Documentary about the super-rich: almost ascetic

No jealousy. Envy is really bad in this debate. Actually, you should not even lead the debate.

And if it must be necessarily, then factually and fair. Fairer, at any rate, than the fact that in Germany alone, one percent of the population sits on a quarter of the total assets - while about half of all people have nothing that could be called a fortune. And while the poor are getting poorer, the really rich alone in the past year could enjoy a growth of 20 percent.

And these people, Florian Opitz believes, are not really happy about it. For years, the filmmaker researched to gain access to and thus gain insight into the "discrete world of billionaires". And of course he has barely got one of the very richest for his TV documentary "At the top" in front of the camera.

The film accompanies the editors of the "Manager Magazin" in the creation of its annual ranking of the richest Germans, and there they face the same problem. The former editor-in-chief Steffen Klusmann * complains that there are "not even photos" of some candidates. And a colleague states that the "right, right money" is "always hidden".

With which the story did not die. Here she starts.

For example, in the Frankfurt office of Baron Christian von Bechtolsheim, whose Focam AG still holds the most obscene fortune - and multiples. His clientele fear blackmailers, kidnappers and other rogues. Why expose yourself? Some also felt "unwell" as the heirs of relatives who, for example, made a fortune "in the Third Reich with the help of forced laborers".

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Generally, the local super-rich are considered downright ascetic when it comes to pointing. Once a black Ferrari stops in front of the Schlosshotel Kronberg in "the very top", that's all.

Bechtolsheim drives Audi, but does not count itself among the league of its customers. Instead, the Baron proudly refers to a 800-year-old family history, which also includes the Fugger, during the tour of his Thuringian hunting lodge. Unlike in Russia, China or the US, "old money" prevails in Germany. And heritage is always threatened to preserve it an art. Wars would like to intervene, inheritance disputes and sometimes just "dumbing out".

It is Dirk Rossmann who gives the most intimate insight. For example, we see the father explode against his son Raoul while playing tennis and witness wistful dialogues: "I'm a bit worried about you now!", Says the son. Then Dirk: "You are afraid for me? Oh, I would not be afraid of inheritance, I would rather be a bit forward-looking!" It's funny with Rossmann!

With football in your own box

By the way, the question of the networks of the powerful is lit up at the top. Direct influence on the policy would take no one there, it is said. One would rather argue with jobs - and meet with football, albeit in their own lodge. When asked about the price, Rossmann reacts wisely: "Should I really tell you that?" He asks, seriously considering: "No, I prefer not to tell you that."

At least among the few rich people who speak in front of the camera, there is a certain responsibility. Michael Otto (Otto Group), for example, one of the largest founders of the republic, makes important contributions to the functioning of society - among other things with a million donation for the construction of the Elbphilharmonie. Millionaires, understood as business owners, think Otto "great, because those are the ones who create jobs, training places".

That's how it is, despite all the criticism, also editor-in-chief Klusmann - although he salomically admits that we are in Germany "still far from a state of maximum justice". In the background, window cleaners are currently working on the glazed facade of the SPIEGEL building, which also includes the "Manager Magazin". It is, along with liveried waiters, the only workers in this film.

"At the top" resists the temptation to morally deliver its protagonists (women are not among them) to the knife or protégraphography. The trick is not to leave unanswered the important questions in all fairness. It succeeds over gang, subtle, calm and discrete - just as it is the subject of the film itself.

Christian von Bechtolsheim Incidentally, the accumulation of a great deal of capital for some very few people is more relaxed for work reasons. "Nevertheless," one must be careful, "that the gap between rich and poor does not go too far, because we do not want to have conditions like in the US or even in Latin America with us." No, we do not want that. And no debate about envy. Or, worse, justice.

* Editor's disclosure: The editorial staff of the Manager Magazin, which is accompanied in the documentation, belongs to the SPIEGEL Group. Steffen Klusmann is no longer editor-in-chief of the manager magazine, he manages the SPIEGEL.

"At the top - the discrete world of the super-rich" runs on January 22 at 23:30 clock on Arte and February 11 at 22:45 clock on the ARD . The film is available in the Arte-Mediathek until April 21st.