Dieter Schwarz

In 1963, Schwarz married Franziska Weipert. They live in Heilbronn and have two daughters. Schwarz is known to be very protective of his privacy.

In 1973, Dieter Schwarz joined the "Lidl & Schwarz KG" business of his father Josef Schwarz and opened the company's first discount supermarket, inspired by the brothers Albrecht. After his father died in 1977, he took control of the discount chain. He became CEO and expanded the business outside of Germany. Soon afterwards, Schwarz bought the naming rights for Lidl from an unrelated person named Ludwig Lidl, a former schoolteacher, in order to side-step a legal battle with the co-owner A. Lidl.

Since 1999, Schwarz manages his resources through the tax-exempt Dieter Schwarz Foundation (gGmbH, limited liability company with a charitable purpose), when he transferred his shares in Lidl and Kaufland into it, deciding just how much of his profits go into the foundation. The Dieter Schwarz Foundation supports education and daycare facilities for children, for example, as well as science and research projects.

In 2009, he was estimated to be worth 10 billion euro. As of October 2012, he was estimated to be worth 12 billion euro, an increase from 11.5 billion euro in 2011. In 2013, he was estimated be worth €19.6 billion, and ranked the 24 richest person in the world. As of February 2014, he was ranked as 23 richest person in the world in the Hurun Report Global Rich List.

In July 2020, Forbes listed Schwarz as the 30 richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of US$34.8 billion.