Aldi may appear as if they were a single enterprise with certain store brands or when negotiating with contractor companies. The individual groups were originally owned and managed jointly by the brothers. Karl Albrecht, who died in 2014, retained ownership of Aldi Süd with a personal wealth of €17.2 billion that made him the richest man in Germany. The co-owners of Aldi Nord, Berthold and Theo Albrecht Jr. came close behind at €16 billion. Dieter Schwarz, owner of Lidl and Kaufland came in third, with a fortune of €11.5 billion. Aldi started to expand internationally in 1967, when Aldi Süd acquired
Theo Albrecht Theodor was conscripted into the Wehrmacht where Theodor served with Rommel’s Afrika Korps in an army division. During World War II (1943?) Theodor was captured by the Americans in Tunisia as a prisoner of war, but in 1946 he returned to Germany. It was said that his humble and harsh childhood formed Theodor’s early appreciation for the value of money. Theodor’s kidnapping in 1971 partially explains his and the family’s hermit-like manner of existence. The kidnapping caused him to drive to work using a different route every day in an armored automobile. Little is known about Theodor Albrecht and the