He was born in Berlin,[1] the youngest son of Friedrich Flick, an industrialist and convicted Nazi war criminal, and Marie Schuss.
As the sole owner of the Friedrich Flick Industrial Holding (Industrieverwaltung), he had interests in major companies including Daimler-Benz, WR Grace, Gerling Insurance, Buderus, Dynamit Nobel, Feldmühle and others.
[2] Major tax liabilities were avoided through "cultivation of the political landscape",—a process that turned into the Flick Affair in 1983 when it became apparent that about $25 million had been paid to German political parties in return for tax cuts and favorable rulings.
When Deutsche Bank announced that it had bought his holdings for about $3 billion German marks, Flick retired in Austria, where he became a naturalised citizen.
[1] In November 2008, it was reported that an oak coffin containing his remains was taken from his family's mausoleum at a cemetery at Velden am Wörther See, in what Austrian Federal Police believe may be an attempt to extort money from his widow.