German woman leaves $7.5 million to her neighbors
Monitoring Desk :
Residents of a community in central Germany have unexpectedly inherited property and a stock portfolio worth €6.2 million ($7.5 million), following the death of an elderly neighbor.
Renate Wedel had lived in the Weiperfelden district of Waldsolms in Hesse, central Germany, with her husband, Alfred Wedel, since 1975, according to a statement from the Waldsolms district, which is made up of 6 villages.
Alfred, who was “successful” and “active” on the stock exchange, died in 2014, and Renate, who had been receiving care in a nursing home in Frankfurt since 2016, died in December 2019 at the age of 81.
In April this year, the district said, it was informed that Renate had bequeathed it a bank balance, shares and valuables.
Renate’s sister, who was her original heir, had already died, local media outlet Hessenschau reported.
The news came as a shock to the authorities. “I thought at first, this is simply not possible, I thought a comma had slipped, something is not quite right,” local mayor Bernd Heine told Hessenschau.
The municipality also inherited a property in Weiperfelden, which was initially left as a legacy, but was declined by the initial inheritor because of the cost of maintaining the house and outbuildings and because residents’ contributions were due for work on a local road.
Courtesy: cnn.com
