According to Hessian entrepreneur Friedhelm Loh, the German economy is in a state of acute emergency. “The economic situation is dramatic” said the owner of the company group bearing his name to the business magazine Capital.
“We have gone from being one of the leading countries to a last light. If you don’t wake up, I don’t know when you will wake up” he said.
Even at Rittal, the largest company in the Friedhelm Loh Group, the current crisis is being felt. “Just like the entire electrical industry, we are currently experiencing a decline of over 10 percent” said Loh. “We’re just barely avoiding short-time work, and that already says a lot.”
The 78-year-old Loh has led the Friedhelm Loh Group, which today generates around three billion euros in revenue and employs over 12,000 people, since 1974. The “Manager Magazin” estimates Loh’s net worth at around 4.7 billion euros, placing him at number 45 on the list of the richest Germans. Between 2006 and 2014, Loh was president of the industry association ZVEI and vice president of the BDI.
According to Loh, the government is also to blame for the poor economic situation. “What I notice is that the political framework conditions are constantly changing, there is an accumulation of all sorts of rules, and an overload of bureaucracy. There are always new interventions in the economy: You can no longer calculate them. What happens in the long run will kill the middle class” the entrepreneur said.
The site conditions are much more difficult today, said Loh. One is in a situation where one asks, “Do I produce in Germany or somewhere else? Do I go? Do I stay?