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How the Furstenberg Family Turned a Brewery Into a Global Luxury Powerhouse
Description
In this episode of Family Business Stories with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the remarkable tale of the Fürstenberg family, whose brewery in the Black Forest dates back to 1283. But the real story begins in the 1870s when Prince Max von Fürstenberg pivoted from beer to banking, then to railways, and eventually became one of Germany's largest landowners. Today, the family controls a vast portfolio of real estate, forestry, and luxury resorts, including the famed Brenner's Park-Hotel in Baden-Baden. Lucas breaks down how one family managed to survive wars, hyperinflation, and Nazi expropriation, while Luna questions the sustainability of aristocratic wealth in modern Germany. A concrete look at how a medieval brewery became a 21st-century private empire worth billions, and what it means for succession in a family that still operates under a 700-year-old legal structure.