Who wants to be a millionaire?

Dear all,

It’s our first House Week of the academic year when many of our students will give their support to raise awareness and money for charities they have chosen.

But what would any of us do if we suddenly inherited a lot of money? Monday’s assembly reading told the story of Marlene Engelhorn, who lives in Vienna and inherited a fortune from her grandmother a couple of years ago but who declared – before she even received the money – her intention to give most of it away. More specifically, she decided that 50 fellow Austrians would decide how to distribute over £20m of her inheritance.

Ms Engelhorn is a descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, the founder of the German chemical and pharmaceutical company BASF, and inherited millions when her grandmother died in September 2022. The family wealth was estimated at £3.3bn and even before she died her grand-daughter had stated her intention to give away about 90% of it.

Earlier this year, 10,000 invitations were sent to randomly selected Austrian citizens inviting them to complete a short survey and in doing so register for the Good Council for Redistribution. The applicants were then whittled down to 50 by a research institute using statistical methods to arrive at a representative sample of the Austrian population and apart from a small number of rules she has insisted on – for example, the money must not fund hostile or inhumane activity, or go to profit-making organisations – the Council were told they could spend it however they like, and she would have no further say in how it is spent.

Following six weekend meetings, the Council published their list of recipients in June of this year. The amounts donated ranged from €40,000 to €1.63 million and included housing, consumer activism, women’s rights, access to education and fighting rare diseases.

Declaring herself satisfied with the outcome, Ms Engelhorn said

‘A large part of my inherited wealth, which elevated me to a position of power simply by virtue of my birth, contradicting every democratic principle, has now been redistributed in accordance with democratic values.’

I wonder how many of us would react like Marlene Engelhorn if we inherited – or indeed earned – a fortune. Of course, a number of very wealthy individuals have done something similar – the Gates Foundation, for example, set up by Bill and Melinda Gates, has given away $8.6 billion just this year for causes such as fighting diseases, hunger and poverty, while you may also have heard the story of Chuck Feeney, the co-founder of Duty-Free Shoppers, who secretly gave away all his wealth to good causes during the last few years of his life.

Many of us would not choose this course of action and it would probably be unfair to criticise anyone for doing what, I suspect, most people would do, but I do wonder which course of action, in the end, would bring the most contentment.

Have a great weekend

Best wishes

Michael Bond