Caroline Gotzens
Caroline Gotzens is a German-Swiss industrial heiress and art collector. She is a family member of the Cologne-based banking dynasty Oppenheim, as well as of the Frankish pencil dynasty Faber-Castell.
Family
Gotzens is an 8th generation family member of the Cologne-based banking dynasty von Oppenheim, as well as 9th generation member of the Faber-Castell founding family. She grew up in Klamm Castle in Tyrol and never lived in the family castle in Bavaria. She is widely related to the princely families Castell-Castell and Castell-Rüdenhausen.She is married to Düsseldorf-based entrepreneur Dr Michael Gotzens. The couple has three grown children, Antonia-Sophie, Alessandra-Louisa and Nicholas Gotzens.
Gotzens is the daughter of German billionaire Count Hubertus von Faber-Castell and Countess Liselotte Faber-Castell. Her mother was married for the second time to famous Rhenish industrialist and sole owner of, Hajo Hünnebeck. After the latter's death and the resulting sale of the company, a German law was named after Hünnebeck, as the case filled a loophole of legal tax avoidance for the beneficiaries. Hünnebeck is now part of the Harsco Corporation. Gotzens's father, Count Hubertus von Faber-Castell, brought commercial television to China and is the only European honorary citizen of Beijing. Her younger sister Floria is married to Donatus Prince of Hesse, the head of the “Hessische Hausstiftung”, one of the most important family foundations of Germany.
Gotzens was raised between her paternal grandparents, Roland Count von Faber-Castell and Alix-May. In 1935 Graf Roland and Alix-May divorced after the magazine Der Stürmer criticized her luxurious lifestyle and the words 'Die Oppenheim, das Judenschwein, muss raus aus Stein' were written on the family's castle,. Her grandmother, Alix-May, belonging to the German-Jewish banking dynasty Oppenheim, was in the 1930s a victim of constant anti-Semitic attacks. In order to remain in control of the family’s bank, she and her cousins stayed in Germany. Later, the Oppenheim family had to hide to escape Nazi persecution. Gotzens lived with her grandmother in Switzerland until her death in 1979.