When Porsche, led by Wendelin Wiedeking and his CFO Holger Härter engineered the classical short squeeze, when they drove the VW share into the stratosphere and hedge funds into deep losses, the men received applause. Hedge funds are supposed to know what they are doing. And no kittens were harmed.
Yesterday evening, a 74 year old man walked in front of an oncoming train near the German city of Ulm. He used to be a billionaire. He used to be on the 94th place of Forbes’ list of richest people. Adolf Merckle had placed his bets on the wrong side of the Volkswagen game.
He was in the process of losing the companies and the $9.2b he owned. He chose death instead.
“Merckle had gotten into trouble through a mistaken gamble on Volkswagen stocks, among other things,” writes the German paper Die Welt. Merckle’s family issued a statement, quoted by Bloomberg. It reads: “The dedicated family businessman was broken by his inability to handle the situation and he ended his own life.” Suicide by train is a German favorite.
Wow. I don’t know if I could handle having $9.2 billion. I can’t even think about loosing it…
I feel sorry for his family who must have had him in the highest regards as family head. They not only had to loose him but also his (probable) image of strong character and role model. My condolences.
Sad story. His name is Adolf Merckle, though.
Suicide by train is a German favorite.
This bothers me.
I was in a Toronto subway station when someone jumped into the path of the train. I’ve also heard more than a few stories from truck drivers who’ve been party to someone either walking or driving into their path.
It’s a traumatic thing for all involved, and it’s more than a little selfish to wreck someone else’s life when you end your own. I don’t agree with suicide—I think there’s all sorts of options available—but I’ll support some level of determinism and I will certainly empathize with someone so upset.
But putting some poor truck or train driver into therapy for months is wrong.
No one can handle 9.2 billion as an individual. There’s a reason why Kirk Kerkorian needs Tracinda.
It’s sad to have lived your life very successfully up to that point, and then to end it at that advanced age.
In any case, the guy’s first name is Adolf, not Holger.
Hold on a second. The guy had $9.2B. Even if he lost 90% of his money he would still have more then all of us here combined. Some how i just cant feel sorry for him.
@Vega & CoffeeJones: True. Corrected.
Some how i just cant feel sorry for him.
Without judging on that man’s personal qualities, I do feel sorry for the fact that he chose to end his life because he lost money. If he still had a loving family with him, that should be reason enough for anybody. Just my take, though.
Now if only Rick Wagoner would follow his example…
Merkle lost about 1 billion in the deal. I guess 8 bill isn’t enough…
that said, whats wrong with these people?
You can’t have that extra mansion? 200th car, 5th yacht? get over it. 90% of us will never be as rich as this guy feared being reduced to and yet that still wasn’t good enough
Good riddance
Suicides are rarely rational.
He saw his world crumbling beneath him, his fortune gone, social status gone. Even though at the worst case he would have fallen to a level that would leave most people envious, to him it’d would’ve seemed to be the end of the world.
This guy has probably been in a dark place for quite a while, possibly his entire adult life. One financial event did not cause this.
It’s a traumatic thing for all involved, and it’s more than a little selfish to wreck someone else’s life when you end your own. I don’t agree with suicide—I think there’s all sorts of options available—but I’ll support some level of determinism and I will certainly empathize with someone so upset.
But putting some poor truck or train driver into therapy for months is wrong.
Wreck someone else’s life? Therapy? Come on. Millions of people die every year. Many of them die horrible deaths from disease and war. How can a person shut all that out, but not a single, painless, voluntary death? You should be happy if the worst thing you see in your life is someone dying when he wants to.
Sad. Feel sorry for his family.
He should have at least made a statement with his senseless death and driven a Porsche into the train. Would have been no loss in the car world if he had taken a Porsche Cayenne with him to purgatory.
My dad always used to say – “Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” We will never really know what he was thinking and feeling.
At least he was successful; the really tragic stories are the people who are not, and become severely disabled or life support vegetables.
My subway train this morning was actually delayed by a similar attempt, although the woman was not successful. Hopefully she did not permanently damage herself:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/transportation/1363921,w-blue-line-person-struck-jackson-010609.article
And then there is the Frenchman that killed himself with a box-cutter over the Madoff affair, a train is bad enough, but only a Frenchman could self-inflict death-by-a-thousand-cuts with a box-cutter:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28392132/
Between the collapse of the financial bubbles and the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005 there are going to be a lot of middle class suicides, and probably a couple more formerly billionaire ones also.
I take the train 4 days a week, and there have been 3 suicides on our line in the last 3 years. I’m sure the train crew was traumatized, but they’re all on the clock the whole time. What about all of us passengers? We’re just trying to get home to our families, but end up stuck in the train for 1-2 hours while the cops investigate. It’s happened enough that I’m now desensitized to it. If you want to kill yourself, find a method that’s less disruptive.
Vega:
He was named Adolph before the given name Adolph and the toothbrush moustache were permanently tarnished.
Wreck someone else’s life? Therapy? Come on. Millions of people die every year. Many of them die horrible deaths from disease and war. How can a person shut all that out, but not a single, painless, voluntary death? You should be happy if the worst thing you see in your life is someone dying when he wants to.
I’m quit amazed at the callousness of this statement, and the denial of reality. Being involved in someone’s death, even involuntarily, can be a hugely traumatic event for people. Especially if caught by surprise, and the results are messy to say the least. I would doubt that the driver of a truck that was involved in a similar accident I saw, had the opportunity to contemplate the motivation of the “victim”, as his brains spread out across 100 feet of pavement. Even the military acknowledges this fact and has worked for years to address it through training, and counseling for those that suffer.
Wreck someone else’s life? Therapy? Come on. Millions of people die every year. Many of them die horrible deaths from disease and war
There’s a big difference between witnessing death, and being responsible for it, even—especially—if that responsibility is forced upon you by the suicide’s choice. Imagine someone throws him/herself in front of your car. You try and stop, but fail and they’re killed or badly maimed. Try and visualize your state of mind, the thoughts you might have like “Could I have stopped sooner? What about his/her family?”.
And a trucker or subway driver is not a doctor or a soldier. They haven’t been trained and haven’t experienced death. They’re just some poor bugger doing their job, and now they have a death on their hands. That’s awful.
We can make this a discussion of moral relativism by dragging in the horrors that, say, citizens of Gaza are seeing, but all we’re doing is devaluing trauma by doing so.
I am truly taken aback by the callousness of some comments here. I’ll never understand the demonization of the successful. I suppose envy knows few bounds. I mourn for him no less (or more) than everyman in the same situation. And while I’m no fan of Rick Wagoner professionally, calling for a similar fate for him is sick.
As long as Porsche did nothing illegal in the play, then the onus falls on Herr Merckle. If Porsche did something illegal, then it’s a different kettle of fish.
He made a bet. He lost. He made a choice.
As to the ending his life, he made that choice too. Perhaps not rational, maybe he knew his house of cards was about to collapse. Who knows?
That Bernie Madoff and Rick Wagoner and dozens of others haven’t done the honorable thing is the real tragedy. The French gent at one of Bernie’s feeders at least had that decency. They ALL knew that it wasn’t possible for things to work the way they claimed, yet they kept going, got richer, and ruined tens of thousands of lives in the process.
Beyond that suicide is not that unusual in the ranks of the disenfranchised/creative/successful. It is not being callous, it is just human nature.
I personally have known more than one person who has made that choice. I wish they hadn’t, but for their own reasons they just couldn’t stand to be here anymore.
Life is not and will not ever be all happiness and sunshine. Millions die. Many horribly. Do what you can to help who you can, remember those who you miss. We’re all going sometime.
For the split second the train barrelled into him and smashed every bone in his body, it must have hurt like hell. I don’t understand why people don’t choose calmer ways to die, like overdosing. It’s just awful.
What a loser. He chose money over life. What an example to live by for young people. Health and happiness are vastly more important than cash, and some to too stupid to realize that.
@ 06M3S54B32
Suicide is a sadness and selfishness all in one.
Your comments (and a few others here) are appalling.
Pete,
I hope you have never been close to someone who has taken their own life. It is sad and hard for those who are still here.
The underlying reasons people do themselves in are so wide that it is hard to generalize. Yes, for some, it’s as was mentioned, a permanent solution to a temporary problem. For others, it’s the only solution.
Everyone deals with death differently, but life is about those who are still here.
If you ever have cops or med techs as friends, you’ll learn that most deal by being what would appear to be callous or macabre. Most are warm caring people, but if one starts feeling for every corpse you’ll lose you’re f’ing mind. In a hurry.
I’m not saying not to care.
Everyone dies. I’m sure Porsche feels no remorse.
Look, when a child throws a temper tantrum for loosing a toy, you don’t feel sorry for them. This was a temper tantrum from an adult.
I feel sorry for the people who have to deal with his remaining responsibilities after his selfish permenant removal from responsibility.
I almost forgot I had posted an inflammatory remark on this one!
“For the split second the train barrelled into him and smashed every bone in his body, it must have hurt like hell. I don’t understand why people don’t choose calmer ways to die, like overdosing.”
I doubt he felt anything. I was in a serious auto accident with shattered bones and didn’t feel anything until I came back to reality about three hours after it happened. With overdosing, you probably have some time to think about the fact that you’re dying and the possibility that you could potentially live through it. I’d be much calmer knowing I’ll be instantly dead once the final decision is made.
“There’s a big difference between witnessing death, and being responsible for it, even—especially—if that responsibility is forced upon you by the suicide’s choice. Imagine someone throws him/herself in front of your car. You try and stop, but fail and they’re killed or badly maimed. Try and visualize your state of mind, the thoughts you might have like “Could I have stopped sooner? What about his/her family?”.”
“I’m quit amazed at the callousness of this statement, and the denial of reality. Being involved in someone’s death, even involuntarily, can be a hugely traumatic event for people.”
I’d be upset if there’s damage to my car, and I’d continue to be bothered that we don’t allow people to legally carry out peaceful methods of suicide, but that’s about it. I can relate to a tortured soul, and I’d be happy for the “victim”. I understand that it actually takes a lot of courage to leave everything you have ever known and all the little things that have comforted you in life in order to find some way to escape the darkness of this world. I guess I just can’t relate to the mindset of happy people and what the concept of death does to them.
That’s why I say hey man nice shot.