FRANKFURT — In his heyday, Roland Berger may have been the best-connected man in Germany. He advised chancellors and chief executives, founded one of Europe’s leading management consulting firms and rode Germany’s postwar rebound to become one of the country’s richest self-made men. Business magazines put him on the cover.

But in the twilight of his career, Mr. Berger’s image as ubiquitous boardroom consigliere and icon of the German economy is at risk. An exposé by the newspaper Handelsblatt asserts that he repeatedly misrepresented a key element of his personal history, portraying his father as a Nazi resister when in fact he was a high-ranking official.

The fallout from the Handelsblatt revelations has been devastating for the reputation of Mr. Berger, 82, and the foundation he endowed with 50 million euros, or $55 million, of his own money. The Roland Berger Foundation was forced last month to cancel a ceremony to bestow its annual Human Dignity Awards after two of the three recipients said they would no longer accept. The ceremony was to be held at the Jewish Museum in Berlin.

Mr. Berger had often invoked his father, Georg Berger, as an inspiration for the award.

“We had the Gestapo come to our house every six weeks,” Mr. Berger told an audience in Munich in 2017. “My father was locked up at some point.” That is why, Mr. Berger said, “I award the Human Dignity Award to people who contribute to freedom and tolerance, human rights and values all over the world.”