Ludwig Merckle Net Worth: Ludwig Merckle is a German enterpreneuer who has a net worth of $5.7 billion. Born on 8 June 1965, Ludwig Merckle is a Chairman of Merckle GmbH, a pharmaceutical company that he inherited from his father. After his graduation from the University of Mannheim, he started working for his father Adolf Merckle, a German billionaire. He worked for the company from 1997 to 2008, when Oliver Windholz took over his position. In 2009, his father committed suicide after a bad investment on Volkswagen shares that led to a rising debt. Ludwig Merckle inherited a rotten-debt fortune, and has carried out an extraordinary turnaround. In order to pay off the debt, he began to sell his assets by cutting his stake from 74% to 25% of the shares of HeidelbergCement. He also sold Ratiopharm, generic drug producer, to Teva Pharmacueticals for $5 billion. Furthermore, he owns one of Europe’s major pharmaceutical distributor, Phoenix, and chairs Kässbohrer Geländefahrzeug AG and Wuerttemberg AG. Only three years after he inherited the debt-fated fortune, he was not only able to restore it successfully, but in December 2011, he was also nominated for the Entrepreneur of the Year by Handelsblatt, a top German trade journal.