Former Trigema boss Wolfgang Grupp spoke plainly at “Hard but Fair” – once again. This time it was against a particular breed of super-rich. There was a lot of applause for that.
“Can we still afford the rich?” Louis Klamroth asked in his ARD talk “Hard but Fair” on Monday evening – and after just a few minutes it became clear that it is far from only the poorer part of society that is asking the question of justice.
Wolfgang Grupp deals against René Benko in “Hard but Fair”.
For Wolfgang Grupp, who as a businessman ran the textile company Trigema for decades and is worth millions himself, justice has less to do with the contents of the wallet and more to do with the existing or non-existent decency of rich people. The entrepreneur literally talked himself into a rage – and on the show spoke out heavily against certain representatives of the super-rich:
- He didn’t give a damn about real estate entrepreneur and former Karstadt boss René Benko. He received “500 million in state aid” and remained a millionaire even after the collapse of his empire. “If it’s fair for us, then we don’t have to talk about the rich, then we have to talk about justice. We finally have to say that!” raged Grupp.
- The 82-year-old had similar reports from the textile industry. Competitor Peek & Cloppenburg has filed for bankruptcy in this country and sent employees into unemployment, while company boss Patrick Cloppenburg “can go to Switzerland and take everything with him.” “We’re not talking about rich or not rich here – we have to talk about decency and justice!” Grupp shouted into the television studio to applause.
- Things hardly looked any different at the fashion company Esprit, said the former Trigema boss. There, “the Chinese quickly renamed a little bit of everything and moved it over to China – and then he sent the rest of it into bankruptcy in Germany.”
- With his previous customers, for example the mail order companies Neckermann or Schöpflin, things were hardly different, said Grupp. And particularly highlighted the former managers of Quelle-Versand: “They went bankrupt, sent thousands of people into unemployment – and they remain millionaires.”
Wealth per se is not a problem, according to Grupp’s view of things on the show: There are wealthy company owners like Reinhold Würth or Martin Herrenknecht before whom he bows down. “These are entrepreneurs who maintain thousands of jobs where employees are proud to work.”
One problem is that many managers are no longer personally liable for business failures. As a personally liable entrepreneur, he pays the same taxes as someone who is not personally liable, explained the former textile manufacturer and was dissatisfied with this: “We finally need responsibility and liability back!”
Those rich people who achieve performance should be respected. “And we have to hold those who just rip off and then end up insolvent accountable. That has to finally come back!”
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
