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Let's take BASF as an example. Badische Anilin- & Sodafabrik was founded in Mannheim in 1865. Today, with annual sales of €68.9 billion, it is the largest chemical company in the world. BASF operates in 93 countries. This makes it easy for the giant to assess production conditions worldwide and focus on areas that are most profitable for the company and its shareholders. The USA and China in particular are attracting German companies with substantial subsidies. In Ludwigshafen, the chemical company wants to close down key parts of its operations and plants. This is exactly what is happening right now. Existing facilities are to be dismantled and rebuilt elsewhere. There are to be no more new investments in Germany. What should the company do if it is profitable overall but is incurring billions in losses in Germany? „Green but broke“ may be acceptable to governments. For companies, however, this is not an option. BASF is slowly packing up. But the heart of the German chemical industry will not stop beating. The open-heart transplant is sure to be a success. The heart will just beat somewhere else.
BASF is by no means an isolated case. Siemens Energy, Viessmann, Alstom, Vaillant, STIHL – the list of names of those turning their backs on Germany would go beyond the scope of this article. Even BionTech, with its prestigious address at An der Goldgrube 12 in Mainz, which was the big beneficiary of vaccine orders, is waving goodbye.
What is going wrong in this country when 16% of medium-sized and larger companies are considering relocating all or part of their operations? The EU Court of Auditors warned the European Commission against exaggerating its climate targets so as not to jeopardise Europe's industrial independence. Nevertheless, we continue to have such high energy costs, which severely impairs Germany's competitiveness compared to the US or Asia. BASF's quiet departure from Germany is being accepted by the federal government. Green politics have right of way. Some companies do not seem to care where their production facilities are relocated to. The motto is: the main thing is to get away. Away from Germany. Away from excessive bureaucracy and overregulation. Take, for example, the EU's proposed ban on so-called forever chemicals (PFAS), which are used in the coating of pans and jackets. If a company like BASF is no longer allowed to process certain substances in the EU, there will be a place somewhere on the planet where production can be relocated if there is demand for the products on the world market. Similar to CO2, which sweeps across Germany, a relatively small country. Things happen anyway. Here or elsewhere.
Germany – once the land of poets and thinkers – is changing. The country was known for the invention of printing, the automobile and mechanical engineering. Werner von Siemens made significant contributions to electrical engineering and electronics. Johann Philipp Reis, Carl Zeiss, Manfred von Ardenne, Robert Bosch, Rudolf Diesel, Albert Einstein, Otto Hahn, Alexander von Humboldt, Robert Koch, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, Justus von Liebig, Max Planck, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, Konrad Zuse – inventors, tinkerers, scientists who all had one thing in common. They were German. And their achievements changed the world.
Many people want to eat German bread. They drink beer brewed according to the German purity law. If they've had too much to drink, they might take an aspirin. Where does it come from? Germany. Maybe they listen to music on their MP3 player. Where was it invented? Three guesses, dear reader.
When people on the planet are asked in 20 years' time what they associate with Germany, what will they list? The shutdown of the world's safest nuclear power plants, replaced by constant electricity imports from abroad. Massive sprawl of wind turbines across the once beautiful landscape? Gender ideology everywhere? Massive industrial exodus? Some of the highest taxes in the world? Bureaucratic monsters?
History can change. From the lookout on the German freighter, the cry rings out: „Iceberg ahead!“ May the leadership team hear this and turn the helm hard to port. Now.
Further sources:
https://www.nordkurier.de/politik-wirtschaft/jede-sechste-deutsche-firma-wandert-ab-1674356
