Caroline Gotzens
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Caroline Gotzens | |
|---|---|
| Born | Caroline Elisabeth Renate Ottilie Gräfin von Faber-Castell 20 August 1961 Stein, Germany |
| Occupations | Industrial heiress and art collector |
Caroline Gotzens (born 20 August 1961, in Stein near Nuremberg, née Caroline Elisabeth Renate Ottilie Gräfin [Countess] von Faber-Castell) is a German-Swiss industrial heiress and art collector. She is a family member of the Cologne-based banking dynasty Oppenheim, as well as of the Frankish pencil dynasty Faber-Castell.[1]
Gotzens is an 8th generation family member of the Cologne-based banking dynasty von Oppenheim, as well as 9th generation member of the Faber-Castell founding family. She grew up in Klamm Castle in Tyrol and never lived in the family castle Faberschloss in Bavaria. She is widely related to the princely families Castell-Castell and Castell-Rüdenhausen.
She is married to Düsseldorf-based entrepreneur Dr Michael Gotzens.[2] The couple has three grown children, Antonia-Sophie, Alessandra-Louisa and Nicholas Gotzens.[3] Gotzens is the daughter of German billionaire Count Hubertus von Faber-Castell (died 2007) and Countess Liselotte Faber-Castell (née Baecker, born 1939 in Frankfurt). Her mother was married for the second time to famous Rhenish industrialist and sole owner of Hünnebeck, Hajo Hünnebeck.[4] After the latter's death and the resulting sale of the company, a German law was named after Hünnebeck, as the case filled a loophole of legal tax avoidance for the beneficiaries.[5][4] Hünnebeck is now part of the Harsco Corporation.[6] Gotzens's father, Count Hubertus von Faber-Castell, brought commercial television to China and is the only European honorary citizen of Beijing.[7] Her younger sister Floria is married to Donatus Prince of Hesse, the head of the “Hessische Hausstiftung” (the Hesse family's foundation), one of the most important family foundations of Germany.[8]
Gotzens was raised between her paternal grandparents, Roland Count von Faber-Castell (1905-1978) and Alix-May (1907-1979). In 1935 Graf Roland and Alix-May divorced after the magazine Der Stürmer criticized her luxurious lifestyle and the words 'Die Oppenheim, das Judenschwein, muss raus aus Stein' (Oppenheim, the Jew-pig, has to leave Stein) were written on the family's castle, Faberschloss.[9][10] Her grandmother, Alix-May, belonging to the German-Jewish banking dynasty Oppenheim, was in the 1930s a victim of constant anti-Semitic attacks.[11] In order to remain in control of the family’s bank, she and her cousins stayed in Germany.[12] Later, the Oppenheim family had to hide to escape Nazi persecution. Gotzens lived with her grandmother in Switzerland until her death in 1979.