Liliane Bettencourt (right), daughter of the man who founded cosmetics giant L'Oréal, tops Forbes' just-released list of the richest women in Europe with a fortune of $22.9 billion. That astounding figure also makes her the world's richest woman, the magazine notes. Bettencourt, whose father's reputation has occasionally come under fire, uses her money to fund a charitable foundation which supports medical research, cultural projects and humanitarian relief.
At the No. 2 spot on the Euro list is Swedish citizen Birgit Rausing, a packaging heiress with an estimated fortune of $14 billion, while No. 3 is BMW and pharmaceuticals heiress Susanne Klatten, with $13.2 billion. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling meanwhile is in last place at No. 22, barely making the list with a measly $1 billion. It's worth noting that Germany has the most female billionaires of any European nation, with nine of them living within its borders. You can see a gallery of the loaded ladies here.
Go to Germany to learn French? That's the offer from the Hôtel Concorde Berlin which is offering guests a brief French immersion with their "Luxury French Lesson" package. The five-star hotel is a a member of Paris-based Concorde Hotels & Resorts and is located on the Kurfürstendamm shopping boulevard/. The package starts at $371 and includes two overnight stay in an Executive room with a buffet breakfast in the St. Germain restaurant, a two-hour French language class at Berlitz Language School, a guided city tour focusing on French history in Berlin, and a tree-course dinner at the French brasserie le Faubourg. Plus the hotel staff speaks French and will help you practice. The package is available through August 24, 2008.
On Saturday, Vienna-based auction house WestLicht Photographica will auction the first M8 digital camera ever produced by world-famous firm Leica, worth an estimated $30,000 - $45,000, with the proceeds going to freedom of the press foundation Reporters Without Borders. The M8 is just one of the beautiful and highly collectible Leicas -- the favored camera for famous photogs ranging from Henri Cartier Bresson and Diane Arbus to Nan Goldin -- on offer in the sale. Also included is an extremely rare M3 prototype c.1952, one of the most important cameras in Leica's history, est. $90,000 - $110,000; a unique olive painted IIIg made as a model for the German Army in 1960, est. $80,000 - $110,000; and one of our favorites, the 1955 M3 in black paint pictured here, est. $20,000 - $25,000. And if you're German's a little rusty, don't worry - you can place bids online with LiveAuctioneers.com.
Helium-filled Zeppelins have always been a great way to travel; you can cruise at slow speeds and low altitudes in a quiet, comfortable atmosphere, and they're energy-efficient to boot. The much-ballyhooed Hindenburg disaster in 1937 gave them a bad name, but that tragedy was solely due to a fatal decision to use flammable hydrogen in place of helium, which was unobtainable at the time. In any case, the technology used in newly-designed dirigibles has come a long way. They're smaller than the behemoths of yore, more maneuverable, and of course much modernized.
The Zeppelin NT touring ship launched this past weekend in Munich is as long as a Boeing 747, but only carries 12 passengers in its cabin at a time so you never feel cramped. Unlike a plane it has big picture windows, along with all the amenities. The Zeppelin cruises along at 1,000 ft., providing the perfect vantage point for viewing Germany's lovely landscape from the air. Various vacation packages are available, and there are plans to establish a similar service in other cities as well.
Fans of German eiswein will be in luck this year, the cold weather in Germany this December has made it a great harvest for the grapes left on the vine to be picked for eiswein. Decanter reports that on the icy mornings of December 18 and 19 in the Mosel and Rhein regions most of the grapes were picked, southern regions had to wait a few more days. In order to harvest grapes for eiswein temperatures have to dip way below freezing ((19°F) for at least three hours. The grapes are pressed while still frozen, resulting in a sweet elixir. The last couple of years have been rough for eiswein with a couple of mild winters, such as the one in 2006, making growers unwilling to risk waiting for a potential harvest.
I'm a sucker for a truly outlandish building project so I had to share this wild idea with you. The Sunday Telegraph had a piece on the plans to build the world's largest pyramid. In Germany of all places. A group of German entrepreneurs have plans to build a 1,600-foot-tall "Great Pyramid" near the town of Dassau. So far they have received 90,000 euros a year in state funding to assess the feasibility of building the structure. Like the Great Pyramid at Giza, this one will be a burial site, not for a pharaoh but for thousands or even million of people from around the world willing to pony up 700 euros for a burial space in a concrete block. The plan is to add blocks only as they are paid for which means that the pyramid might not reach full size for decades. The plan is for the project to be open-ended and perpetually developing.
BMW Welt, or BMW World in English, is located in Munich Germany and is designed to present new BMW owners with their vehicles in the best light possible -- literally. After purchasing a new BMW, owners will have the option of passing on picking up their car the boring way (at a local dealer) and can instead head over to get the full treatment at BMW Welt. Their car will be gleaming and glittering under a spotlight while spinning slowly on a turntable -- what better way to see your brand new purchase for the first time?
Of course there's a lot more going on at BMW Welt than just cars on turntables, although with 170 cars being delivered there daily come October there's got to be a lot of turning going on.
This week at the G8 summit, world leaders and other luminaries will be convening at a former communist resort, the Kempinksi Grand Hotel at Heiligendamm, a German resort on the Baltic Sea. Forbes reports that the resort was founded in 1793 as a retreat for Duke Friedrich Franz I of what today is Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It remained a popular destination through the years and others including Romanoffs, Hitler, Mussolini and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke all reputedly stayed there. The town, known as the White City by the Sea, for its white building, laster became a sanitorium for Eastern bloc workers. A German real estate investment firm called Fundus Group has been restoring it since the mid-1990s. The main hotel includes a grand white marble library with a fountain and crystal chandeliers. Attendees at the G8 summit can relax in the Nelson bar. There are six buildings total including the Kurhaus which holds the ballroom and the restaurant and the Severin Palais that is home to the resort's spa. Germany has made elaborate preparations for the safety of the participants of G8, including the construction of a massive barb wire fence. After G8 is over, you can experience the resort with a summer recreation package that includes seven nights in a deluxe room, breakfast buffet and access to the spa starting at 2,220 euros per room.
The other day I showed you a modern condo complex that is being built atop an old power plant, now check out a similar architectural feat, an airy glass structure being mounted atop an old brick warehouse. This is a picture of the plans for the Elbe Philharmonic Hall by Herzog & de Meuron. The striking building will be the centerpiece of HafenCity, a large urban construction complex that is redeveloping the underused industrial waterfront on the River Elbe in Hamburg, Germany. The impressive 380-acre area will be a mix of office, retail, residential, and cultural buildings to be completed by 2020.
The Elbe Philharmonic Hall is a $313 million project that will be a new home for Hamburg's NDR (North German Radio) Symphony Orchestra as well as a luxury hotel, residential apartments, conference center, wellness area, the Klingendes Museum (music museum for children), restaurants, nightclubs, and parking. The old warehouse will accommodate back-of-house facilities for the concert halls, the children's museum, public amenities, and the parking garage. The project is scheduled to open in 2010.
Last year I picked up one of Starbuck's truffle-filled advent calendars, but I usually get my daily holiday chocolate fix from one of the inexpensive advents sold at Trader Joe's. Each day, you open up a little door on the calendar to reveal a chocolate treat and count down the days until Christmas. It's definitely not a luxury item, but the little Swiss milk chocolates are satisfying all the same. More traditional advents don't necessarily have chocolates, but little figurines or toys instead, like this Handmade Wooden Advent Calendar from FAO Schwartz. Crafted in Germany, the calendar is solid wood and is of heirloom quality. Each numbered window reveals little figurines inside the hand-painted house. Granted - it's not chocolate, but it certainly is far more decorative and even at $1,125, it won't prevent you from spending $2 on one of the chocolate ones at TJ's.
The number of people who collect both nutcrackers and 'Star Wars' things is probably relatively small, but there must be some demand for things that fit into both categories because Steinbach of Germany has come out with two limited edition 'Star Wars' Nutcrackers for Christmas. Darth Vader stands 18 1/2 inches high and is draped in a vinyl cloak, while Yoda is just 9 1/2 inches high and is armed with his walking staff. They're not exactly seasonal, but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't make a fine gift for a fan, anyway. Darth Vader is $350, while Yoda is only $250.
Autoblog gave us the heads up on this gilded Porsche, which is on display at Schmuckwelten, a jewelry museum in Pforzheim, Germany. The Porsche Boxter was stripped of all its paint before having it replaced with 24K gold leaf and leaving no surface ungilded, the hubcaps were finished with gold as well. It's not as cool as the diamond-encrusted Mercedes SL that we saw a while back, but if it were offered to us, we wouldn't turn it down.
German designers Markus Gogolin and Hedwig Rotter were counting on the German football team to make it to the World Cup finals this year. Unfortunately for them, the team lost to the Italians. There is one final match for the German team tomorrow against Portugal, playing for third place. Considering that the team could still score a trophy, the finale! vases are still rather appropriate. Made from porcelain, they measure 39x25x9-cm and are modeled on a real footballer's lower leg and foot. There are no distinctive German-team markings on the shoe, so any fan could enjoy them and still support his or her favorite team. The foot is not included - and that's probably just as well. Price: €155.
Smintair is a new luxury airline concept that is being developed by a German entrepreneur. The name is derived from a longer title: Smoker's International Airlines.
On board, not only will smoking be permitted, but the airline promises to "bring back the exclusivity in flying encountered in the 1960s." The plan is to offer two jets, Boeing 747s, and round-trip service from Dusseldorf to Tokyo. There will only be 138 seats on each plane (compared to 347 on a normal commercial 747) and they will not offer coach or economy seating. Business class seats will have 70" of legroom (compared to the standard 55") and First Class will have 80" of leg room.
Alexander Schoppmann, the founder of Smintair, says that the "no smoking" policy of airlines was originally implemented so that companies could cut back on air conditioning systems; Schoppmann says that his airline will restore systems that can handle the smoking without problem. He is confident that fliers will be willing to pay for the comfort and services his airline will offer.
On a final note, Smintair does state on its employment application that "Allergics against tobacco smoke or militant anti-smokers are asked to not apply."
With the Germans in Berlin and the Americans in Hamburg, the British
World Cup Team has decided to take up residence high in the Black Forest at the Schlosshotel Bühlerhöhe. The hotel is situated near the
Alsatian border in a renovated Baroque-style castle that was built between 1911 and 1914. It is one of the most famous spa
resorts in Germany and pumps in its own spring
water. At 2,500 feet above sea level, the hotel looks as though it is a castle in the clouds, straight out of a
fairy tale. It has 90 guest rooms, all with high speed internet access and television, of course.
The only
guests at the hotel for the month that the British football team intends to stay there, from June 5-July 9, will be the
Football Association's party of 55 and the BBC staff covering the World Cup.
Liliane Bettencourt (right), daughter of the man who founded cosmetics giant L'Oréal, tops Forbes' just-released list of the richest women in Europe with a fortune of $22.9 billion. That astounding figure also makes her the world's richest woman, the magazine notes. Bettencourt, whose father's reputation has occasionally come under fire, uses her money to fund a charitable foundation which supports medical research, cultural projects and humanitarian relief. 
The number of people who collect both nutcrackers and 'Star Wars' things is probably relatively small, but there must be some demand for things that fit into both categories because Steinbach of Germany has come out with two limited edition 'Star Wars' Nutcrackers for Christmas. Darth Vader stands 18 1/2 inches high and is draped in a vinyl cloak, while Yoda is just 9 1/2 inches high and is armed with his walking staff. They're not exactly seasonal, but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't make a fine gift for a fan, anyway. 
