He is the best-known economist in Germany. However, at his institute, the DIW, there is strife and chaos. How could it come to this?
On Monday it is the gas prices that concern Marcel Fratzscher. They have fallen so sharply that one has to ask whether the country really needs all the new terminals for liquid gas that are currently being built on the dykes on the North and Baltic Seas – it is a short message on the career network Linkedin to its 90,000 followers. Fratzscher is a “top voice” here.
On Tuesday he was concerned with the lack of investment: defense, infrastructure, schools – everything needed more money, writes Fratzscher. Again on Linkedin, and this time also on the short message service X, formerly Twitter. Here too, Fratzscher has many followers, a good 72,000. On Wednesday, new topic, the anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine: Fratzscher estimates the economic costs for Germany at 200 billion euros, very roughly – he gave an interview about this in the “Rheinische Post”. And because not everyone may have noticed: parallel message on Linkedin and And on Friday his weekly column at “Zeit Online”: the blessing of the welfare state, a great defense against the dictates of austerity.
A week from Marcel Fratzscher, at least in the media: Linked-in almost every day; every day Germany’s best-known economist, President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), broadcasts on all channels; he is the man who explains the economy to the Germans. With interviews, comments, columns, guest contributions – Fratzscher is always and everywhere, on every topic. Always calm and friendly, objective, clear and to the point. An influencer in business matters with a university professorship and research institute. It doesn’t get any better.
Fratzscher is a phenomenon, even in two respects: his expertise is in demand, he not only controls the DIW in Berlin, the largest economic research institute in the country, but he is also very close to the powerful through his office and headquarters. He heads commissions, advisory boards and advises ministers.
And at the same time, the now 53-year-old remains a mystery even after eleven years in the Berlin business and media circus: the more he broadcasts, the more criticism, contradiction and frustration arise against him. Not just among the general public, in the comment lists on “The so-called economist,” an important member of the traffic light coalition calls him mockingly, an “ass-kisser” a renowned colleague calls him – Fratzscher is ruining the reputation of economics by giving favourable advice, he claims. Of all people, Fratzscher annoys his most important clientele more than any other economist in Germany.
Source: Stern
