Who doesn't know this: You're sitting on a train or plane and involuntarily witness the dialogue of the people sitting next to you.
Normally that means: open your ears and check them off.
But it has now become too much for Joe Kaeser.
He vented his anger about the acoustic smog on Thursday evening on the short message service Twitter.
On the plane to Munich, the former CEO of the industrial group Siemens listened to a conversation between members of the Bundestag, who were clearly looking forward to the weekend – “and also exchanged internals across the aisle.
Some with CSU ribbons.
One from the FDP who used to write flat columns in tabloid magazines," Kaeser wrote.
Sven Astheimer
Responsible editor for corporate reporting.
Follow I follow
The executive, who still chairs the boards of Siemens Energy and Daimler Truck Holding, continued, "Just doing the math on how many of these I'm funding with my income tax. . . Don't know if this money couldn't be better spent. For higher salaries of nursing staff, police officers. . . and many people who REALLY are there for the citizens on a daily basis.”
Thomas Sattelberger, former HR manager of several DAX companies and FDP politician, who lives just outside Munich, felt directly addressed. “Others may judge what was flatter, your bow to Trump and Putin or my essays in ManagerMagazine. But I refuse to make the dishonorable claim that I exchanged internals. The CSU members may have done that, I sat in my seat in silence,” came the prompt return. The duel of the alpha males with a double wrong plural provoked thousands of reactions on the internet.
Kaeser was often criticized for his relationships with autocratic systems. In 2018, after the murder of dissident Jamal Khashoggi, he only canceled his participation in a conference in Saudi Arabia under great political pressure at the last moment – via the LinkedIn social network.
He also liked to provoke and made no secret of his aversion to the AfD.
Actually, according to those around him, he has become milder since he was no longer at the forefront of Siemens.
Calm had descended on Josef Kaeser.
Until the flight to Munich came.