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Wolfgang Grupp: "Friends with Mr. Putin for 20 years and now suddenly a mortal enemy - that doesn't exist"

2022-09-26T03:00:16.404Z


Wolfgang Grupp: "Friends with Mr. Putin for 20 years and now suddenly a mortal enemy - that doesn't exist" Created: 09/26/2022, 04:47 By: Sina Alonso Garcia Trigema boss Wolfgang Grupp is currently struggling with unprecedented problems. In an exclusive interview, he reveals how he would solve the Ukraine war - and why the statement that he voted green annoys him. Burladingen - He is one of th


Wolfgang Grupp: "Friends with Mr. Putin for 20 years and now suddenly a mortal enemy - that doesn't exist"

Created: 09/26/2022, 04:47

By: Sina Alonso Garcia

Trigema boss Wolfgang Grupp is currently struggling with unprecedented problems.

In an exclusive interview, he reveals how he would solve the Ukraine war - and why the statement that he voted green annoys him.

Burladingen - He is one of the best-known entrepreneurs in Germany and emphatically represents his values ​​in public: Even at the age of 80, Trigema boss Wolfgang Grupp does not think about retiring and still holds the reins in the traditional Swabian company.

In an exclusive interview with

BW24

from

IPPEN.MEDIA

, he talks about the effects of the Ukraine war on the economy, the developments at Trigema and the shortage of skilled workers.

Mr Grupp, how are you?

I am doing well so far.

I'm not complaining and I don't have any serious problems either - except, of course, for the ones that are thrown at me and that I can't solve myself.

Your gas costs have increased tenfold in the past two years.

That is of course extreme.

How do you imagine the next few years with this starting point?

With this policy, I certainly cannot say what tomorrow will bring.

I don't know what other decisions will be made.

I just want to say: If we deliver billions of arms to Ukraine in a boastful manner and at the same time say: No problem, the citizens and the economy will have to pay for it.

These are statements that I cannot understand.

I've never seen an argument ended by giving one a bigger knife and the other a bigger axe.

We need to talk to each other.

Arms deliveries are certainly not the solution.

Putin will then also provide more weapons and the war cannot be ended in this way.

First the Corona crisis, then the Ukraine war: how have the processes at Trigema changed in the past two years?

We are very quick in our decisions.

In the first year of the pandemic, when shops were closed, we made 2.3 million masks.

In the second year, we replaced the outage with a sharp increase in online sales and production in stock.

I guarantee the jobs and there must be no short-time work either.

Now, however, we have the problem of the basic energy gas.

At some point we will hopefully be able to switch to oil and later to hydrogen.

What energy source are you currently using?

We switched from oil to gas in 1986 and introduced combined heat and power.

After that it was even subsidized by the government.

Today I am being punished for switching the entire operation to gas.

I don't understand how you've been best friends with Mr. Putin for 20 years, make yourself 100 percent dependent and within two months you're a mortal enemy!

That does not exist.

Something must have happened a long time ago!

I contend that the American controls everything in the background so that he alone remains a world power.

One can read that even during the administration of Bush Junior agreements with Putin were not kept.

The only winners in this war are the Americans!

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You read a lot about you in the media.

Do you think the picture does you justice or do you think they are actually completely different? 

What is said about me in the media is usually fine.

In the social networks, I am currently being accused of having myself to blame for the rising gas costs, after all I voted green.

Of course that's not true.

I have never voted green in a general election. 

So how did the rumor come about?

Twelve years ago, when Baden-Württemberg got a green-red government for the first time, I said: "It's a shame for us as an entrepreneurial state that we are the first with a green-red government." New station construction - also many entrepreneurial families - green voted.

After five years, when Winfried Kretschmann was one of the most popular Prime Ministers, I said, of course, I can't shake his hand and say wonderful - and at the same time try to vote him out.

And then I said in the state elections that I would vote for Mr. Kretschmann - and of course indirectly voted green.

And that's what I'm being accused of today: I would have voted for the Greens.

Although I have never voted green in federal elections!

How do you react to such letters? 

Everyone gets a very polite and factual answer from me, even if most of the time they wrote to me in a very impolite manner.

Would you speak out in favor of Kretschmann again today, like you did back then?

I will certainly not vote green in the next state election, because Mr Kretschmann will certainly no longer stand.

Personally, I don't know what to choose yet.

But what the government is doing at the moment, with the prolongation of the war and the billions in arms deliveries, I certainly don't agree with that.

We shouldn't have allowed this war to start at all, but should have prevented it through diplomacy and talks.

We can't extend it forever by supplying weapons.

I firmly believe that there will be no winners in this war, only losers.

Who do you generally talk to about political issues?

For example, are there other entrepreneurs with whom you are connected?

No!

What I'm saying now: that the war should have been solved diplomatically long ago - that's how many see it.

That's why I get a lot of support for it.

When people write to you personally: how do they reach you?

You must know, I'm still very stuffy about that.

I do not have an e-mail address, but of course if you write an e-mail to Trigema for my attention, I will receive it and answer it personally.

You've said several times that you think there are too many students on the job market and not enough practical people...

Of course I said that a bit casually.

I always gave an example: I have a good seamstress and she has two daughters.

The older daughter works for us as a seamstress and the other is a bit younger and still goes to school.

I asked the seamstress: how is your young daughter doing?

And then she proudly said: Mr. Grupp, she's just doing her Abitur.

She could also have said: Mr. Grupp, she won't work for you because anyone who graduates from high school can no longer use a sewing machine!

Today we need good, skilled employees who can also achieve something technically and who often earn more.

I studied too.

But once it became clear that I was going to lead the company, I realized that I had to make simple decisions.

And I learned this in elementary school.

When I talk to a student, I often ask myself what did he actually say!

Our technical staff, who wear a blue Anton or wear rubber boots in the dye works, are well paid because they solve our technical problems, like the gas problem now.

What do you think, what could be done to attract even more people to practical training?

The dual course of study is a good way because you continue your education and at the same time learn practical things.

You turned 80 this year.

Others would probably have retired long ago at your age.

Do you ever think about quitting?

Of course, I too will be put to an end.

I am in the pleasant situation that I get the feeling from my family and my employees that they still like to see me.

And as long as you're needed, that's a beautiful state of life.

What should I do at home all day?

My family is happy that we run the company together.

I say, eight days vacation is nice.

But the whole year vacation, that would be a disaster.

Does that mean you enjoy going to the company every day?

I'll say quite frankly: I'm looking forward to the weekend on Friday evening.

Then I'm often in the Allgäu with my wife or my family, where I sometimes go hunting and enjoy nature.

But on Sunday evening I'm looking forward to being able to get active again on Monday morning.

Nowadays, however, that is sometimes very difficult when I hear news again that weapons are to be supplied again and the war is thus being prolonged.

But you have to get through that too.

Problems are there to be solved, not to be lamented.

Was there a lesson in your life that you learned that was particularly important to you?

Where would you say you passed it on to your children? 

The children experience from an early age how their father or mother reacts and what they are like.

Our children are both in the company and will continue to run it.

They know how to act and what responsibilities one has.

That a company can only be run together and not against each other.

And you can see from my person how I did it and copy a lot of things accordingly.

That's the role model you have as a parent.

Of course, if I come home every day and just complain about how much I have to work and what problems I have, and it's terrible and you don't earn any money anymore, then it's natural for the children to say: Dad, that's something you do, we don't want to do.

And since I'm looking positively into the future and saying: We have problems, but I'm showing that I can solve them,

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-09-26

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