Karl Wlaschek was born on August 04, 1917 in Austria. Austrian billionaire Karl Wlaschek died in May 2015 at the age of 97. He was the world's third oldest billionaire. Musically inclined - his grandmother taught the zither (Austrian harp) and his grandfather was a pub singer - he worked as a jazz pianist and a singer known as Charly Walker after World War 1. He amassed his first fortune in retail, opening up a discount cosmetics store in Vienna in 1953. He went on to create Austrian retail chain Billa, which he sold for roughly $1 billion in 1996. Wlaschek spent nearly two decades after that investing in prime Austrian real estate and became one of the largest private real estate owners in Austria, with about 250 properties, including the Radisson and Europa hotels in Salzburg; the historic building that houses the Vienna Stock Exchange;and the Cafe Central coffeehouse. He built himself a mausoleum on the grounds of one his palaces, the Palais Kinsky, where he hoped to be buried, and published a memoir, "Karl Wlaschek: A Success Story." He married for the fifth time in April 2012, to a woman who was 65.
Karl Wlaschek is a member of Fashion and Retail
