Dieter Schwarz, the owner of the Schwarz Group, which runs the supermarket chains Lidl and Kaufland, is ranked No. 29 on the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list with a net worth of $67.2 billion. He is Germany’s wealthiest person.
Dieter Schwarz was born on September 24, 1939, and is the owner of the Schwarz Group and a former chairman and chief executive of both Lidl and Kaufland.
Net Worth and Rank
- Forbes 2026 list: No. 29, with $67.2 billion
- History: in 2023 Forbes listed him as the wealthiest man in Germany and the 25th richest person in the world, with $47.2 billion
Kaufland
In 1968 Schwarz and his father opened their first supermarket, under the name Handelshof, in Backnang in Swabia. In 1984 the first store under the new name Kaufland opened in Neckarsulm and the Handelshof stores were renamed. After German reunification, Kaufland expanded quickly into eastern Germany, opening its first eastern store in Meißen in 1990. Its international growth began in 1998 with a store in Kladno in the Czech Republic, and by 2020 it ran more than 1,470 supermarkets in Europe.
Lidl
- 1973: he opened his first discount store in Ludwigshafen am Rhein
- The name: he bought the rights to the name “Lidl” for 1,000 Deutsche Marks from a retired teacher and artist, Ludwig Lidl, to avoid the unintended wordplay “Schwarzmarkt” (black market)
- Expansion: Lidl began opening stores in other European countries in 1988; by 2022 it had about 12,000 stores in Europe and the United States, making it the world’s largest discount retail chain by number of locations
Foundation
Since 1999 Schwarz has managed his resources through the tax-exempt Dieter Schwarz Foundation.
Why It Matters
The Schwarz Group is one of the largest retailers in Europe, and
Net worth figures change daily with share prices. Rankings here follow the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list, with wealth measured on March 1, 2026.
Image: A Lidl supermarket in Avallon, France, 2025 (file photo; Dieter Schwarz is not pictured). Photo: Андрей Романенко / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
