Charles Bracht
Personal information
NationalityBelgian
Born(1915-01-07)7 January 1915
Bloemendaal, Netherlands
Died7 March 1978(1978-03-07) (aged 63)
Oelegem, Belgium
Sport
SportAlpine skiing

Baron Charles Victor Bracht (7 January 1915 7 March 1978) was a Belgian alpine skier. He competed in the men's combined event at the 1936 Winter Olympics.[1] He later became a wealthy businessman and was kidnapped in 1978. His body was found with a bullet wound to the head.[1]

Early life

Bracht was born on 7 January 1915 into a wealthy Antwerp family. He was a son of Victor Théodore Bracht (1883–1962) and Dorothée Emilie Bunge (1889–1918).

His maternal grandfather was the Belgian businessman Edouard Bunge of Bunge Limited.[2]

Career

Bracht became one of the wealthiest industrialists in Europe,[3] by running a multinational corporation "dealing in commodities, property, banking, insurance and construction. His companies had interests in Zaire, the former Belgian Congo; Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Brazil and in West European countries. He also controlled a bank in Antwerp and was involved in an Antwerp insurance concern, Bracht‐Regis."[4][5]

Bracht was created a Baron in 1967 for his services to industry.[4]

Personal life

On 11 November 1941, he married Geneviève Marie Joséphine de Hemptinne (1916–2010) in Sint-Denijs-Westrem. She was the daughter of Charles de Hemptinne and the former Jeanne Marie Joséphine Surmont de Volsberghe. Together, they were the parents of:[4]

Death

Bracht was kidnapped from his car in an underground garage in Antwerp on 7 March 1978. He was found dead in a garbage dump on 10 April 1978 and his autopsy showed he had "succumbed to injuries apparently suffered while trying to resist the kidnappers."[4] At the time, he was the second Belgian nobleman to be kidnapped that year, the first being Baron Edouard‐Jean Empain, who had been abducted in Paris but was released months later.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Charles Bracht Olympic Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  2. Travaux de l'Institut Bunge (in French). L'Institut. 1963. p. 193. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  3. Gladwin, Thomas N.; Walter, Ingo; Walter, Charles Simon Professor of Applied Financial Economics and Director of Salamon Center Ingo (28 March 1980). Multinational Under Fire: Lessons in the Management of Conflict. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-01969-5. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Abducted Belgian Industrialist Is Found Dead". The New York Times. 11 April 1978. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  5. Annual of Power and Conflict. Institute for the Study of Conflict. 1978. p. 24. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  6. Weissweiler, Eva (15 April 2013). Erbin des Feuers: Friedelind Wagner - Eine Spurensuche (in German). Pantheon Verlag. p. 38. ISBN 978-3-641-09460-7. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  7. "Descendants of Count Thierry de Limburg-Stirum (1904-1968)". brigittegastelancestry.com. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  8. Sancton, Tom (5 April 2022). The Last Baron: The Paris Kidnapping That Brought Down an Empire. Penguin. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-593-18381-6. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
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