MUSIC IS BETTER
On a beautiful evening in May, I was driving with my family to a concert by my favorite band through the government district in Berlin-Mitte. Large, magnificent buildings for the people’s representatives, planned in a time when Germany was a proud economic powerhouse, when the country, the economy, and its people were thriving.
Erected in a time when achievement meant something, when there was a sense of progress. With buildings that were proud to show off to guests. “Look here,” people would say, “this is where our democracy works.” We paid for all of this. With our work and our tax money. Not always willingly. But mostly with the feeling that it was worth it.
And today? … behind these facades, a different world begins. Shielded. Air-conditioned. Highly organized. Shuttle services right outside. Staff for everything. A machine that grows and grows. With people who dream up things that the people no longer understand. With decisions that often have nothing to do with real life. With a state that takes more and more, regulates more, and distributes far too much to places where its own people aren’t. A state that, despite record debt, accomplishes less and less.
Less growth, less trust, less prospect. Especially for those who support this country: those who work, invest, and take risks. For those who want to build something for themselves, who have a dream, for example, the dream of owning their own home. Something that is becoming increasingly difficult for them. Not because it’s impossible. But because it’s clearly no longer desired. Too expensive. Too complicated. Too many regulations. Too little support. And while people outside persevere, inside, the discussions, regulations, and redistribution continue.
Inside there, I wondered, behind those walls, is that actually in front of the firewall? That wall in people’s minds that blocks our democracy? The one the establishment has entrenched itself in to keep the competition away from the spoils of power? Are those the parties that dismantled Germany’s business model with a misguided energy policy? The ones that pass such a budget, such a health insurance reform? The ones that impoverish the country, let it sink into debt, and, as a matter of course, repeatedly fleece the people? The working people who are fleeing them, straight into the arms of the “sulfur party,” the AfD, which in some states seems unstoppable on its way to an absolute majority?
Just an hour later, I saw cheerful people and looked into happy faces. “Music is better” echoed through the Velodrome arena and felt like the most honest answer to all these questions.
It is said that Germans always go all the way to the end of a dead end. This doesn’t have to happen this time: Stand up straight and don’t give up. This country is still worth it.
Sincerely,
Ernst-M. Ehrenkönig · CEO & Managing Partner