500.000.000.000
Last Tuesday, the Bundestag passed an amendment to our Basic Law to create a special fund of 500 billion euros. This will be used for the infrastructure of our country, with 100 billion euros allocated to climate protection. In the future, defense and security expenditures above a certain threshold will be exempt from the debt brake. This is a historically unprecedented debt package. Whether it constitutes a breach of promise by the future chancellor or the right decision in light of the rapidly changing global political landscape remains to be seen. However, these massive investments alone will not be enough to lead Germany into a successful future.
Because money alone does not change a society. It can build bridges and roads, finance armament projects, and distribute subsidies—but it cannot create a spirit of renewal. And that is precisely what our country lacks. For years, Germany has appeared increasingly divided, depressed, hesitant, and lacking confidence. We are missing the energy of possibility—the driving force that propels great nations forward.
Thus, the real crisis we are facing is not a financial one. It is a mental crisis. Over decades, a mindset has taken hold in our country that prioritizes security and administration over boldness and innovation. The result is a nation where rules, regulations, and endless rounds of approvals stifle people’s drive to act. Where initiative is not rewarded but instead burdened with additional obstacles. Instead of fostering a new mentality of action, we attempt to address the challenges of our time with ever more regulations and economic planning.
What we truly need is not more but less bureaucracy. We need more freedom for ideas, for entrepreneurship, and a culture of personal responsibility that encourages people to take initiative without waiting for state-driven solutions. Germany’s prosperity has been built on innovation, courage, entrepreneurial responsibility, and hard work. But this foundation has become fragile—the willingness to embrace change has been replaced by fear of risk, and entrepreneurial spirit is suffocated by a jungle of regulations. Where is the drive to rethink things? Where is the passion for shaping the future?
The real problem is probably not that we lack money. It is that we lack enthusiasm for tomorrow. True enthusiasm cannot be decreed—but it can emerge when people feel that they are allowed to create, that their courage is rewarded, that the country is not just administered but actively shaped. This requires essential framework conditions: lowering corporate taxes, reducing bureaucracy and administrative hurdles, introducing super deductions, lowering energy costs, decisively reforming the welfare state, and regaining control over migration.
The new governing coalition has no choice but to succeed. If our country does not want to sink into a debt swamp, its comeback must succeed. Only then—only under these conditions—will 500 billion euros not just be an enormous expenditure but an investment in a new era of progress. The course for this must be set now.
Sincerely
Ernst-M. Ehrenkönig · CEO & Managing Partner
