“When have I ever been this angry?” Torsten Bahl takes a break.
He thinks about it for a while - then he answers: "Never." That's how they are, the medium-sized companies in Germany.
They talk rationally about their emotions.
Outwardly, many remain cool, but that can't hide how explosive the mood actually is.
Sebastian Balzter
Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
Follow I follow
Patrick Bernau
Responsible editor for economy and "value" of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
Follow I follow
Marcus Theurer
Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
Follow I follow
Bahl is the boss of Fripa, a medium-sized manufacturer of sanitary paper on the Main in Lower Franconia, and he suffers from Germany's high energy prices.
"If it was just trouble, we could handle it," he says.
But Fripa has been in a state of emergency since the beginning of the pandemic: At first everyone wanted toilet paper, the employees worked extra shifts.
Then everyone had had enough and the employees went on short-time work.
And just now, when everything could go back to normal, the gas crisis is coming.
"Years ago, we followed the policy recommendation and opted for a very environmentally friendly gas turbine," says Bahl.
It generates electricity for operation and heat for paper production - but now it is precisely this turbine that Bahl is particularly worried about.
He's more angry than ever, says Bahl,
Bahl and all the other medium-sized companies see what's going on in German companies.
The paper manufacturer Hakle has already filed for bankruptcy, as has the shoe retailer Görtz.
In a survey by the industry association BDI, every third company said that the prices for energy and raw materials were an existential challenge.
The first threaten with demonstrations
In an effort to avoid a hot autumn, almost everyone in Germany, from students to pensioners, has now received a relief package: housing allowance, electricity price brake, energy money.
The entrepreneurs miss their delivery.
And then Robert Habeck sits down on Sandra Maischberger's talk show and says that the problems don't have to lead to a wave of bankruptcies, that companies could stop working without filing for bankruptcy.
To put it mildly, this did not reassure the entrepreneurs.
Habeck is not wrong on this point.
But the list of companies that stop production without going bankrupt doesn't make the situation any better.
The steel company Arcelor Mittal stops two production plants and sends its people on short-time work.
And then there is the diesel additive Adblue, which comes from ammonia plants – but is also no longer produced, at least at the Piesteritz nitrogen works.
As a result, the anger grew.
In the Frankfurt area, a butcher taped his shop window black.
"Without support, the light goes out for us," it says.
If the entrepreneurs have time to think about their anger again, then something very unusual threatens Germany: that managers and entrepreneurs will ensure a hot autumn.
The first are already threatening demonstrations.
"We are currently steering through the biggest crisis in Germany since the Second World War," says entrepreneur Markus Dürkes.
"When I see how ideology-driven Mr. Habeck is still acting in this situation, it just stuns me." Dürkes is the managing partner of Schonlau-Werke, a family-run iron foundry in Geseke near Paderborn.