Klaus-Michael Kühne, the majority owner of the logistics group Kühne + Nagel, is ranked No. 47 on the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list with a net worth of $41.9 billion. He died in late August 2026, at the age of 89.
Klaus-Michael Kühne was born on June 2, 1937, in Hamburg, Germany. After school he completed a two-year training as a bank and foreign-trade clerk at the private Hamburg bank Münchmeyer & Co.
Net Worth and Rank
- Forbes 2026 list: No. 47, with $41.9 billion
- Source of wealth: his 53.3% stake in Kühne + Nagel, the transport company co-founded by his grandfather, August Kühne
Career
- 1963: he joined his father, Alfred Kühne, as a junior partner at Kühne + Nagel
- 1981: in the year of his father’s death he had to sell 50% of the company to the former Lonrho group for 90 million Deutsche Marks
- 1992: he bought it back for 340 million marks
- 1994 and 1996: he listed Kühne + Nagel on the stock market in 1994 and became its CEO in 1996
Investments
Kühne became a partner in the shipping company Hapag-Lloyd in 2008 through the Albert Ballin consortium and raised his stake to 30% in 2020. His holding company also held shares in Lufthansa, the chemical logistics company Brenntag and the rail and bus company Flix, and he backed the Hamburg football club HSV.
Switzerland and Death
Kühne moved to Switzerland with his father at the end of the 1960s and managed his businesses from Schindellegi. He died on the night of August 23–24, 2026; reports give either date. He and his wife, Christine, had no children, and his fortune is to pass to the Kühne Foundation, according to a report in the logistics press.
Why It Matters
Kühne + Nagel is one of the world’s largest freight forwarders, and Kühne’s stakes in Hapag-Lloyd and Lufthansa made him an influential shareholder in German transport.
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 Kühne + Nagel building (file photo, 2011; Klaus-Michael Kühne is not pictured). Photo: Michael D. Schmid / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
