The initiative, under the working title "Made for Germany," is intended to show that Germany is not as bad a place to do business as it is often made out to be, according to several people familiar with the plans who spoke to the Reuters news agency. The participants also want to use the campaign to back Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) in his push for economic reform. The campaign will be kicked off by the CEOs of Siemens and Deutsche Bank, Roland Busch and Christian Sewing, who are expected to be the driving forces behind it. They are scheduled to launch the campaign on July 21 at the Chancellery with Merz and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD).
Behind "Made for Germany" are the communications agency FGS Global and the publishing house Axel Springer. According to insiders, more than 30 companies and half a dozen financial investors have now joined the initiative. These include RWE, SAP, Rheinmetall, and Volkswagen, as well as KKR and Advent. "More are joining every day," said one of the people.
They underscored their commitment with investment plans of around €300 billion in Germany over the next three years, as well as "lighthouse projects" designed to showcase the country's future viability. However, this does not include additional spending, said one of the insiders. Rather, the aim is to make clear how much is being invested in research, development, production, and personnel in Germany.
Many German companies had been disappointed by the previous coalition government under Olaf Scholz (SPD) and its economic policy course. They are pinning their hopes for a change of course on Merz, the infrastructure program of the black-red government, and the €46 billion in tax breaks approved in June.
The parties involved did not initially wish to comment on the matter.
(Report by Sarah Marsh, Maria Martinez, Christoph Steitz, and Alexander Hübner. Edited by Philipp Krach. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)
