Karl Hans Albrecht is a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 entrepreneur who founded the discount supermarket

Supermarket

A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

 chain Aldi

ALDI

ALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG, doing business as ', short for "Albrecht Discount", is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany...

 with his brother Theo

Theo Albrecht

Theodor Paul Albrecht , generally known as Theo Albrecht, was a German entrepreneur, who in 2010 was ranked by Forbes as the 31st richest person in the world, with a net worth of $16.7 billion. He owned and was the CEO of the Aldi Nord discount supermarket chain. In the US he owned the Trader Joe's...

. He is among the richest men in the world, with an estimated net worth

Net worth

In business, net worth is the total assets minus total outside liabilities of an individual or a company. For a company, this is called shareholders' preference and may be referred to as book value. Net worth is stated as at a particular year in time...

 in 2011 of $25.5 billion according to Forbes

Forbes

Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

, which ranks him 12th in its 2011 list of billionaires - making him the oldest billionaire in the Top 20 list. Albrecht is the wealthiest man in Germany.
Karl and Theo Albrecht were born and raised in modest circumstances in Essen

Essen

- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...

, Germany.