BACK STRAIGHT, HEAD UP

A Plea for More Civic Engagement

There are phases in a country’s life when you ask yourself: How did things ever get this far?

Germany – once an industrial powerhouse, a haven of civic reason, a world export champion, and an anchor of stability – seems to have been on the wrong path for several years. Not at a rapid pace, but step by step toward economic decline, accompanied by a society that accepts contradictions, moderates them away, or simply silently tolerates them.

This hunched attitude of the middle class plays a significant role in this. And believe me: I expressly make no exceptions for us entrepreneurs, the real estate industry, or myself. We have settled into the role of silent, sometimes head-shaking observers for too long. Don’t offend, the main thing is that business is booming. Except – for many, it’s no longer booming.

The German automotive industry impressively demonstrates what happens when you pander to the politically powerful and the supposed zeitgeist for years. Once a global pioneer, it has succumbed to the “e-mobility at any price” policy – ​​with CO₂ targets and business models in step with ideological dogmas.

The result? Billions in losses, job losses, a lag behind international competitors – and growing helplessness.

But the question should have been asked much earlier: Is this really the right path? Is it economically viable? Technologically sound? Economically prudent? Instead, with the applause of the media, they collected government subsidies and believed they could buy a secure future through adaptation. Today we see the price for this.

Anyone who once believed that all this would not affect the real estate industry, or would only do so briefly, was wrong. Construction costs have exploded, approval procedures continue to paralyze, energy requirements hover between dream and illusion, and the political will to build housing often exists only on paper. Too many construction cranes are still idle, our country’s citizens can’t find housing, let alone affordable housing, and the homeownership rate—once also a retirement plan for everyone—is falling to historic lows.

Why do we say so little about this? Why don’t we speak openly about the fact that migration cannot function without a housing concept? That German energy policy is a contradictory business based on fear—with domestic lignite, French nuclear power, and fracked US gas? That Germany cannot be a role model to the world if it ruins itself economically. And that the planned Berlin Expropriation Act is putting an axe to the property guarantee in our constitution.

The answer is uncomfortable: Because too many of us are ducking away and accepting it all. Conflict-avoidant, tolerant, and stooping, we watch as we are gradually robbed.

Yet, given the problems facing the entire country today, the speechlessness should be over by now. Let’s finally trust our common sense and our experience again instead of the media’s loudspeakers of so-called experts. This is how we can reclaim the public space in which debates take place – not with a raised finger, but with the clear voice of reason. Not with slogans, but with arguments, experience, and economic competence.

And when we speak of a civic attitude, we are expressly not referring to that overused version that has been dominated by the left-green wing for years and has too often come across as morally preachy. What we mean is a civic attitude that unites rather than divides, that is liberal, cosmopolitan, and critical at the same time – and that has the courage to clearly name grievances.

And when we speak of public space, we mean the conditions on our doorstep, where demonstrations call for the destruction of Israel. Where Israeli institutions must be protected like fortresses, where Jewish citizens no longer order their Ubers using their Hebrew names, where they don’t dare go out on the street, onto the subway, or into their university for fear of being insulted, threatened, or beaten. Those who continue to look away and remain silent are repeating the mistakes of the past, when the middle class remained silent until it was too late. Today, Germany once again needs the attitude and commitment of its emancipated and responsible citizens, its “citoyen.” Are we ready for this?

We believe in this country, in its economic strength, in its innovative power, and in its people. And that is precisely why we are naming what isn’t going well. Because only those who look can change things. Only those who stand firm can shape things. Thus, in the future, we will not only write about real estate, but also about what influences real estate policy, what affects the economy and shapes our shared future.

We welcome everyone who joins us on this path – critically, openly, and in dialogue. And we bid a friendly but resolute farewell to those few who prefer to look the other way. That, too, is part of freedom.

Perhaps we’ve persuaded ourselves for too long that things wouldn’t be so bad. Perhaps we’ve been the silent observer too often, hoping that problems will solve themselves. And maybe we all have a little back pain now from standing up straight. But you know what? It feels damn good to stand up straight again.

With that in mind: Heads up. Back straight. And forward again.

Ernst-M. Ehrenkönig · CEO & Mangaing Partner