Son of German brewing dynasty Veltins sues billionaire sister for share of family business, claiming mother tricked him into giving away fortune while hungover after 18th birthday party

The son of a German brewing dynasty is suing his sisters for a share of the family business after claiming their mother tricked him into handing over his inheritance the morning after his boozy 18th birthday party.

Carl-Clemens Veltins, whose family built a small brewery in the western village of Grevenstein into one of Germany’s most successful beer makers, was shocked to learn after the death of his mother Rosemarie in 1994 that he had been written out of the will.

Instead, the entire inheritance was awarded to his sisters Susanne and Frauke, the former of whom still heads the Veltins family empire and has been listed as a billionaire by Forbes.

But when he reviewed the documents of his family’s estate eight years ago, he was chagrined to discover that he had mistakenly given up his rights to a third of the family business.

This, he claims, happened the morning after his 18th birthday, when his mother took him to a notary and told him to sign a piece of paper that she said was simply “to prevent the brewery from being sold if the heirs lost their shares.” to claim’. ‘.

Now Carl-Clemens’ lawyers claim his mother’s “immoral and petty” actions mean the Veltins sisters owe their client a third of the family’s money.

If their claim is ultimately accepted, the Veltins family’s ‘black sheep’ could net a nine-figure fortune.

For years, Carl-Clemens thought he was simply being punished for his misdeeds.

He has long been labeled by the German media as the ‘black sheep’ of the Veltins family, thanks to a series of bad behaviour.

This included the burglary of his own mother’s villa in 1984 and a series of convictions for possessing and trafficking cocaine, as well as the illegal possession of a Kalashnikov automatic rifle that he bought from Soviet soldiers after entering a nightclub in the city of Leipzig had opened after the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

Moreover, Carl-Clemens always knew that Rosemarie wanted his older sister Susanne to take over Veltins’ business empire.

But he claims that while reviewing the records of his family’s estate eight years ago, he made the shocking discovery that his mother had conspired to cut him off from the Veltins fortune.

“I was fooled then,” Carl-Clemens told the German newspaper Focusclaiming that he unknowingly relinquished his inheritance for the relatively paltry sum of five million German marks.

He claims that his mother got him out of bed the morning after his 18th birthday party and drove him, still half drunk, to a notary’s office, where an ‘A5 sheet’ was shoved under his nose.

‘She said: ‘Get up Clemens, we have to go to the notary and sign something. It’s about business,” he said.

‘Essentially it was about me relinquishing my claim to the family business and the shares I owe so that the brewery didn’t have to be sold to pay out other family members in the event of my mother’s death.

“What son believes his mother will betray him?”

The jaded heir further claimed that he had a poor relationship with his mother, whom he characterized as strict and controlling, which drove him to rebel.

‘I was always an adventurous man, I liked to take risks. “If I had received more attention as a 10-year-old, maybe my path would have been a different one,” he told the German newspaper. Image.

‘My CV certainly doesn’t tell the story of a saint. Looking back, I’m not really proud of a lot of the things that happened. But that doesn’t mean my family could ignore me like they did.

‘I would actually have been entitled to a third of the company’s shares. I didn’t get any of it.’

In a passage from Rosemarie’s will, quoted by the German Business Center Handelsblattthe former CEO of Veltins said that the five million marks paid by her son before her death was “sufficient.”

‘My son Carl-Clemens Veltins has already received sufficient donations from me during his lifetime that, taking all circumstances into account, further donations to him in the form of inheritance or bequest are not justified. He and his descendants are excluded from legal succession,” the will said.

But Carl-Clemens believes he should be entitled to the mandatory shares he would have received if his mother had not removed him from the will.

In 2023 alone, Veltins’ turnover was approximately 441 million euros.

The disgruntled would-be heir says he tried to resolve the perceived issue peacefully in 2016, but his family was unreceptive.

Now his lawyers are busy with a lawsuit against the Veltins sisters to recover damages. Carl-Clemens believes he is entitled to that.

A statement from law firm Grant Thornton to Handelsblatt said: ‘There is no doubt that Mr Veltins has been abused… All children are entitled to a ”minimum share of the inheritance”.

‘The systematic and complete exclusion of Mr Veltins was therefore immoral… the mother abused the complete innocence and trust of the son, who was inexperienced in business, to his detriment.’

MailOnline has contacted representatives of Veltins Brewery for comment.