Karl Albrecht of , a suburb of Essen. Theo completed an apprenticeship in his mother's store, while Karl worked in a delicatessen shop. Karl served in the Wehrmacht during World War II and was wounded on the Eastern Front. After the war, the brothers jointly took over their mother's business and founded Albrecht KG. They separated that company in 1961 into Aldi Nord, covering the part of Germany north of the Ruhr under Theo Albrecht, and Aldi Süd under Karl. The first Aldi (short for Albrecht Discount) was opened in 1962. In 1994, Karl Albrecht removed himself from the daily operations of
Albrecht Knaus Verlag stressed the independence of all publishers under the umbrella of Random House publishing group. Successor to Dede and Blessing was Karl heinz Bittel. Under Bittel, works of authors such as Pascal Mercier and Georg Oswald were published. Succeeding Claudia Vidoni was Wolfgang Ferchl who became head of Albrecht Knaus Verlag in 2009. Albrecht Knaus Verlag The Albrecht Knaus Verlag (also Knaus Verlag, the company's preferred spelling is KNAUS) is a German publisher of fiction and nonfiction based in Munich. It was founded in 1978 and is now part of the Random House publishing group. The publisher became known mainly through