Switzerland is not a gift. I am sure that the Russian and Ukrainian readers who read my reports about and, and in the case of Meggen, will experience some bewilderment and at the same time even a wow-impulse pride in their native oligarchs.

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Where, the reader may ask, are the multi-story palaces made of platinum? Where are the British-style castles, fenced off from the greedy gaze of the laity with moats and walls with machine-gun towers?

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Why are there frail longboats on the lake instead of hundred-deck yachts the size of Istanbul?

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Why did Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettl, who bought a plot of land in a Swiss village for millions of euros, fail to build a tennis court and was forced to lick the balls of village environmentalists? Why do oligarchs, enduring humiliation and restrictions on their luxury ambitions, dream of Switzerland with such passionate lust?

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Yes, because this is a country with reinforced concrete stability in politics and economics. Yes, in Russia you can easily drop a concrete slab on environmentalists and buy, say, an entire forest in a Karelian nature reserve near a lake. But who will give the Russian oligarch a guarantee that today you are looking at the Karelian lake through the panoramic windows of your mansion, and tomorrow not through the bars of a barracks?

Do you want an eloquent example? While reading about the famous residents of Meggen, I came across one curious billionaire named Mark Rich, who, unfortunately for the community, had already left our world three years ago at the age of 74.

Who is this Mark Rich? And Mark Rich is a shlymazzle with a Jewish filling, born in Antwerp, Belgium and moved to the United States in his childhood. His dad made a fortune selling jute duffel bags during the Korean War, and our hero was one of the largest financial investors in the world.

Including investing in Russia. Had a business with the Alpha group. Rich was so active in his business that the US government opened a dozen lawsuits against him on charges of money fraud and tax evasion. The prosecutor at the trial, future New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, called Rich “the biggest financial criminal in US history.”

So, our Rich, feeling his ass starting to burn, quickly rolled up his belongings and fled to Switzerland, where he had one of the company’s branches. He renounced his American citizenship and received Spanish citizenship in addition to Israeli citizenship. He appointed a former Mossad agent as his personal bodyguard and lived happily in Meggen. In 1985, the Americans sent agents for Rich with an arrest warrant, but were turned away by the Swiss. The local Bundesrat recognized the hunt for Rich by the Americans as contrary to Swiss law. That's all! Imagine, hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud, the most powerful country in the world and the Sixth Fleet on the one hand, and little Switzerland on the other. And all because of one scoundrel.

And in 2001, before retiring, Bill Clinton, in one of his last decrees, issued a pardon to Rich. Moreover, people like Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak put pressure on Clinton. Now it is clear that every oligarch wetly flows at the mention of the word “Switzerland”.

And now they huddle, remembering Rich, in the narrow huts of Meggen and thank fate for the chance to meet a calm, well-fed old age.

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In addition to billionaires, a strong “upper middle class” settles here, capable of paying serious money, even for Switzerland, for real estate. A two-room apartment here costs from a million francs (almost a million euros), and a small house starts from two million.

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Apartments are rented with built-in kitchens.

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However, the Meggen municipality recently voiced its concerns about high property prices. “We don’t want to turn into a village for elderly millionaires that has no future. We are interested in young families and demand that landlords reduce monthly rent. In addition, when constructing future apartment buildings, the developer will be required to rent out at least a third of the apartments in this building for a monthly rent the rent is not more than 2500 francs." This is socialism in Swiss style.

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Affordable apartment buildings

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The streets of Meggen

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Here sits the very same municipality that is angry with the oligarchs. On the ground floor there is a restaurant, a grocery supermarket and a couple of shops. On the second floor are the arbiters of the destinies of financial sharks. Everything is quite modest, considering the fact that a billionaire or a famous musician may be standing with you in line for milk.

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Lake Firwaldstät (literally “lake of four forest states”) is called the cradle of Switzerland. On its banks, in addition to Lucerne, are the very first cantons of the state - Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden.

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The greatest depth of the lake is 214 meters. In summer, the water temperature reaches a comfortable 22 degrees. The water in the lake can be safely drunk.

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In 1601 it was quite uncomfortable here. The chronicles contain records of an earthquake and a subsequent tsunami 4 meters high.

Mount Bürgenstock with the highest elevator in Europe. Unfortunately, it is currently under restoration and will only be open from July, otherwise I would have shown you some gorgeous photos from there.

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This is a village for millionaires. Bye everyone. I will give the address of the village to interested oligarchs in a personal message in exchange for 100 zhetons.

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Other posts from Switzerland. It's simple - just click on the picture like on an iPhone.

WHY IS SCHAFFHAUSEN NOT KOZELSK FOR YOU?

One of Europe's richest villages has refused to accept any asylum seekers and instead voted to pay a fine of almost $300,000.

Fear of possible sexual attacks on women and children, as well as disruption to peaceful life, led the ultra-rich high-altitude resort of Oberwil-Lily in Switzerland to vote against accepting just 10 migrants during a referendum. The picturesque village's 2,200 residents, 300 of whom are millionaires, have decided to flex their financial muscles to reject the central government's quota.

One of the richest villages in Europe, Oberwil-Lili refuses to accept any asylum seekers. The Swiss government has ordered it to accept 10 migrants as part of a promise to take in a total of 50,000 people, at least 3,000 of whom come from Syria.

But 2,200 wealthy residents of Oberville-Lily, 300 of whom are millionaires, held a referendum and voted against the government's quota, opting instead to pay a fine of nearly $300,000.

Fears of possible sexual attacks on women and children, as well as disruption to peaceful ways of life, led the ultra-rich high-altitude resort of Oberwil-Lily in Switzerland to say no to the government's plans during a May 1 referendum.

Surrounded by lush green pastures and with stunning views of the snow-capped Alps, the twin villages of Oberwil and Lily belong on a chocolate box.

Residents, who include a huge number of millionaires per capita, say they want to protect their tranquil way of life and don't want any new arrivals to spoil the quiet environment.

Some of Oberville-Lili's wealthiest residents said they were willing to personally help pay the fine imposed by the Swiss government - about $150 per person. They will have to pay the same fine next year if they do not meet the quota.

But this decision polarized local society, dividing opinions almost equally. While most residents supported the decision, others were “confused” by it. This mother of two says she was embarrassed by 'racism'.

The village is lined with Alpine-style chalets and modern glass-enclosed houses, making it one of the most attractive - and expensive - places to live in Switzerland. The fine will be paid from a fund of $7 million, which is generated from local taxes.

The roads here are impeccably clean, the gardens are immaculate and, despite the distance of 16 kilometers from the country's largest city Zurich, there is almost no traffic. Residents, many of whom are retirees, say they don't want their pensions to be ruined by migrants.

That is why the village will have to pay a fine to the Swiss government.

Oberwil-Lili mayor Andreas Glarner, 54, said the reason for the vote was fear.

He added: “Yes, refugees from Syria should be helped, and they would be better served in camps closer to their homes. The money paid may be used to help them, but if we provide them with housing here, we will be sending the wrong message. Others will also risk their lives crossing the ocean and paying smugglers.”

52% of voters were against accepting refugees. The mayor says Oberville-Lili is a quiet village, not equipped to accommodate 10 migrants. “It was a small victory for those of us who don’t want refugees, because Oberville-Lily is not a place for them.”

The population of Switzerland is 8 million people.

The number of asylum requests has been decreasing recently.

Switzerland accepts 50 thousand asylum seekers. All of them are divided between 26 cantons, each locality is allocated a quota of refugees depending on the population.

#10 – Magdalena Martullo-Blocker ($3.8 billion)

Magdalena Martullo-Blocker is currently the CEO of Ems-Chemie, a Swiss company involved in the production of chemicals and polymer products. In 2014, Ems-Chemie's annual sales were approximately 1.972 million Swiss francs ($2 billion). In 2015, Martullo-Blocker entered politics and was elected national councilor (photo-gazettereview.com).

#9 – Ivan Glasenberg ($3.8 billion)

Ivan Glasenberg only became a Swiss citizen in 2011, but he is still considered one of the richest citizens. In 1984 he joined Glencore, an influential mining company headquartered in Switzerland. By 2002, he was appointed its chief executive officer. His net income has been steadily declining over time as the economic climate has changed, but he still has a pretty fat wallet.

#8 – Rachel Blocker ($3.9 billion)

Currently, Rachel and Magdalena Blocker, her sister, have a large share in the Ems-Chemie company. However, Rachel doesn't actually work there. She runs her father's other company, Robinvest. Robinvest is an investment company, and although it is not as successful as Ems-Chemie, it still serves as an excellent additional source of income.

#7 – Dona Bertarelli ($3.9 billion)

Dona Bertarelli is not like most other entrepreneurs. Her passion is sailing, which she is quite good at. In 2010, Bertarelli and her team won the Bol d'Or Mirabaud, becoming the first woman to win the race. Most of her wealth comes from inheritance. Serono, her family's business, was sold for more than $9 billion to Merck KGaA in 2007.

#6 – Thomas Schmidheiny ($5.1 billion)

Thomas Schmidheiny owns vineyards all over the world, but calls Klosters his home. In 1984, he inherited his father's company Holcim, which is still one of the world's leading cement companies. Schmidheiny stepped down in 2003 but still owns approximately 12% of the highly successful international company.

#5 – Hansjörg Wyss ($5.9 billion)

Hansjörg Wyss graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich with a Master of Science degree. Later he went to study at Harvard University and received an MBA degree. Wyss worked in a variety of different jobs in the textile and iron and steel industries after graduating, and eventually met with one of the founders of Synthes, a Swiss medical device manufacturer. By 1997, Wyss founded Syntheses USA. The company was highly successful, and he stepped down as its chairman when Johnson & Johnson acquired the company for $21.3 billion in 2012.

#4 – Isolde and Will Liebherr($6.1 billion)

Isolde and Will Liebherr are brother and sister. Together they run the equipment manufacturing company Liebherr Group. The couple has continued the business their father started, and they say they intend to pass the company on to their children in the future. Today the Liebherr Group employs more than 40,000 people.

#3 – Gianluigi Aponte($8.2 billion)

The businessman began his career as a ferry captain, and while working, he met his wife Rafaela. In 1970 they founded the Mediterranean Shipping Company. The business started with one ship that transported goods between Europe and Africa. Today, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has become almost a global superpower in terms of container shipping. In the late 1980s, MSC branched out to become MSC Cruise, a successful cruise line. In 2014, Aponte stepped down as CEO of MSC, handing over control of the company to his son Diego.

#2 – Marguerite Louis-Dreyfus ($8.2 billion)

Born in Leningrad in the USSR in the 60s. In 1988, she met and married Robert Louis-Dreyfus, an influential French businessman who was chairman of the Louis Dreyfus Group, a company involved in the energy, agriculture and shipbuilding industries. In 2009, Robert died after a long battle with leukemia, resulting in Margarita inheriting the business.

#1 – Ernesto Bertarelli– ($8.6 billion)

Ernesto Bertarelli studied business abroad, receiving a degree from Babson College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In 1996, he took over Serono, his family's pharmaceutical company, greatly improving the business. Bertarelli is an avid philanthropist.

Wooden bridges that have stood for 700 years, the unguarded Government House, the saddest monument in the world and houses whose beams are soaked in bull's blood or donkey urine - these are impressions of Lucerne, a kind of Catholic stronghold in generally Protestant Switzerland. But not the only ones. The Eurotour to “Magnificent Switzerland”, organized by the “Master of Travel” company, is today remembered as a bright fairy tale...

For the New Year - to the Government House!

To be honest, the article was planned to begin with the phrase “If you are bored, go to the Government House before the New Year: it will become more fun.” But then bad associations arose. Although in Lucerne this message is pure truth. Here at the Government House, New Year's "aperitifs" are held annually - any person who for some reason was left alone on the eve of the New Year can come here and find company. Absolutely free, by the way.

The government building seems to be doing just fine without any metal detectors, security posts or other mandatory security measures. And nothing - it’s been standing for more than a hundred years. Our tourist group freely entered the hall - there were no obstacles from the police. If only because we didn’t find a single policeman there.

Canton, by the way, is preparing for a referendum. It will be decided what the new university, which is planned to be built in the city, will be like. There is a model of the university building in the Government House - any local resident can come in and express their opinion about it.

The saddest monument in the world

The famous monument of Lucerne is the "Dying Lion". It was erected in honor of the Swiss who guarded the French king and died during the storming of the Tuileries Palace on August 10, 1792. “To the Swiss, faithful and brave,” says the inscription on it. “This is the saddest and most touching stone statue in the world,” Mark Twain wrote about this monument.

Guardsmen from the canton of Lucerne were gladly hired by both the French kings and the Vatican to guard the Pope. The little casket opens simply: Lucerne, unlike its neighbors, where the reformers led by Calvin are oh so well remembered, remains largely a Catholic canton. 72% of local residents consider themselves to belong to the Roman Church. The penetration of other religions is frowned upon here.

Another attraction is the Kapellbrücke bridge over the Reuss River. A wooden structure more than 200 meters long was built in 1365! And it has survived safely almost to this day. In 1993, the bridge was badly damaged by fire: it is said that a young man threw a cigarette butt from the bridge, which hit a boat. A significant part of the bridge burned down, but was restored later. But the stone Wasserturm tower, which is located in the middle of the bridge, was not damaged. Previously, it was both a prison and a torture chamber. Now it houses a souvenir shop.

From the Reuss embankment, the Chateau Gutsch Hotel, located on a high hill on the outskirts of Lucerne, looks magnificent. They say that when it was put up for sale for $3 million, Michael Jackson was ready to pay $25 million at once. However, he was refused: they say, historical monuments are not sold to foreigners. But now it belongs to the “native Swiss” Alexander Lebedev. That very same deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

Lucerne's ancient buildings in the Old Town sport red and yellow beams. Beauty actually has something to do with it, but it’s not the main thing. It turns out that in the Middle Ages, the beams of houses were impregnated with an antiseptic - after all, epidemics were raging in Europe. And the best antiseptics were then considered to be ox blood and donkey urine. Now it’s clear where the color comes from?

In Switzerland there are German guest workers...

By the way, while crossing the Reuss Bridge, we saw a real Swiss beggar. Can you imagine a beggar in this well-fed and rich country? “Oh, poor thing...” one of the female members of the tour group started out of habit. However, to our surprise, our guide immediately cut short the “sympathizers”: “There’s no need to feel sorry for him - it’s his choice! He has the opportunity to call the social service, and he will be provided with housing, as well as unemployment benefits - about 3 thousand francs. And I’ve been seeing this beggar here for a good 20 years.” Having heard about the size of unemployment benefits (remember, the Swiss franc is more expensive than the US dollar), many immediately stopped feeling sorry for the Swiss beggars and began to envy them.

The conversation turned to guest workers. “Well, yes, they come to work with us from Germany, and from France, and from Italy. But no one feels any complaints, much less displeasure, towards them - people came to our country to work for us,” said former Minsk resident and now Swiss citizen Clara. By the way, according to her, street cleaning is carried out exclusively by local residents. "How else? Who loves their homeland more than they? Yes, and street cleaning is the safety of citizens. And it’s not safe to trust it to someone else,” the guide explained.

In Old Lucerne, almost any building has a five-hundred-year (or even more) history. And they were preserved almost in their original form. Of course, they are being restored, but still...

About hobbies, salaries and cows

On the road from Lucerne to Zurich, we ask Clara about life in Switzerland. “The main thing is that every Swiss should have a hobby. If you don’t indicate a hobby in the employer’s application form, they simply won’t hire you: they will think that you are a boring person, uninterested in anything. For example, I sing in a church choir. Every fifth Swiss takes part in amateur performances. It’s hard to imagine a village without its own folk ensemble,” says Klara.

The topic of holidays was also touched upon. So, it turns out that the most important holiday in Switzerland is the herding of cows to the Alpine meadows. On this occasion, cows are washed with shampoo (!), their eyelashes are painted with mascara (!!) and their tails are curled (!!!). Well, then, naturally, they send us to the mountains - until autumn. Together with them, a staff of shepherds, milkmen and cheesemakers goes to the mountains. A bell is hung on each cow, and the heaviest one is on the record holder for milk yield. It was hard to lift your head from the grass. If anyone is interested, the average milk yield from a cow in Switzerland is 30 liters of milk per day. The main record-breaking cow produces 60 liters of milk.

Of course, we talked about salaries and income. If unemployment benefits are about 3 thousand francs, then the minimum wage is 3800. The average worker receives about 5800 francs. Well, when several Rostov teachers traveling with us found out how much teachers in Switzerland earn, they clutched their hearts: from 8 to 12 thousand francs! With a 20 hour work week.

"What do you want? Our professions of policeman and teacher are the most respected,” Clara was surprised. Eh, us too. But there is not always an equal sign between “the most respected” and “well paid”...

Russian trace in the city of millionaires

And here is Zurich. The name of which sounds almost synonymous with the word “money”. If 1,600 millionaires live in Geneva, then in Zurich their number is innumerable. Their villas occupy entire blocks on the Gold and Silver coasts of Lake Zurich.

As in other Swiss cities that we have already visited, the Old Town is perfectly preserved. Among the attractions, we note the women's abbey of Fraumunster with stained glass windows by Marc Chagall - a native of Vitebsk painted 50 sq.m. in 1970.

By the way, Fraumünster has a rich history. There was once a girls' school here, where girls were prepared for high society. Then the Reformation broke out, and all sorts of goods, including salt, were stored on the territory of Fraumünster. Later, at the end of the 19th century, the abbey became stables for Napoleon's army. Immediately after the French, the Russian army came and quartered here for six months. They say that a few months after the army left, a baby boom broke out in Zurich. Of course, the army corps numbered 20 thousand people, while the population of Zurich was only 21 thousand. So the Slavs are not completely strangers here...

The Grossmünster, the largest cathedral in Zurich, is also impressive. St. Peter's Church is notable for the largest clock in the world (the minute hand weighs 92 kg, and the diameter of the clock mechanism is 8.6 m).

However, Zurich is also famous for its more modern history. It was in Zurich that Churchill delivered his famous speech on September 19, 1946 about the need to create a “United States of Europe.” This event is immortalized by a memorial plaque embedded directly into the sidewalk. Thirty years before Churchill, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin made his mark in Zurich. However, this is said modestly - he stayed here for more than a year, as the sign on the building reminds: “Lenin, the Fuhrer of the Russian Revolution, lived here from February 21, 1916 to April 2, 1917.” And in the local library he wrote his famous work “Imperialism as the highest degree of capitalism.”

In the coffee shop that Vladimir Ilyich loved to go to, you can still drink coffee today. Which we did with pleasure.

Shopping mile

It is in Zurich that the still active Masonic lodge “Alpina” (the main one in Switzerland) is located, as well as the headquarters of the international football and hockey federations FIFA and IIHF.

The most famous street in Zurich is the Station Street, also called the “Shopping Mile”. You can buy anything. We also took a ride on the local tram, which runs through the entire “Shopping Mile” and goes further, only Zurich residents know where. The tram in Switzerland is the main form of public transport. Well, how did they live to live like this: at a public stop there is an electronic board that indicates how many minutes later the nearest trams and their numbers will arrive, and on the tram itself the same electronic board tells you how many minutes it will take you to get to this or that stop. And the main thing is that the schedule does not fail. Everything - with Swiss precision!

By the way, the local station is an attraction in itself: it is the largest in the world.

Every day, 1,650 trains depart from 54 platforms. On the top floor there is a huge hall with an area of 7 thousand square meters, where the world's leading chess players hold simultaneous games with ordinary Swiss people, opera performances are staged, and the country's largest Christmas tree, decorated with Swarovski, is erected for the New Year.

It is impossible not to mention the local university. After all, Rosa Luxemburg, Roentgen, and Einstein studied there. Among its graduates are 27 Nobel laureates!

Waterfall. Waterfall!

Zurich is our penultimate “Swiss” stop. After the man-made wonders, we went to admire the natural wonder - the Rhine Falls. But it is impossible to describe it in words, and in the age of digital photography, it is completely sinful. Extraordinary beauty, enormous inner power, an element, next to which you feel uneasy...

By the way, you have to pay to see the waterfall. If memory serves, then 3 francs. For some reason, Ostap Bender immediately came to mind with his idea of taking money for the Failure in Pyatigorsk (“So that it does not fail too much!”).

This was our last stop in Switzerland - the rest of the way lay in Nuremberg. We stopped for the night in a small but cozy hotel in Germany. We went to the cafe. “It’s almost communism here!” - the first reaction after looking at the menu. Yes, compared to Swiss prices, everything was really very cheap. The magnificent country of Switzerland. If you have a Swiss salary.

Well, about Nuremberg, its proud status as the unrecognized capital of a non-existent country, separatism and red beer - in the next, final part of our report on the European tour.

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Switzerland is now home to 129 people with a net worth of more than $1 billion, up from 86 in 2014, according to the economic journal Bilanz, which annually compiles a list of the richest residents of the Alpine republic.

Where exactly do billionaires prefer to live? First of all, these are the Cantons of Geneva - 25 people live there, and Zurich - 19 people, then the Canton of Vaud, which has 14 billionaires. But not everyone loves big cities, for example, some very wealthy people prefer the picturesque landscapes of the Alps in the Cantons of Bern and Grisons - each of them is home to 10 billionaires. When compiling these statistics, it was taken into account that dollar billionaires who are members of the same family may have their place of residence in different cantons of the Alpine Republic.

As for the richest family in Switzerland, it is still the Kamprad family, which owns the Ikea furniture empire. Ingvar Kamprad, the head of the family and founder of Ikea, who lived for a long time in Switzerland, has now returned to Sweden, and his three sons, Swiss citizens, live in the Canton of Vaud. The Kamprad family's fortune is estimated at 42.5 billion francs.