Karl-Erivan Haub disappeared without a trace in April 2018. Now his family wants him to be declared dead, despite evidence that he could still be alive.
On April 7, 2018, the German billionaire Karl-Erivan Haub set out on a climbing tour on the Matterhorn. He never returned. For over two and a half years, the head of the Tengelmann Group has been considered missing. In the meantime, his younger brother Christian Haub is running the business.
Now his family is applying to have Karl-Erivan Haub pronounced dead. This is reported by the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. Accordingly, the family, in this case Haub's wife Katrin Haub and the children, agreed to the applications for a declaration of death. This is confirmed by the Cologne District Court, “Today” reported.
However, there are indications that Karl-Yerevan Haub may still be alive. As the German “Manager Magazin” writes, Haub had a relationship with a Russian woman for 15 years. Exactly when Haub disappeared, she moved to Moscow. Since then there has been no trace of her either. And: Haub is said to have applied for a Russian passport through the Russian embassy in Azerbaijan before his disappearance.
As early as October 2020, Karl-Erivan's brothers had applied for Haub to have him declared dead. At that time, the widow Katrin Haub criticized it sharply: “It is very strange that someone else presumes to want to make such decisions for our family,” she told the DPA.
The Tengelmann Group operates various supermarkets and specialty stores. These include the international DIY store OBI, the clothing store KiK and, by the end of 2020, the discounter Netto. According to information from “Business Insider”, the background to the requested declaration of death should be an inheritance dispute between Haub's relatives.
A declaration of death is a legally and formally demanding process. If the court considers the application admissible, the missing person is first publicly requested to report within a period set by the court. This request must be published in daily newspapers and possibly also on electronic platforms. If the deadline passes without the missing person reporting, the court can execute the declaration of death.
