Germany wants to get away from Russian

natural gas supplies

.

But how did the fatal dependence on Moscow come about in the first place?

Marcus Theurer from our business editorial team has chronicled the events.

It quickly becomes clear that if you are looking for answers, you have to go back more than half a century, deep into German post-war history.

It is a

saga of secret diplomacy, hopes, wars, threats

- and last but not least, multi-billion dollar transactions of German industrial groups and banks.

Generations of German chancellors and business leaders have contributed to it.

Criticism of people who are currently active and who have recently left political life falls far short of the mark.

I myself had to remember a company that I was allowed to look after as a business correspondent in Düsseldorf at the turn of the millennium - before success in the mobile phone business changed everything: does the keyword "natural gas tube contract" still mean anything to you?

Then you remember the name Mannesmann as much as I do - and not only think of the digital mobile network "D2", which has long belonged to Vodafone.

Carsten Knop

Editor.

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Lending rates rise.

This calls the Bausparkassen into action, which advise the conclusion of high Bauspar contracts so that they no longer have to pay after the fixed interest rate has expired.

But is it really worth it?

Our finance expert Volker Looman investigated this question.

For example, the sellers of the state building societies have been praising their Mein-Zuhause tariff for months as a historic opportunity to secure annual loan interest of 1.25 percent in the long term.

That sounds tempting, because loans with a ten-year fixed interest rate cost around 2.1 percent a year.

Something exciting emerges, because Looman writes, among other things: “It will surprise you, dear reader, that I advise you to conclude a home savings contract, because in recent years I have generally advised against combining mortgages and home savings contracts.

But now the tide has turned.

The home savings contract pays off despite the fees because home loans have become so expensive.

With a current interest rate of 2.4 percent, even changing installments and special repayments are of no use. In times like these, a home savings contract with low interest rates is the best instrument for limiting the risk of interest rate changes.”

Changing the subject to culture: It was three years in the life of

Alma and Gustav Mahler

that had it all: 1908, 1909, 1910. They left Vienna, Gustav triumphed in New York, Alma celebrated, together they spent the summer vacation in South Tyrol .

He struggles with illness and symphonies, she cheats on him with young Walter Gropius.

He discovers a fiery love letter from his rival.

There are anecdotes full of happiness at the summit and the hustle and bustle of the metropolis, grave silence and the ringing of cowbells.

Lenz Koppelstätter looked around at the places where everything happened.

For example in Döbling in the Vienna Woods, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, or in the Loos American Bar in Vienna.

Travel with us, after all there are a few Easter holidays coming up.

Happy Easter to you, we are delighted that you are interested in F+, your complete access to FAZ.NET.

Greetings from Frankfurt,

Yours, Carsten Knop

Publisher


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung