Germany’s economic model is undergoing a global stress test – prosperity is being redistributed, entire sectors are in upheaval and the industrial foundations are crumbling. What was considered crisis-proof yesterday may be a discontinued model today. Yesterday an export hit, today a shelf warmer.
Germany needs a renaissance of its economic basis. To do this, our country needs to reinvent itself. In no other OECD country is educational advancement so dependent on origin, nowhere does the distance between research excellence and market dominance seem so long. In hardly any other industrialized country do the self-employed and entrepreneurs have to follow so many rules and regulations. Nowhere is labor so cost-intensive and electricity so expensive.
The effort to recover will only succeed if politics, business and science join forces. With our new CEO.Table, we are making a journalistic contribution to this.
Starting this Saturday at 6 a.m., we will be launching the new Saturday edition of Table.Briefings – a free executive briefing for all CEOs and everyone who has anything to do with them.
Competent, brief, clear. Every week, we analyze the most important trends, theses and topics from the executive floors, strategy departments and research teams of the business world. Our editorial director Thilo Boss and his team curate the interviews, speeches and presentations by CEOs from the previous week for you and offer you a best-of from our China, Climate, Europe, ESG, Security, Africa, Agrifood, Education and Research briefings.
With the CEO.Index, we are evaluating the performance of managers holistically for the first time in a business medium and combining operational indicators with public performance.
In the CEO.Survey section, the Forsa Institute exclusively interviews decision-makers on current topics and we name the must-reads of technology and IT publications. In addition, CEO.Table offers regularly the most important personnel reports from the executive floors of Germany, the cross-industry benchmark stories and a geopolitical classification of current crises and conflicts.
In our CEO.Economist section, renowned economists such as IfW President Moritz Schularick, economic expert Veronika Grimm, economist Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, Prognos Chief Economist Michael Böhmer and the President of the IWH Halle, Reint E. Gropp, assess the country’s situation.
As a licensee, you are one of the personalities needed for the national tour de force for Germany’s economic recovery. So please take a seat at our CEO.Table and join us in looking into the future of our economic nation.
Please feel free to give me your feedback and suggestions. You can find information about our new offer here.
If you do not wish to receive CEO.Table, you can unsubscribe here.
Germany’s energy policy and the entire internal energy market are coming under increasing pressure from its European partners. At the meeting of energy ministers on Monday, countries that rely on nuclear energy used last week’s high energy prices as an opportunity to attack renewable energies.
A dark doldrums had caused the price for Thursday afternoon to temporarily climb to more than €900 per megawatt hour – both in the German and other price zones such as southern Sweden. “The Swedish energy market is severely affected by weather-dependent electricity production in Germany,” said Christian Democrat Minister Ebba Busch on Monday, reiterating the criticism she has been voicing for months.
She announced the consequences to Swedish journalists: Stockholm wants to make approval for an important power cable through the Baltic Sea dependent on a division of the German electricity price zone. “We remain committed to Hansa PowerBridge. If Germany were to open up to the introduction of a price zone in northern Germany, then we could sit down and discuss Hansa,” said Busch. In June, she stopped the approval of the planned cable through the Baltic Sea, citing the threat of higher prices for Swedish customers.
Sweden is being so vocal because electricity prices would be lower if the German zone were divided, explained Phuc-Vinh Nguyen, Head of the Energy Department at the Jacques Delors Institute. Sweden would also benefit from a more controllable generation in Germany. The shutdown of German nuclear power plants is a thorn in Stockholm’s side.
Busch accused Germany of making itself more dependent on fossil fuels by building new gas-fired power plants and not being able to supply Sweden with a “fossil-free” base load. This is also interesting for the debate within Germany, in which the CDU/CSU is in favor of gas-fired power plants with carbon capture.
Sweden is obviously keen to strengthen nuclear energy, also with a view to the European 2040 target discussion. France’s Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher openly stated on Monday that the Renewable Energy Directive would have to be “replaced” in the post-2030 legislation.
However, Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen disagreed. It would be unwise to agree on a common target for renewable and low-carbon energy for 2040, said the Dane at the closing press conference. Instead, the existing definitions should be retained, but the ability of member states to use other clean technologies such as nuclear energy should not be compromised. Busch had previously complained that some states might only be able to achieve the renewables quotas if they reduced the proportion of nuclear energy in the energy mix.
The policy for a common internal energy market is currently having a hard time, as several statements, particularly from France and Sweden, demonstrated:
In cases where their countries would have an advantage, however, both ministers spoke out in favor of greater European cooperation:
In order to reduce energy prices, Jørgensen was open to stretching grid fees over time – but without mentioning the German amortization account. Busch called for more freedom in the redistribution of proceeds from congestion management. Member states should not only be able to distribute these to low-income households during energy crises.
For Germany, State Secretary Philipp Nimmermann said that the German government would support a European flexibility roadmap to quickly integrate storage into the electricity system. More flexibility is needed in terms of grid charges – with reference to the Commission’s grid action plan, he later added, “more flexibility with a more intelligent distribution of grid tariffs.” The BMWK is already having a similar-sounding idea examined in an expert report.
Kaja Kallas is known for her plain speaking. However, in her new role as EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, her skills as a moderator are now particularly important. A Foreign Affairs Council is definitely different from a summit, said the former Estonian head of government. On the agenda on Monday were the change of power in Syria, developments in Georgia and the situation in Ukraine. Quick answers are now expected from the new EU foreign policy chief everywhere. She has sent a top EU diplomat to Syria’s capital in order to “establish contacts with the new government and the people there,” said Kaja Kallas.
German diplomat Michael Ohnmacht paid a flying visit to the Syrian capital on Monday in order to open initial channels of communication. The 54-year-old has been head of the EU-Syria delegation since September and is currently still based in Beirut. Syria is facing an optimistic, positive, but also rather uncertain future, said Kallas. The EU must help to ensure that developments move in the right direction and must not allow a vacuum.
However, the EU is finding it difficult to be taken seriously as a player in the Middle East. In Syria, the USA and the UK were quicker to make contact with the new rulers. And Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is already in the process of creating facts on the ground. We will discuss what steps are possible should Syria develop in the right direction, said Kallas.
Individual foreign ministers called for the withdrawal of Russian bases in Syria to be one of the conditions for normalization. They wanted a country that was stable and peaceful and had a government that was as inclusive as possible, said the EU foreign policy chief. In a non-paper, Cyprus, Austria and Greece called for the EU to appoint a special envoy, quickly reopen the embassy in Damascus and show a presence.
However, the EU is also finding it difficult to exert its influence in Georgia. In the run-up to her first Foreign Affairs Council, Kaja Kallas proposed sanctions against representatives of the pro-Russian leadership in Tbilisi, who are responsible for the violence against the opposition protests. However, the foreign ministers of Hungary and Slovakia are blocking this.
Kallas countered she could promise that this would not be the last Hungarian veto during her term of office. The EU Commission is considering withdrawing the privilege of visa-free travel from some representatives of the pro-Russian regime in Tbilisi. Holders of diplomatic and official passports are being targeted. This step is possible without the consent of Slovakia and Hungary.
Kaja Kallas found herself in familiar territory when it came to Ukraine. A peacekeeping force requires peace first, and Vladimir Putin is not signaling that he is ready for this at the moment, said the EU foreign policy chief in response to a question from a journalist. Nevertheless, the EU foreign ministers were able to formally adopt the 15th package of sanctions against Russia on Monday. The new measures primarily affect the shadow fleet with which Vladimir Putin is trying to circumvent the oil price cap. However, the EU has still imposed far fewer sanctions on junk tankers than the USA.
In the discussion on Ukraine, Kaja Kallas demonstrated that she does not want to put her personal priorities on the back burner in her new role. She called for not only the windfall profits but also the blocked Russian state bank funds themselves to be used for financial aid for Ukraine. Given the legal risks, she met with widespread reservations, including from Germany.
It was not only in terms of content that the new chief diplomat set personal accents at her first Foreign Affairs Council. She called for discussions to be as focused as possible, which should also lead to decisions. She called on the foreign ministers to speak as freely as possible and to dispense with prepared speeches. Despite the packed agenda, the first Foreign Affairs Council under Kaja Kallas finished earlier than the meetings under her predecessor Josep Borrell.
If you like, Wolfgang Gammel is the practitioner among the AI nerds at Helsing. Someone who not only flies high but also likes to keep his feet on the ground. And perhaps that is why he is exactly the right person for the Munich-based software company’s high-flying plans. Helsing has just unveiled his new AI-supported combat drone, with mass production set to begin next year. 4000 of the kamikaze drones are going to Ukraine, an “important milestone on Helsing’s mission to strengthen the security of democracies worldwide.”
The new Managing Director, who has been in office since November, must of course approve of this and says in his comfortable Bavarian: “You must have ambitions.” But Gammel’s ambitions are rather modest. The 51-year-old explains his move from a global defense contractor to a booming start-up as “wanting to make a difference.” After holding various management positions at Airbus, he has a down-to-earth attitude: “Twenty years of experience with partners and politicians.”
Like so many in the booming tech defense cluster around Munich, Gammel was also in the German Bundeswehr. Born in Regensburg, he joined the air force as a regular soldier in 1993, eventually becoming head of engine maintenance at the 61st Air Transport Wing at Landsberg Air Base. The squadron is now history. But Gammel remains loyal to the Bundeswehr as a reserve officer. It was only in the summer that he completed his last military exercise at the Bavarian State Command. “I want to know what makes the Bundeswehr tick.”
After studying production engineering at the University of Bremen, Gammel will return to Bavaria. Even as a soldier, he was fascinated by large aircraft. First the Transall C-160, at Airbus Defense and Space, then the Eurofighter, whose overall production management he took over in 2009. Despite his down-to-earth attitude, the young manager was drawn abroad for a few years. “Broadening horizons,” he calls it matter-of-factly.
His stay at the National Defense University in Washington, where he studied alongside American and international soldiers as an industry representative, was crucial. While many people in Germany were still struggling with the Bundeswehr’s deployment in Afghanistan in 2012, he had heard completely different words from Americans: “You can do more, why don’t you dare to do more?”
Looking outwards, but not losing his grip on the ground – a fitting motto for Gammel’s future career. After his return from the USA and a year at the Airbus Group in France, the Eurofighter became his main focus. As Head of Operations at Eurofighter GmbH, he got to know Helsing. Together with others, the young company is to make fifteen Bundeswehr fighter aircraft fit for “electronic warfare” by 2028.
Now Gammel is part of the Helsing team himself. Helsing is cooperating with the Swedish defense company Saab, which has already invested 75 million in Helsing, on the upgrade for “electronic warfare.” Saab also knows Gammel, as the Swedes have been supplying the radar equipment for the Tornado since the end of the 1990s.
But it is not just the phone numbers and two decades of experience that make Gammel interesting for his new employer. Perhaps it is also the calm tone of the man from the Upper Palatinate, which accompanies the meteoric rise of the three-year-old software company somewhat soberly. And so it is only logical that it was not founder Gundbert Scherf, as usual, who was sent to the Defense and Security Forum of the German Aerospace Industries Association this week, but – Wolfgang Gammel. Nana Brink
Germany’s economic model is undergoing a global stress test – prosperity is being redistributed, entire sectors are in upheaval and the industrial foundations are crumbling. What was considered crisis-proof yesterday may be a discontinued model today. Yesterday an export hit, today a shelf warmer.
Germany needs a renaissance of its economic basis. To do this, our country needs to reinvent itself. In no other OECD country is educational advancement so dependent on origin, nowhere does the distance between research excellence and market dominance seem so long. In hardly any other industrialized country do the self-employed and entrepreneurs have to follow so many rules and regulations. Nowhere is labor so cost-intensive and electricity so expensive.
The effort to recover will only succeed if politics, business and science join forces. With our new CEO.Table, we are making a journalistic contribution to this.
Starting this Saturday at 6 a.m., we will be launching the new Saturday edition of Table.Briefings – a free executive briefing for all CEOs and everyone who has anything to do with them.
Competent, brief, clear. Every week, we analyze the most important trends, theses and topics from the executive floors, strategy departments and research teams of the business world. Our editorial director Thilo Boss and his team curate the interviews, speeches and presentations by CEOs from the previous week for you and offer you a best-of from our China, Climate, Europe, ESG, Security, Africa, Agrifood, Education and Research briefings.
With the CEO.Index, we are evaluating the performance of managers holistically for the first time in a business medium and combining operational indicators with public performance.
In the CEO.Survey section, the Forsa Institute exclusively interviews decision-makers on current topics and we name the must-reads of technology and IT publications. In addition, CEO.Table offers regularly the most important personnel reports from the executive floors of Germany, the cross-industry benchmark stories and a geopolitical classification of current crises and conflicts.
In our CEO.Economist section, renowned economists such as IfW President Moritz Schularick, economic expert Veronika Grimm, economist Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, Prognos Chief Economist Michael Böhmer and the President of the IWH Halle, Reint E. Gropp, assess the country’s situation.
As a licensee, you are one of the personalities needed for the national tour de force for Germany’s economic recovery. So please take a seat at our CEO.Table and join us in looking into the future of our economic nation.
Please feel free to give me your feedback and suggestions. You can find information about our new offer here.
If you do not wish to receive CEO.Table, you can unsubscribe here.
Germany’s energy policy and the entire internal energy market are coming under increasing pressure from its European partners. At the meeting of energy ministers on Monday, countries that rely on nuclear energy used last week’s high energy prices as an opportunity to attack renewable energies.
A dark doldrums had caused the price for Thursday afternoon to temporarily climb to more than €900 per megawatt hour – both in the German and other price zones such as southern Sweden. “The Swedish energy market is severely affected by weather-dependent electricity production in Germany,” said Christian Democrat Minister Ebba Busch on Monday, reiterating the criticism she has been voicing for months.
She announced the consequences to Swedish journalists: Stockholm wants to make approval for an important power cable through the Baltic Sea dependent on a division of the German electricity price zone. “We remain committed to Hansa PowerBridge. If Germany were to open up to the introduction of a price zone in northern Germany, then we could sit down and discuss Hansa,” said Busch. In June, she stopped the approval of the planned cable through the Baltic Sea, citing the threat of higher prices for Swedish customers.
Sweden is being so vocal because electricity prices would be lower if the German zone were divided, explained Phuc-Vinh Nguyen, Head of the Energy Department at the Jacques Delors Institute. Sweden would also benefit from a more controllable generation in Germany. The shutdown of German nuclear power plants is a thorn in Stockholm’s side.
Busch accused Germany of making itself more dependent on fossil fuels by building new gas-fired power plants and not being able to supply Sweden with a “fossil-free” base load. This is also interesting for the debate within Germany, in which the CDU/CSU is in favor of gas-fired power plants with carbon capture.
Sweden is obviously keen to strengthen nuclear energy, also with a view to the European 2040 target discussion. France’s Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher openly stated on Monday that the Renewable Energy Directive would have to be “replaced” in the post-2030 legislation.
However, Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen disagreed. It would be unwise to agree on a common target for renewable and low-carbon energy for 2040, said the Dane at the closing press conference. Instead, the existing definitions should be retained, but the ability of member states to use other clean technologies such as nuclear energy should not be compromised. Busch had previously complained that some states might only be able to achieve the renewables quotas if they reduced the proportion of nuclear energy in the energy mix.
The policy for a common internal energy market is currently having a hard time, as several statements, particularly from France and Sweden, demonstrated:
In cases where their countries would have an advantage, however, both ministers spoke out in favor of greater European cooperation:
In order to reduce energy prices, Jørgensen was open to stretching grid fees over time – but without mentioning the German amortization account. Busch called for more freedom in the redistribution of proceeds from congestion management. Member states should not only be able to distribute these to low-income households during energy crises.
For Germany, State Secretary Philipp Nimmermann said that the German government would support a European flexibility roadmap to quickly integrate storage into the electricity system. More flexibility is needed in terms of grid charges – with reference to the Commission’s grid action plan, he later added, “more flexibility with a more intelligent distribution of grid tariffs.” The BMWK is already having a similar-sounding idea examined in an expert report.
Kaja Kallas is known for her plain speaking. However, in her new role as EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, her skills as a moderator are now particularly important. A Foreign Affairs Council is definitely different from a summit, said the former Estonian head of government. On the agenda on Monday were the change of power in Syria, developments in Georgia and the situation in Ukraine. Quick answers are now expected from the new EU foreign policy chief everywhere. She has sent a top EU diplomat to Syria’s capital in order to “establish contacts with the new government and the people there,” said Kaja Kallas.
German diplomat Michael Ohnmacht paid a flying visit to the Syrian capital on Monday in order to open initial channels of communication. The 54-year-old has been head of the EU-Syria delegation since September and is currently still based in Beirut. Syria is facing an optimistic, positive, but also rather uncertain future, said Kallas. The EU must help to ensure that developments move in the right direction and must not allow a vacuum.
However, the EU is finding it difficult to be taken seriously as a player in the Middle East. In Syria, the USA and the UK were quicker to make contact with the new rulers. And Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is already in the process of creating facts on the ground. We will discuss what steps are possible should Syria develop in the right direction, said Kallas.
Individual foreign ministers called for the withdrawal of Russian bases in Syria to be one of the conditions for normalization. They wanted a country that was stable and peaceful and had a government that was as inclusive as possible, said the EU foreign policy chief. In a non-paper, Cyprus, Austria and Greece called for the EU to appoint a special envoy, quickly reopen the embassy in Damascus and show a presence.
However, the EU is also finding it difficult to exert its influence in Georgia. In the run-up to her first Foreign Affairs Council, Kaja Kallas proposed sanctions against representatives of the pro-Russian leadership in Tbilisi, who are responsible for the violence against the opposition protests. However, the foreign ministers of Hungary and Slovakia are blocking this.
Kallas countered she could promise that this would not be the last Hungarian veto during her term of office. The EU Commission is considering withdrawing the privilege of visa-free travel from some representatives of the pro-Russian regime in Tbilisi. Holders of diplomatic and official passports are being targeted. This step is possible without the consent of Slovakia and Hungary.
Kaja Kallas found herself in familiar territory when it came to Ukraine. A peacekeeping force requires peace first, and Vladimir Putin is not signaling that he is ready for this at the moment, said the EU foreign policy chief in response to a question from a journalist. Nevertheless, the EU foreign ministers were able to formally adopt the 15th package of sanctions against Russia on Monday. The new measures primarily affect the shadow fleet with which Vladimir Putin is trying to circumvent the oil price cap. However, the EU has still imposed far fewer sanctions on junk tankers than the USA.
In the discussion on Ukraine, Kaja Kallas demonstrated that she does not want to put her personal priorities on the back burner in her new role. She called for not only the windfall profits but also the blocked Russian state bank funds themselves to be used for financial aid for Ukraine. Given the legal risks, she met with widespread reservations, including from Germany.
It was not only in terms of content that the new chief diplomat set personal accents at her first Foreign Affairs Council. She called for discussions to be as focused as possible, which should also lead to decisions. She called on the foreign ministers to speak as freely as possible and to dispense with prepared speeches. Despite the packed agenda, the first Foreign Affairs Council under Kaja Kallas finished earlier than the meetings under her predecessor Josep Borrell.
If you like, Wolfgang Gammel is the practitioner among the AI nerds at Helsing. Someone who not only flies high but also likes to keep his feet on the ground. And perhaps that is why he is exactly the right person for the Munich-based software company’s high-flying plans. Helsing has just unveiled his new AI-supported combat drone, with mass production set to begin next year. 4000 of the kamikaze drones are going to Ukraine, an “important milestone on Helsing’s mission to strengthen the security of democracies worldwide.”
The new Managing Director, who has been in office since November, must of course approve of this and says in his comfortable Bavarian: “You must have ambitions.” But Gammel’s ambitions are rather modest. The 51-year-old explains his move from a global defense contractor to a booming start-up as “wanting to make a difference.” After holding various management positions at Airbus, he has a down-to-earth attitude: “Twenty years of experience with partners and politicians.”
Like so many in the booming tech defense cluster around Munich, Gammel was also in the German Bundeswehr. Born in Regensburg, he joined the air force as a regular soldier in 1993, eventually becoming head of engine maintenance at the 61st Air Transport Wing at Landsberg Air Base. The squadron is now history. But Gammel remains loyal to the Bundeswehr as a reserve officer. It was only in the summer that he completed his last military exercise at the Bavarian State Command. “I want to know what makes the Bundeswehr tick.”
After studying production engineering at the University of Bremen, Gammel will return to Bavaria. Even as a soldier, he was fascinated by large aircraft. First the Transall C-160, at Airbus Defense and Space, then the Eurofighter, whose overall production management he took over in 2009. Despite his down-to-earth attitude, the young manager was drawn abroad for a few years. “Broadening horizons,” he calls it matter-of-factly.
His stay at the National Defense University in Washington, where he studied alongside American and international soldiers as an industry representative, was crucial. While many people in Germany were still struggling with the Bundeswehr’s deployment in Afghanistan in 2012, he had heard completely different words from Americans: “You can do more, why don’t you dare to do more?”
Looking outwards, but not losing his grip on the ground – a fitting motto for Gammel’s future career. After his return from the USA and a year at the Airbus Group in France, the Eurofighter became his main focus. As Head of Operations at Eurofighter GmbH, he got to know Helsing. Together with others, the young company is to make fifteen Bundeswehr fighter aircraft fit for “electronic warfare” by 2028.
Now Gammel is part of the Helsing team himself. Helsing is cooperating with the Swedish defense company Saab, which has already invested 75 million in Helsing, on the upgrade for “electronic warfare.” Saab also knows Gammel, as the Swedes have been supplying the radar equipment for the Tornado since the end of the 1990s.
But it is not just the phone numbers and two decades of experience that make Gammel interesting for his new employer. Perhaps it is also the calm tone of the man from the Upper Palatinate, which accompanies the meteoric rise of the three-year-old software company somewhat soberly. And so it is only logical that it was not founder Gundbert Scherf, as usual, who was sent to the Defense and Security Forum of the German Aerospace Industries Association this week, but – Wolfgang Gammel. Nana Brink
