A good two years after the death of the multi-billionaire and major Knorr-Bremse shareholder Heinz Hermann Thiele, the family foundation was established. Thus, with some delay, an important step in the estate of the entrepreneur, who died in February 2021, has been completed. The billion-dollar foundation indirectly holds around 42 percent of the Munich-based train and truck supplier Knorr-Bremse, which Thiele transformed from a medium-sized company into a global market leader, and around 50 percent of the railway technology group Vossloh.

Stephan Sturm, former CEO of Fresenius, manages the Heinz Hermann Thiele Family Foundation as a member of the foundation's board of directors, it announced on Tuesday. He had to leave the health care group prematurely last autumn. In addition to Sturm, the three-member Executive Board includes Robin Brühmüller, Thiele's executor, and his daughter Julia Thiele-Schürhoff, who holds 17 percent of Knorr-Bremse. "With the establishment of the Heinz Hermann Thiele Family Foundation, the prerequisites for the continuation of his entrepreneurial life's work have now been created in the spirit of my father," Thiele-Schürhoff is quoted as saying.

Thiele had worked on the establishment of a foundation during his lifetime, but his last will remained unfinished. After his death, an inheritance dispute flared up. Widow Nadia Thiele takes legal action against executor Brühmüller. In particular, it is also about the remuneration of the tax consultant. Brühmüller is waving a fee in the three-digit million euro range for his work as an executor. In addition, the widow also blames him for the escalated dispute with her stepdaughter Julia.

The public prosecutor's office in Munich I announced on Tuesday that it had discontinued preliminary proceedings against Brühmüller on suspicion of fraud. The suspicion had not been confirmed. "In particular, the accused was entitled to rely on the fact that the deceased was legally comprehensively advised elsewhere and was therefore not subject to any error with regard to the remuneration regulation," the prosecutors said.