By 2024, six of the world’s 10 wealthiest people founded, managed or invested in major technology companies. But technology hasn’t always been the main driver of wealth.

At the end of the 90s of the last century, Austrian conductor Paul Sacher argued with Bill Gates or Warren Buffett for the top lines of the list of the world’s largest fortunes. ¿How did an orchestra conductor become one of the richest people in the world?? Let’s say there is a flute sound. Let’s go piece by piece.

Who is Paul Sacher?

Paul Sacher was born in Basel (Switzerland) in 1906, but he was far from a wealthy family, the son of a cargo loader working at the city’s railway station. Sacher, who has a very good ear for music, started playing the violin at the age of 6. This helped him earn enough money He pays for his education by giving violin lessons to other children..

Later, he studied music at the Basel Conservatory under the famous conductor Felix Weingartner. Founded when he was only 20 years old Basel Chamber Orchestrahe expanded this with a chamber choir. Sacher’s educational vocation continued at its founding. Schola Cantorum BasiliensisNot only how to create music with instruments from an artistic perspective, but also music was studied and interpreted in a broader and academic sense.

We need to make a point at this point because in reality, no matter how virtuous Paul Sacher was, music schools weren’t going to make him a millionaire.

connect the dots

When a couple married in Switzerland in the late 19th century, both adopted their spouse’s surname, using the same surname. Therefore, if Joseph Muller married Marlene Fischer, the couple’s names would be Joseph Muller-Fischer and Marlene Muller-Fischer.

However, in 1895 Fritz Hoffmann and Adele La Roche married, hence their new surnames would be: Hoffmann-La Roche. Sound familiar to you? If you don’t, maybe names like Valium, Lithium anyone tamiflu Yes, they look a little more familiar to you.

Just a year after their marriage, the Hoffmann-La Roches founded Roche, which would become one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world with a market value of $212.62 billion, thanks to patents on drugs to treat cancer. anxiety treatments or vitamin supplements.

Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, founder of the pharmaceutical company Roche

OK,So what does this have to do with the conductor?? Let’s get the family tree.

Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, founder of the pharmaceutical company, died in 1920. Upon his death, his son Emmanuel would take over the company as the legitimate heir of the family business. Shortly thereafter, Emmanuel Hoffmann married an artist named Maja Stehlin, and they soon established a huge art gallery featuring works by Max Ernst, Picasso, Joan Miró and Paul Klee.

The happy couple had two children, Luc and Vera. Emanuel died in a spectacular car accident in 1932 at the age of 36. Maja takes over the chairmanship of the pharmaceutical company from her husband.

Emmanuel Hoffmann’s grave in Basel

Art-loving Maja remarried in 1934, and surprisingly, she did so to the talented director of a music school in Basel: Paul Sacher, who adopted his wife’s two children, Luc and Vera, by Emmanuel Hoffmann. .

Marriage with Maja made Paul Sacher a very rich man and became part of the pharmaceutical company’s board of directors. This large extra income allowed him to develop his passion for music and financed the artist’s public performances. Basel Chamber Orchestra.

Conrad Beck (left), Igor Stravinsky (center) and Paul Sacher (right)

After World War II, Sacher gained a majority position in the company, making him one of the richest men in the world. The millionaire continued to combine the management of the pharmaceutical company with his passion for music. In 1973 he founded the Paul Sacher Foundation, which houses a significant collection of manuscripts and musical works.

In the second half of the 90s of the 20th century, with the technological revolution that caused names such as Bill Gates to rise to the top of the richest list, Chef Paul Sacher accidentally became CEO of a major pharmaceutical companyHe had a personal fortune worth $17 billion.

Sacher died in his hometown of Basel in 1999 at the age of 93; Sacher, the richest man in Europe and the fifth largest fortune in the world, is surpassed only by Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer.

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Image | Wikimedia Commons (Ein Dao, Paul Sacher Foundation, Kurt Wyss), Roche