More companies in the DAX: four out of forty

From Monday on, the German share index will have 40 members, ten more than before.

And what will change for the Rhine-Main area?

Nothing.

None of the ten corporations that move up in Germany's most important stock market barometer comes from this metropolitan area.

Thanks to the flavor manufacturer Symrise, Holzminden can now boast of hosting a Dax company, and thanks to Siemens Healthineers, Erlangen appears on the Dax card.

Berlin is now represented four times after the rise of HelloFresh and Zalando.

Four times.

Like Rhein-Main.

There used to be a division of labor: politics is made in Berlin, but Frankfurt is the economic heart of the republic.

What is left of it?

The capital has caught up, the Munich area has rushed away, it is on the list seven times, Bavaria as much as eleven times.

In all of Hesse there are only four Dax addresses because Kassel, Gießen and Wetzlar are blank.

Sobering record

Deutsche Bank and Deutsche Börse from Frankfurt, Fresenius from Bad Homburg and Merck from Darmstadt - that is the contribution of the Rhine-Main region. The Fresenius subsidiary Fresenius Medical Care is generally also popular with Bad Homburg, but its legal seat is in Hof an der Saale in Upper Franconia. Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Börse, Fresenius and Merck: There are three worthy corporations and one that wants to become one again, for sure. But even if you kindly describe them all as innovative - the young, up-and-coming companies have their home elsewhere. BioNTech from Mainz cannot hide that. In this dimension, this is an isolated case in the region.

It is not difficult to find good reasons for the success of the other metropolitan areas in any case. Nevertheless, the balance sheet for Rhein-Main is sobering. Economic politicians can sit back and say: What does that mean, Dax or not Dax? But you could also consider how this region can become more attractive for young companies so that one or the other can one day become a Dax group. Because that's the beauty of business: all successes are only temporary successes. The others too.