Hugo Stinnes had a hand in more than 4,000 companies when he died in 1924, and his sons lost most of them within a year

Hugo Stinnes was born in Mülheim an der Ruhr on 12 February 1870 into a coal trading family. He bought most of his empire on credit and repaid in inflated marks. Germany's national history museum calls him one of the main profiteers of the inflation. On 9 November 1922 he said he would fight any attempt to stabilise the mark. In April 1923 he bought large sums of foreign currency, which pushed inflation further. In 1924 his concern counted 1,535 companies at 2,888 sites. The Neue Deutsche Biographie says he was involved, directly or indirectly, in more than 4,000. His holdings included 20 coal companies, 29 smelting works, 80 electric plants and 14 newspapers and printing works. The mark was stabilised at the end of 1923. Stinnes died in Berlin on 10 April 1924. His sons Edmund and Hugo Jr. took over together. The NDB says the sons fell out and the company fell apart. Edmund left in the spring of 1925, and Hugo Jr. ran what remained alone. A history published by the Mises Institute lists what was left by the end of 1925: a few coal mines, two iron and steel works, four metal trading firms and four shipping companies. The coal trading business survived. The later Stinnes AG was absorbed into the logistics arm of Deutsche Bahn.