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But loyal to the FDP:
Ottobock's main shareholder
Hans Georg Näder
had actually promised a return to the CDU
Photo: Swen Pförtner / picture alliance / dpa
The FDP is currently on its way. In polls for the federal election, the party comes close to its record result of 2009 (14.6 percent). Party leader
Christian Lindner
is unlikely to become Federal Chancellor, but will definitely decide how the future government will be set up in the foreseeable complicated coalition games. Above all, the money is currently flowing to the Liberals. In the list published by the Bundestag, seven of the ten most recent major donations went to the FDP, the rest to the CDU.
The donations published by the Bundestag are by no means the only donations that the parties received during the election campaign. Only donations of more than 50,000 euros must be reported to the Bundestag President immediately according to the Political Parties Act. On the other hand, the parties do not even have to identify donations of less than 10,000 euros. The same applies to sponsor payments - regardless of the amount. Donations between 10,000 and 50,000 euros only appear in the accounts of the parties with a time delay. The lobby control organization criticizes the fact that donors can split their assignments and thus remain under the radar. Anyone who still appears in the list of major donors sends a signal.
The latest example: The FDP received 100,000 euros each from the discount chains Tedi and Woolworth, behind which
Stefan Heinig
(59) is the main shareholder. Both declared their donations verbatim to the "Tagesspiegel": The FDP, which repeatedly stood up against lockdowns in the Corona crisis, is hoping for an "important contribution to the government". Above all, this formulation attracted attention: "We are particularly impressed that the FDP would like to relieve people who have a low income and that it represents the interests of people with marginal employment like no other party." The argumentation should appeal to customers as well as employees of the discounters.
In fact, the election program provides for substantial relief.
According to an analysis by the Center for European Economic Research, the FDP ranks behind the Left, the Greens and the SPD when it comes to tax discounts for low-wage earners.
But they are one of the best when it comes to the promised relief for the richest - people like Stefan Heinig, who, with an estimated 600 million euros in assets, was number 282 in the latest manager-magazin list of the richest Germans.
From there, several names can now be found on the list of party donors.
Better yellow than black
Particularly noteworthy are the 250,000 euros that
Hans Georg Näder
(59) also donated to the FDP in August. The often headstrong billionaire, whose protest company Ottobock was currently preparing an IPO, had told the Handelsblatt in November that he would turn his back on the FDP ("disappointed, like many entrepreneurs") and switch back to the CDU. He had
promised
Health Minister
Jens Spahn
"and will keep my promise". But he already provided an explanation for the renewed change of heart: it had to be Spahn, Armin Laschet, who was drawn instead, was "definitely not a suitable candidate for Chancellor".
Before that,
André Kolbinger also made a
six-figure donation to the Liberals.
The founder and major shareholder of the "Wallstreet Online" stock exchange portal is one of the richest East Germans, behind the Intershop veteran
Stephan Schambach
(51), who gave the FDP 200,000 euros in May.
United Internet founder
Ralph Dommermuth
(57), with 3.5 billion euros in assets in 58th place in the mm ranking, donated black and yellow in August: 100,000 euros each to both the FDP and the CDU.
Similarly, but with a higher CDU share, the financial sales company DVAG,
Andreas and Reinfried Pohl jr.
belongs to the heirs of the longstanding CDU major donor Reinfried Pohl.
CDU permanent donor with deep pockets
Just as traditionally on the side of the conservatives is tunneling contractor
Martin Herrenknecht
(79), who gave his party 75,000 euros twice, even if he repeatedly verbally wipes it off - such as the "Sozialfutzi" Peter Weiß, who previously represented Herrenknecht's constituency of Lahr-Emmendingen . The CDU received 300,000 euros from the
Droege
family in Düsseldorf
, who most recently attracted attention due to their efforts in the production of corona vaccines.
In third place on the mm rich list are two regular donors from the CDU:
Stefan Quandt
(55) and
Susanne Klatten
(59).
According to the official list of the Bundestag, the two BMW heirs transferred 50,001 euros each to the party.
This means that they exceeded the reportable limit by just one euro.
The siblings donated the same amount to the Christian Democrats last year.
Until 2017, the FDP also received an annual donation of almost 50,000 euros.
Christoph Kahl
is more than 300 places behind Klatten and Quandt in the ranking. But the entrepreneur who lives in Cologne is also one of the CDU's long-term and major donors. In June he donated half a million euros to the party. The founder and managing director of the real estate fund company Jamestown had also transferred 300,000 euros to the party last year. In its blog, the organization parliament watch criticizes a donation made by Kahl in 2016. This was only reported to the President of the Bundestag two months after receipt. That was because Kahl cut his donations. "At a time interval of eleven days, the CDU federal and the North Rhine-Westphalian state association each received exactly 50,000 euros," it says at parliamentary watch. Both donations were exactly one cent below the limit,from which they would have to be reported immediately and made public.
The short wave of donations from the Greens
Up until June, at the same time as their soaring in the surveys, large donations to the Greens were still popular.
Moritz Schmidt
made the highest single donation in the history of the party: a full million euros.
The Greifswald-based software developer is said to have earned the money by investing in Bitcoin, said a spokeswoman.
And that he sees the profit as undeserved wealth and wants to use it socially - also out of a guilty conscience because of the waste of resources through crypto money.
That's why he supported his party.
The second highest individual donation in the election campaign was intended to do the exact opposite: namely, to prevent the Greens from participating in government. This is how the entrepreneur
Georg Kofler
argued that he would
donate
750,000 euros to the FDP. As an Italian citizen, Kofler is neither on the mm richest list, nor is he entitled to vote in the upcoming federal elections.
Pharma heir
Antonis Schwarz
donated 500,000 euros to the Greens at the beginning of the year. In addition to the party, Schwarz also supports various start-ups and activists such as the Center for Political Beauty and Extinction Rebellion.
Patrick Schwarz-Schütte
(65)
belongs to the same family, but is politically fundamentally different from Antonis
. The former board member of the family business donated black and yellow, with a focus on the CDU.
Jägermeister heir
Florian Rehm
donated to all
three parties
. He ranks 123rd in the rich ranking. His support for Jamaica consists of 50,000 euros each to the CDU and the Greens and 70,000 euros to the FDP in June.
Bert Flossbach
and
Kurt von Storch
, the founders of the asset management company named after them, flanked their 430,000 euros for the FDP with almost 69,000 euros for the Greens. Flossbach and von Storch jointly occupy 175th place in the mm list.
Apart from the FDP, CDU / CSU and the Greens, only the South Schleswig voters' association with regular subsidies from the Danish Ministry of Culture and the "party" with a one-time large donation, which is supposed to be corona masks for the needy, appear on the list.
Neither the AfD, for which there are plenty of reports of super-rich but undercover supporters, nor the left or the SPD appear.
If SPD candidate
Olaf Scholz
should actually make it to the Chancellery, it would be proof of the thesis: Money doesn't score goals.
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