Fabulous riches in the family
Five of the world's largest listed companies have a single family as a major shareholder:
1. Walmart: The Walton family owns more than 50% of the shares in this US retailer, founded in 1962 by Sam Walton.
2. Volkswagen: The Porsche family owns about 31% of this German car manufacturer, founded in 1937.
3. Samsung: The Lee family owns about 20% of this South Korean electronics company, founded in 1938.
4. Ford: The descendants of Henry Ford own about 40% of the company he established in 1903.
5. BMW: Germany's Quandt family (primarily Stefan Quandt and his sister, Susanne Klatten) own about 42% of BMW's stock, according to most sources. The company was founded in 1916 but went close to bankruptcy several times until Herbert Werner Quandt came to the rescue in the 1960s — thanks in part to the fortune his family made from manufacturing armaments and batteries under the Nazis. (Herbert's father, Günther Quandt, was for some reason overlooked at Nuremberg for his role in creating Hitler's war machine. Incidentally, Günther was married from 1921 to 1929 to Magda Ritschel, who later married Joseph Goebbels.) Check out the documentary The Silence of the Quandts (in German with English subtitles), which offers answers to some of the questions.
Not much use for these words
♦ A snollygoster is someone who is clever or shrewd but unprincipled, typically a politician. The word's origin is unclear, but it may have been derived from the German term “schnelle geister", which means something like “fast spirit". Maryland in the US has a mythological creature called the snallygaster, a flying beast that preyed on chickens and even on children.
♦ Culaccino is the Italian word — and there cannot be many other languages with an equivalent — for the round stain left on a wooden surface by a cold and wet glass or a hot cup.
Some Afrikaans ones as well
♦ Andoelie, also called andoeliepens. Sheep, pork or beef stomach with a filling of minced meat or meat that has been cut into pieces, and which, after being cooked, has been pressed between two planks and dried in a chimney. It can also refer to a short, thick and strongly seasoned sausage made from the best cuts of meat and smoked and dried. Sometimes, the sinews and tough pieces of meat that are not cut up and squeezed out by the meat machine are also used.
♦ Jakobjollie, also called a jakobjolliewalletjie. Bumps on a road, similar to a sheet of corrugated iron. So named after a road inspector from Calvinia who was known as “Jacob Jollie". As in: “After heavy rains, the dirt roads were washed full of jacobjollies."
Fuck you, Hitler!
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was a general and the brilliant commander of the German forces in German East Africa during World War 1, but he is more often remembered for the unequivocal way in which he rejected Adolf Hitler's offer of an ambassadorship to Britain in 1935. Von Lettow-Vorbeck was nicknamed Löwe von Afrika (Lion of Africa) during his time in Africa. He learned to speak Swahili, regularly promoted black troops to officers, and was known for not discriminating against people based on their ancestry. He was an outspoken opponent of the Nazis from the outset.
When the cousin of an eyewitness to Von Lettow-Vorbeck's conversation with Hitler was later asked by the American journalist Charles Miller, “I understand that Von Lettow told Hitler to go fuck himself?" The cousin replied: “That's right, except that I don't think he put it that politely." Hitler, rarely known for his generosity of spirit, had Von Lettow-Vorbeck watched and had his house searched, but did not dare do more than that because the general was so beloved by many Germans.
♦ VWB ♦
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