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BERLIN - Theo Albrecht, the secretive co-founder of Germany's worldwide discount supermarket chain Aldi, a co-owner of Trader Joe's in the United States and one of Europe's richest men, has died. He was 88.

The retail machine that Albrecht built with his elder brother Karl has won over German consumers with their no-thrills but super-cheap offer, making billionaires of the two and spawning imitation "hard-discount" stores across Europe.

The company's Aldi Nord division said in a statement Wednesday that Albrecht was the driving force behind Aldi's internationalization, expanding stores to France, Spain, Portugal, Poland and the United States, among other nations.

The company said he died Saturday in his home city of Essen, Germany, but gave no cause of death.

Even that bare-bones statement marked unusual openness for a company known for its extreme secrecy.

When Forbes featured the brothers in 1992 as two of the world's richest men, the magazine had to use silhouettes to illustrate the article since no pictures of them had been published in many years. The magazine's 2010 list of the world's richest people estimated Albrecht's fortune at $16.7 billion.

The German Retail Federation said the country had lost one of its greatest entrepreneurs.

"There are only a few people who have stamped their mark on an entire business sector of the economy. Theo Albrecht achieved just that," the federation's managing director said in a statement.

Albrecht and his brother both served as German soldiers in World War II, then returned home to Essen and took over a grocery store their parents owned. They flourished as the German economy, in shambles after the war, came back to life.

The first Aldi stores - an acronym standing for "Albrecht Discount" - opened in the early 1960s. As the brothers' concept proved successful, Aldi started to expand around the world. The company, which does not publish sales or profit figures, has more than 4,000 outlets in Germany and about 1,000 shops in the United States.

In 1979, a family trust established by Albrecht bought Trader Joe's. The specialty grocery chain declined to comment Wednesday on Albrecht or Aldi.

Albrecht quietly managed Aldi Nord until 1993, when he stepped back from its day-to-day operations. But he still wielded huge influence as chairman of a foundation that holds the biggest stake in the company.

Albrecht is survived by his wife, Cilli, and sons Theo and Berthold. German media reports said he was buried Wednesday in a small family ceremony.

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