On average, three companies in Germany have to file for bankruptcy every day.

Seen in this way, the bankruptcy of the Höchst Porcelain Manufactory in 1746 is just one of more than 1000 cases per year and nothing special.

It is still logical that the state government is now dealing with your case: Hardly any other company has such a history as the second oldest porcelain manufactory in Germany.

But is age alone worth it for the state to jump to the side of a permanently loss-making company?

This question is not easy to answer.

Basically, the ministers and their Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) have to decide whether they regard the Höchst Porcelain Manufactory as a company like any other or as a monument.

Tradition alone is not enough

There would be understandable reasons for market liberals to decide that porcelain production simply doesn't pay off and that the company's demise is to be accepted.

Tradition alone does not justify keeping a business alive artificially - otherwise countless lamplighters, charcoal burners or cab drivers would continue to be subsidised.

And the reference to the founding year 1746 is misleading: Höchster Manufaktur did not exist for 150 years and was only revived after the Second World War.

Or is the porcelain manufactory not a business at all, but rather a kind of museum in which – as in the Hessenpark in the Taunus – extinct manual skills are kept alive?

Then the manufactory would be part of cultural and historical heritage and be taken over as a state-owned museum, as in Saxony and Lower Saxony.

A third option

For Boris Rhein, the answer will be one of his first important decisions as Prime Minister.

The company needs money by the end of the month.

After all, the Frankfurt Rhine already knows the situation of the Höchst Manufactory from the previous insolvency proceedings in 2018, when he was still in charge of the Hessian culture department.

But perhaps a look at history at least points to a long-term way out: for a good three decades, Höchst Porcelain Manufactory belonged to Hoechst AG and Dresdner Bank.

If at the end of the year there were signs of a deficit again, the instructions went out in the groups to order more Christmas presents for customers and employees in Höchst.

The annual cash injection for the manufactory was not a subsidy, but simply sales.

For such an in-house gift production, the state would not even necessarily be needed.

Some large companies or banks could certainly afford that.