West Germany: Willy's Woes

Of all the "wonder boys" thrown up by Germany's postwar economic miracle, none rose faster or higher than jowly Willy Schlieker (rhymes with bleaker), 48. Born in the slums of Hamburg, Schlieker started out as a clerk in a law court, at 28 was chief of wartime steel allocation for the Nazi government. After the war, capitalizing on his Ruhr contacts, Schlieker built up a steelmaking, shipbuilding and trading empire that last year grossed $200 million. Last week, two months after he had been featured on TV as one of Germany's richest men, the bottom fell out...

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