The AfD is once again dividing the German economy these days. After the association “The Family Businesses” formed has opened for talks with the right-wing extremist party, is in Germany A debate about tearing down the firewall broke out. The president of the association, Marie-Christine Ostermann (47), is caught in the crossfire. The manager magazine shows the developments and most important questions and answers at a glance:
What happened?
The debate was triggered by a parliamentary evening organized by the “Family Business Owners” association in October, to which AfD representatives were invited for the first time. This was previously considered a no-go. Association president Ostermann announced in a LinkedIn post that the “ban on contact” with AfD members of the Bundestag had been lifted. She declared the firewall concept to be a failure. She had previously confirmed the talks with AfD MPs to the “Handelsblatt”.
This caused outrage among many members of the association. In the course of the debate, two companies have so far publicly announced their withdrawal: the drugstore chain Rossmann and the Thermomix manufacturer Vorwerk. “We do not support the association’s stance and have terminated our membership,” said Rossmann. Vorwerk told manager magazin that it had decided not to revive its membership, which had been dormant for a long time, and to formally withdraw from the association.
Did the members know?
One thing in particular is causing companies to be visibly annoyed: the president’s rushing forward. Important members were apparently not involved in the decision. “We were surprised by the report ourselves. If we had found out about it in advance, we would have advised against such an approach,” says shoe retailer Deichmann to manager magazin. Owner Heinrich Deichmann (62) is part of the association’s executive board.
The Melitta Group also told manager magazin that it had learned of Ostermann’s decision from the media. “We are very surprised by this and reject the decision. In principle, we support dialogue between politics and business. However, we do not seek it with parties that are even partially classified as extremist,” said Melitta. The company remains open to reconsidering its membership.
As manager magazin learned from internal sources, the decision was only discussed in the federal executive board. There was no vote on this in the association committee. The association did not want to comment on this when asked.
What consequences does the association face?
The family entrepreneurs are a lobby organization that claims to have 6,500 members across Germany. The regular membership fee is – depending on the company’s annual turnover – roughly between around 850 euros and almost 2,900 euros per year, with smaller companies at the lower end and large companies at the upper end of this range. There are also special regulations, such as reduced contributions for other family members, founders in the first few years or junior members, as well as separate (higher) contributions for institutional supporting members. The more large companies like Rossmann – with an annual turnover of 15 billion euros – leave, the greater the financial consequences for the association. At Vorwerk, sales are currently at 3.2 billion euros.
How does the association react?
On Tuesday afternoon, the association removed the names and contact details of the members of its executive committee and regional contacts from its website; At the same time, portraits of selected member companies disappeared there – including the outdoor outfitter Schöffel. According to everything that is known, the background to this was likely to be an increase in the number of protests and complaints received by the entrepreneurs named online.
The association defended its course to manager magazin. “Outrage alone has exhausted itself as a political strategy. Outdoing it with increasingly violent antifa slogans has achieved nothing,” says a spokesman. “The time is over when you can refuse to debate and do nothing and hope for an improvement in the election results. Anyone who demonizes this approach will only end up making the extremists stronger,” the spokesman explains the association’s position. Discussing with people who think differently does not mean accepting their positions, said Ostermann. They explicitly do not want a government with the participation of the AfD, because their worldview does not fit the association’s basic freedom and market economy beliefs.
Does the turn to the AfD come as a surprise?
For many observers, the current step – i.e. the open rejection of the “firewall” and the invitation of AfD MPs – comes as a surprise as a breach of taboo, because Ostermann and the association had previously officially distanced themselves from the AfD and ruled out coalitions or cooperation. Until recently, the association repeatedly officially emphasized that it did not want to form a coalition with the AfD or work together politically and maintained a de facto ban on contact with AfD members of the Bundestag. Ostermann has now broken that.
But the change does not come out of a vacuum: There were already signals that Ostermann considered the previous isolation strategy to have failed and was looking for more dialogue-oriented, conservative milieus, as shown in her public appearances and also in her LinkedIn posts. Her role on the advisory board of the Union-affiliated organization “Republik21”, whose boss Andreas Rödder is also critical of the firewall against the AfD, has already shown that she is involved in concepts for a different, more open-to-dialogue strategy when it comes to dealing with the AfD.
The Berlin entrepreneur Harald Christ (53) turned his back on the association a few weeks ago, well before the debate. “I left the association because I take a clear stance in favor of a free, cosmopolitan and democratic economic policy,” he told the dpa. For him, the latest developments in the association and individual positions no longer provide the necessary distance from political forces that are incompatible with these basic values. “As an entrepreneur and citizen, I have a responsibility – and I wanted to make this responsibility clear with a consistent step.”
Which line does Ostermann take?
Observers have long described Ostermann as close to the FDP. She was also temporarily treasurer of the FDP in North Rhine-Westphalia. The family is now in its fourth generation to run the Rullko food wholesaler, which supplies commercial kitchens for hospitals and retirement homes. At 16, she decided to continue the company, first studying business administration in St. Gallen and then completing a trainee program at Aldi Süd. In addition, on the advice of her father, she joined the Young Entrepreneurs Association, the youth organization for “family entrepreneurs”. Even then she appeared regularly on talk shows. She repeatedly attracted attention for her rejection of a women’s quota. She gained greater notoriety when she made a stalking case public.
How do other companies and associations react?
The DAX group handle The head of the supervisory board, Simone Bagel-Trah (56), distanced herself from the association in a statement to manager magazin. “Henkel stands for cosmopolitanism, diversity, freedom of expression and democratic values. We see Germany’s future in a strong, united Europe. In our view, these principles are not compatible with the well-known positions of the AfD,” said the company.
More on the topic
The Schwarz Group, which includes, among other things, the discount chain Lidl heard, emphasized that he was not a member of the association. The company is a sponsor of the “Family Business Foundation” or the “Family Business and Politics Foundation”, which is not identical to the association. “It is clear to the companies of the Schwarz Group that the success of Germany as a business location and its internationally operating companies depends largely on the openness of our society and its free, democratic basic order,” said the company. Other large companies that have family-run origins, such as BMW, Merck and Kuehne + Nagel are not part of the association. The “Family Business and Politics Foundation” publicly distances itself from any parties with extremist tendencies.
More on the topic
The debate has also broken out in other associations. Verdi boss Frank Werneke (58) called on employers and business associations to take a clear position on Thursday. The association under President Ostermann is in danger of “finally drifting to the right,” Werneke told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “History reminds us how important it is to clearly demarcate business from right-wing extremists.” He pointed to historical parallels with the support of the NSDAP by industrialists in 1933. “So: Defend the beginnings,” he said.