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
Karl Albrecht the latter's death. Golf was one of his hobbies, and Albrecht played the sport on his own golf course, the Öschberghof, which he built in 1976. He also raised orchids. In 2014, Albrecht was listed as one of the richest people in the world with an estimated net worth of . Previously, "Forbes" magazine listed him as one of the richest men in the world, with an estimated net worth in 2011 of , which ranked him 10th in its 2012 list of billionaires – making him the oldest billionaire in the Top 20 list. Albrecht was the richest person