Helmut Horten

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Helmut Horten (8 January 1909, Bonn – 30 November 1987, Croglio, Switzerland) was a German entrepreneur who built up and owned the fourth largest chain of department stores in Germany.

The son of a judge was apprentice in a Düsseldorf department store belonging to Leonhard Tietz before working for the Duisburg department store of the Gebrüder Alsberg (Alsberg brothers) company. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Horten was able to acquire the company from their Jewish owners, Strauß and Lauter, who fled to the U.S.. He was aided in this transaction by the banker Wilhelm Reinhold of the Commerz- and Disconto-Bank. The bank was to become partner in the newly-formed Horten & Co.

Until 1939 Horten acquired several other department stores and enjoyed a good relationship with the Nazi government despite the fact that his godfather, the (later) Catholic saint Titus Maria Horten died in custody in 1936. Horten was able to get the right of distribution of certain goods which were scarce due to war.

After the Second World War Horten was interned by the British in 1947 in Recklinghausen. After a hunger strike he was released in 1948. He soon continued with the consolidation and expansion of his company, which he still owned. In 1966 he married Heidi Jelinek, a woman 30 years his junior. The couple moved to Ticino at the end of 1968. A year later the company went public and in 1972 Horten sold his majority and retreated from business.

Horten enjoyed living the life of a wealthy man – he owned a BAC 1-11 as private jet, a yacht and a villa in Mühlheim an der Ruhr. In Duisburg, the centre of his business activities, he made donations to the tennis club, the carnival and the zoo. The Helmut Horten Stiftung (i.e. foundation) in Croglio promotes medical research.