It took a war to remind Germans how value chains work.

That ethylene and propylene first have to be made from gas and oil in plants in the chemical industry – these basic chemicals are then processed into plastics, paints, textile fibers, adhesives, insulation material, detergents, cosmetics, even medicines.

Even the personnel involved only noticed all this again after stopping gas imports was considered the last resort to stop the Russian war machine.

Hopes for change through trade have been dashed in Ukraine.

However, the naivety persists.

Above all, the naivety that captivated the supposed only beneficiaries of gas imports, the chemical industry.

With greed and billions in profits, BASF has driven the country into dependence on Russia, announced public TV these days.

Lord, what a caricature.

The chemical industry is a harbinger.

Because procurement there has always been international, not just the sales markets.

Oil, gas, phosphate, nickel, cobalt, almost everything that is needed for the production of chemicals does not exist in Germany.

And yet the largest chemical industry in Europe has developed here.

Today nobody knows how it can function without raw materials from kleptocracies.

For the hypocrisy of the gas debate, take a look at Finland, where BASF is currently building a plant for battery chemicals with the Russian raw materials giant Norilsk Nickel.

On behalf of and with the support of politicians to make the European car industry independent of battery imports.

Because even that is currently hardly possible without the Russians, the EU has so far quietly exempted Putin confidant and Norilsk major shareholder Vladimir Potanin from sanctions.

After all, without its palladium, the planned semiconductor production in Europe would be nothing.

The BASF shareholders' meeting has always been a magnifying glass to examine the state of the world.

A South African bishop has been appearing there for several years to demand compensation for the victims of a South African platinum mine.

The South African police shot dead 34 miners during a workers' uprising demanding higher wages and against terrible working conditions.

BASF is the biggest customer, many would say profiteer.

Without platinum, however, there are no catalytic converters, not for VW, not for BMW, not for Daimler.

South Africa has the largest platinum reserves in the world, followed by – Russia.

The belief in change through rapprochement was common sense

BASF boss Martin Brudermüller has taken the lead in warning of the impending gas stop.

His interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper resonates to this day, his apocalyptic image of the destruction of the national economy and his contempt for other positions are undoubtedly strong stuff.

In return, it is cheap to accuse him and the industry of one's own failures.

Gas from Russia is cheap and close.

The treaties were economically sound and accompanied by political goodwill.

This does not only apply to BASF.

The belief in change through rapprochement has never been broken since Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik.

Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was considered common sense to offer the Russians economic prospects.

Today we know: it was of no use.

But how would the shareholders have reacted if the board of directors had announced years ago that they would build liquid gas terminals with reference to diversification?

To do without catalytic converters?

In the case of BASF, “the shareholders” are not hedge funds, but the funds of the savings banks and Volksbanks, the large insurers, the average German investor.

And BASF is still the largest dividend payer in the country.

LPG is economically and environmentally insane.

Nevertheless, the horrors of Butscha no longer allow "business as usual".

But it should be clear to everyone that this turning point, the end of globalization, is also shaking Germany's business model.

Sooner or later it will work without Russian gas, but not without the billion dollar market in China.

The chemical industry was no more naïve than the rest, and no more brazen.

It is only at the beginning of the value chain.

Customers, shareholders, employees, everyone has benefited.

And now it will happen to everyone.