Why many entrepreneurs in Germany are turning against the AfD

STefan Traeger stuck his head out very early. It was last fall when he voiced his fears. The head of the listed Jenoptik AG is very concerned about the strengthening of the right-wing extremist fringes. Over the past few months, the AfD had gained considerable popularity in his home country of Thuringia. She occupied the first district office in the summer, managed to pass the 34 percent mark in the polls for the upcoming state election and is continuing to radicalize.

Jenoptik is one of the most successful East German companies. Listed on the stock exchange, one billion euros in sales, 4,500 employees. “We operate globally and are highly innovative,” said Traeger in the fall. The company's optical devices even travel in NASA's rover on Mars. High-tech at its best. “And we are that primarily through our employees.” Jenoptik employees from 29 countries work and live in Thuringia. Openness is crucial. The Jenoptik boss and his team are therefore launching a campaign for openness. If that were lost, a supporting pillar would be broken, and not just for Jenoptik.

No one should be told who to vote for, Traeger said. But everyone has to think about what is needed to be successful in Thuringia. If innovative strength is lost because you no longer have the right employees, sooner or later you will feel this painfully. It is already not easy to get highly qualified specialists to Saxony and Thuringia. “We simply cannot allow things to become any more difficult.”

Traeger wasn't completely alone. While many managers and entrepreneurs held back from making clear statements on the subject of the AfD and the shift to the right in the fall, Rainer Kirchdörfer, board member of the influential Family Business Foundation, explained on the social platform Linkedin: The high level of support for the AfD is “a political catastrophe”. BDI President Siegfried Russwurm said in December that the AfD was “bad for this country.”

At least since the Correctiv network reported in January about a meeting of AfD politicians, right-wing extremists and entrepreneurs in November, at which plans to “remigrate” migrants from Germany were also said to have been discussed, there has been more protest from society. For weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have been taking to the streets in German cities and demonstrating for a cosmopolitan country. Associations and companies are speaking out. Christian Sewing, the powerful head of Deutsche Bank and currently at the head of the banking association, warned this week in Berlin about the dangers posed by the AfD to Germany as a business location.

Germany's broad center is standing up loudly

This is rather unusual in recent history. One concern has always been great in the executive suites: that politically charged debates will divide the workforce in offices and factory floors. Managers who otherwise like to comment on anything and everything often become tight-lipped when it comes to such content. Difficulties in dealing with right-wing groups in the works councils have been reported for years in many automobile companies. Former Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche said in 2018 that they were watching this development with concern. As a rule, management relies on such developments and phenomena to resolve themselves at some point. That's why people often played for time.