About this app
Jürgen Schneider owned the most luxurious houses in Germany. On the business cards of the real estate dealer was listed: "private investor." And Jürgen Schneider started with breeding ... dachshunds. Revenues from this activity allowed him in 1981 to switch to real estate trading in West Germany. Schneider did not pursue rapid income, he bought very expensive objects in the most prestigious areas, restored and resold or rented out for a lot of money.
In 1986-1991, Dr. Jürgen Schneider earned several hundred million marks and a reputation as a respectable businessman. He acquired the Hotel Fürstenhof in Frankfurt, under the tutelage of the Monument Protection Society, for 40 million marks. He invested 200 million in restoration and sold it to a Japanese bank for 450 million.
Schneider had a weakness for old architecture and could not stand modern monsters from glass and concrete. Jürgen restored mansions for original designs. Quality is paramount. He ordered building materials not only in Germany, but also abroad, for example, in Belgium or Great Britain. Schneider acquired one elite object after another: hotels, shopping centers, luxury apartments in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg. In a short time he created a huge real estate empire. In banking circles, Schneider was immediately declared a financial genius, an alchemist who could turn any junk into gold. Banks have never denied loans to Schneider.
But in full force, the "genius" unfolded after the reunification of Germany. Schneider has become the largest real estate investor in East Germany. His company in Leipzig alone bought about sixty percent of all properties for sale.
Nobody built more expensive and luxurious than Jürgen Schneider. The most spectacular of his acquisitions was the expensive shopping "Medler Passage" in the center of Leipzig with the legendary restaurant "Auerbach Cellar". According to legend, it was in this cozy institution that an insidious devil named Mephistopheles fooled his heads with carefree booze.
On March 31, 1994, on "Green Thursday," the day of Easter week, Dr. Jürgen Schneider paid holiday bonuses to employees and left with his wife to rest in Tuscany. Easter holidays in reputable companies are usually stretched longer. Therefore, when the boss did not show up at the beginning of the working week, no one sounded the alarm.
On April 7, Schneider’s attorney, by the way, his namesake, handed over copies of one letter to the bureau of Schneider AG and to the board of Deutsche Bank. Jürgen reported: "Unfortunately, due to a sudden serious illness, I cannot continue to run the company. I hope that Deutsche Bank will control the completion of the construction of the facilities that I started. Doctors strongly recommend that I avoid any stress, so I have to hide my current location. "
This text led the board of Schneider AG and the board of Deutsche Bank to confusion. The largest investor in the entire post-war history of real estate trading - escaped, or rather "dived", lay down. One could only guess what pushed him to this step. Indeed, Jurgen had a huge personal fortune and elite real estate, bringing him enormous income. Half of the country's construction enterprises worked for Schneider.
Small investors learned about Schneider's strange letter on the radio from the morning news. The most perspicacious leaders of suppliers firms managed to partially recover their losses. They rushed to the construction sites of Dr. Schneider and removed everything that was possible from there. A few hours later, the fugitive's most important construction projects were taken under guard by the Deutsche Bank security service.
Schneider AG employees told the police that their boss was afraid of blackmail and that private detectives guarded him around the clock. They had no doubt that Jurgen Schneider, an honest man, had been abducted by some villains.