Departures of note

Klaus-Michael Kühne was a German billionaire businessman and one of the country's wealthiest and most influential industrial figures. He was the honorary chairman and majority owner of Kühne + Nagel, the global transport and logistics company co-founded by his grandfather August Kühne, and he built the firm into one of the world's leading logistics providers. He also held major stakes in the flag-carrier airline Lufthansa and the shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, making him a central figure in German economic life.

Born in Hamburg in 1937, Kühne joined the family business in 1963 and took full control after his father's death in 1981. He steered Kühne + Nagel through difficult periods, buying back a majority stake in the early 1990s and listing the company on the stock market in 1994. Through his Kühne Holding, he later expanded into rail logistics, pharmaceuticals, prosthetics, and luxury hotels.

Kühne was also a prominent patron and philanthropist. Through the Kühne Foundation he supported education, medicine, climate research, and culture, founding the Kühne Logistics University in Hamburg and funding institutions such as the Elbphilharmonie, the Hamburg State Opera, and the Salzburg Festival. He was a long-time patron of the Hamburg football club HSV. At the time of his death he was estimated to be the second-richest person in Germany.