Money should be for animals
96-year-old inherited 26 million dollars from Cologne Zoo
Elizabeth Reichert (r.) and Zoo Director Christopher Landsberg. After her death, Reichert left the Cologne Zoo $26 million.
© Cologne Zoo
The Cologne Zoo has received an inheritance in the tens of millions. The money should only benefit the animals.
by Jessica Burger
This article first appeared on RTL.de
A windfall from the USA for the Cologne Zoo: Shortly after the Second World War, Elizabeth Reichert († 96) and her husband Arnulf emigrate to the USA. But they will always remember their home town of Cologne, and so the Reicherts decided early on to include the zoo in their heritage. A real windfall is now waiting for the animals there.
Reichert has been part of the Cologne Zoo for a long time
The Arnulf and Elizabeth Reichert House in Cologne Zoo is a reminder of the couple. It has been open to visitors since 2021. Among other things, the sloths Jumi and Perez hang out here, exotic birds flutter through the branches and monkeys jump from tree to tree. The Reichert Foundation already existed back then, into which the couple’s inheritance flows. In 2017, this is still estimated at 22 million euros. In the meantime, however, it is known that the sum is slightly higher at almost 24.5 million euros. Since Elizabeth Reichert’s death in early 2022, the assets now officially belong to the zoo. The couple “wanted to bring long-term benefits to as many people as possible in the Rhineland,” according to a press release from Cologne Zoo.
The zoo could get up to 1.5 million euros every year
“We won’t get the money all at once,” explains Christopher Landsberg, head of Cologne Zoo, to RTL. Since the money is put into a foundation and is part of a share portfolio, the zoo receives a partial payment every year, a so-called dividend payment. However, depending on how the capital markets in the USA develop, the amounts paid out can vary greatly. For 2022, the zoo received a sum of over 700,000 US dollars, which could increase to up to 1.5 million dollars in the coming years. In other words: “The full earning power of the foundation will unfold in the coming years,” said Landsberg in the press release. As long as the zoo exists, money will flow from the foundation.
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The first payment goes to the rhino enclosure
At Reichert’s request, the foundation’s money should only be used “for de Dierche” or for the “further development of the zoo’s animal husbandry,” as Landsberg puts it. Just to all the four-legged friends, feathered friends, water animals and whatever else is romping about in the zoo. “The money will flow into new enclosures and animal facilities,” he says. The sum of 2022 is already planned for the new rhino facility.