Good morning dear readers,
“Germany only mediocre” – unfortunately we have gotten used to this headline over the relevant location rankings. But that we’re going straight through to the bottom group, that’s new. This is what happened in a new ranking for 2022 by the Leibniz Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) on behalf of the Foundation for Family Businesses.
The Federal Republic of Germany is in a poorer position as a business location than it has ever been since the ranking was first drawn up in 2006. Germany comes in 18th place out of 21 industrialized countries.
Overall, we have slipped down six places in the past 13 years. No other location examined has developed worse in this period. According to the ZEW, “Location D” has lost ground, particularly in terms of taxes, regulation and infrastructure. Japan and Sweden, on the other hand, showed strong improvements.
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For those who prefer to start Monday optimistically: places 14 to 19 are very close together in terms of points. With a little political effort, Germany could work its way forward again. A work order for the self-proclaimed progressive coalition in Berlin, if there is still a little time left after cannabis liberalization.
However, the coalition is more concerned with personnel than with location issues these days. The search for a successor to Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, who is apparently tired of her job, faces a particular difficulty: In the job you are in the political death zone from day one – especially in the midst of an increasingly pressing debate about supplying main battle tanks to Ukraine.
No wonder that Lambrecht and all of her predecessors after Peter Struck are considered more or less a failure in retrospect. For some, the post of defense minister also brought the end of their political careers. Or do you still remember Franz Josef Jung?
And despite all the criticism of Lambrecht’s administration, it should also be noted that the lady previously acted so smoothly as Minister of Justice that she was also entrusted with the Ministry of Family Affairs in 2021. And yet, within a few months, the Ministry of Defense pushed the quite experienced political manager to her limits and beyond.
This is just a warning to everyone who believes that a new minister would make everything better in the Bundeswehr. Past experience suggests that the defense ministry is unmanageable in its current structure. Whoever takes on the job: He or she should better have a plan for how the political leadership structure of the military apparatus needs to be changed – and have obtained the necessary political power of attorney for this.
Oh yes: you can read here who is being discussed as the new Minister of Defense.
Lars Klingbeil is one of the traded candidates. At a New Year’s reception for his party in Mainz, the SPD chairman caressed the pacifist soul of the social democratic base: “Sometimes I get dizzy when I see that discussions are only about weapons,” he said. He was “shocked” at how the term diplomacy was being almost despised at the moment.
Well, at least in Germany I don’t know of any reasonable person in a halfway relevant position who makes diplomacy contemptible. That would be really stupid too. Chancellor Olaf Scholz rightly sought a (telephone) conversation with Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin after the Russian attack: Diplomacy always deserves a new chance.
At the same time, one of the strange myths of this war is that there were Russian peace proposals that Kyiv and the Western alliance rejected or ignored. Apart from Putin’s offer that Ukraine could admit defeat, I haven’t heard or read anything about such an offer. To me, what NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with the Handelsblatt sounds much more realistic: “This war could end today. President Putin started it and he can stop it at any time. But there are no signs that Putin wants peace. He hasn’t changed his goals. He wants to subdue Ukraine.”
That’s why, according to Stoltenberg, we have to prepare for a long conflict and continue to support Ukraine.
Germany’s most important listed companies hardly want to create additional jobs in 2023. The personnel plans of the corporations are roughly at the level of 2022. This is the result of a survey by the Handelsblatt among the 40 Dax companies. However, the companies still have a great need in the area of IT. 18 of the 22 companies that took part in the survey are primarily looking for new software developers, data scientists and IT architects. Only four companies said they were not specifically looking for IT expertise, including real estate company Vonovia and pharmaceuticals supplier Sartorius.
Apparently the former “Spiegel” reporter Claas Relotius found a new job, who involuntarily became famous with his beautifully written, but unfortunately largely invented texts. According to a report by “Bild”, Relotius has recently been working as a copywriter for the Jung von Matt agency.
It’s fine with me. The difference between a journalist and an advertiser is precisely their somewhat more relaxed relationship to reality. A slogan like “Red Bull gives you wings!” would otherwise never have seen the light of day, but would have been rephrased by a bad-tempered journalist: “Experts report worrying mutations after consuming energy drinks.”
I wish you an inspired start to the week.
Best regards
your
Christian Rickens
Editor-in-Chief Handelsblatt
