Austrian millionaire seeks help to give away her $27.4m fortune to people

An Austrian heiress Marlene Engelhorn is hiring people to help her give away her 25 million euro ($27.4 million) wealth so she can escape a “dynastic rich swamp”, Gulf News reported.

“I’ve inherited a fortune and therefore power, without having done anything for it. And the state doesn’t even want taxes on it,” said the activist and founder of the Taxmenow initiative.

Engelhorn is also participating in protests by a rich minority on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos calling for higher taxes on the rich.

She inherited millions when her grandmother died in 2022. Earlier this month, the millionaire activist announced setting up a group of 50 Austrians citizens group to devise ideas for the future of her fortune.

According to her plan, as many as 10,000 randomly selected Austrians aged over 16 are being invited to join the group by filling out a questionnaire. Fifty will then be selected.

From March to June this year, the group will gather on several weekends to come up with solutions “in the interests of society as a whole,” according to a statement.

The inheritance will be returned to Engelhorn in case the group fails to suggest ideas with broad support.

Engelhorn, who studied German at university, said she will get a regular job after “more than 90%” of her wealth has been redistributed.

“I’ll switch from the wealthiest 1% of society to the less wealthy 99%… I think that’s an improvement. I’m moving up into a democratic society, out of this dynastic rich swamp,” she told the German daily Tagesspiegel.