There are very few. To be precise, 0.002 percent. This time, the proportion of the 51 ADAC Südbayern drivers registered was so minimal out of the total of 2.144 million members who met on Saturday for the annual meeting in Munich.
Measured by the number of members, the Southern Bavaria Association is number three out of a total of 18 regional organizations of Germany’s largest association. And it grows year after year. By the end of 2024, the number could rise to over 22 million.
Last year alone, around 380,000 new members were added, bringing the total to 21.81 million. The pace of growth has even accelerated.
Above all, the relatively new premium membership with extensive all-round protection when traveling, including emergency locksmith service, provided the boost. This makes the large association number two in the world after the US automobile club AAA with a massive 60 million members.
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However, only a few of the contributors have any idea of the complex cosmos of the General German Automobile Club with millions of members, billions in sales and assets, and many volunteers alongside professional managers. Apparently they don’t care either. The majority of members probably just want the club to be there to provide them with advice, assistance and help if they have a car breakdown, want to book a trip or take out the cheapest possible insurance.
The special features of the ADAC world become clear in a few details: Theoretically, the millions of members of everyday motorists could flock to the meetings of the regional associations under the umbrella of the central association based in Munich. Even the largest festival halls would then not be enough.
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Half a million in 10 years
But only a few come, as it turns out again and again. The invitations are rather hidden in the ADAC Motorwelt publication, which has no longer been sent to your home since spring 2020, but is instead available at Edeka or Netto. They are also published on the Internet. There is no invitation letter.
The general meetings are therefore not made up of ordinary individual car drivers, but rather voluntary representatives of regional local clubs. In the Southern Bavaria Association there were 148 local clubs that sent their representatives.
This reflects the federal structure of the ADAC with its delegate principle. For every 100,000 members, the 18 regional associations send one delegate to the ADAC general meeting, which takes place in Bremen in May.
Topics include motorcycles, go-karts and rallies
Anyone who believes that issues relating to everyday drivers are widely discussed at general meetings is seriously mistaken. The chairman of ADAC Südbayern, Gerd Ennser, did not mention the word “speed limit” once in his speech on Saturday, according to participants.
Officially a closed event with no press access. The focus was also not on roadside assistance and Yellow Angels – the ADAC headquarters is responsible for this. However, only insiders of the ADAC structures know this. The topic of motorsport, however, took up a lot of space, from go-karts to motorcycles to rallies.
At least in his speech, the ADAC South Bavaria boss addressed the issues of traffic jams, traffic blockages and the fact that the train or local public transport can hardly be relied on anymore. The car is the basis of transport.
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The general meetings, which actually represent the ADAC base, are mostly determined by veteran motorsport enthusiasts, at which the worries and hardships of everyday driving are not the direct focus.
According to the press release, ADAC South Bavaria boss Ennser explained that the ADAC is in a constant state of change without “losing sight of its core competencies such as roadside assistance”. There are new services such as bicycle breakdown assistance, emergency locksmith service, medical aid apps and much more.
In southern Bavaria, around 1,500 bicycle breakdowns were repaired in 2023 – and 283,500 car breakdowns. However, these topics were not discussed more broadly at the general meeting, according to participants.
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There was not a single word from the participants. In the political part of his speech, Ennser criticized when decisions “about future mobility are dictated too much by minorities.”
One of the ADAC’s less transparent topics is its assets. At the Southern Bavaria general meeting, only an income and expenditure statement was presented, but no balance sheet. The umbrella organization ADAC eV reported financial assets of 2.5 billion euros for 2022 alone.
Only a few of the million members know that, in addition to the core ADAC eV, there has been the ADAC business group (ADAC SE), which has been spun off from the association since 2016, with sales of 1.11 billion euros (2022), most of which are achieved with insurance. A so-called three-pillar model (association, business group, foundation) was adopted after a scandal ten years ago with fake votes for an ADAC car award and the confluence of interests.
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This meant the club was able to retain tax advantages. He holds almost 58 percent of the ADAC business group. There is a complex calculation of how the contribution payments and insurance amounts of the millions of members are allocated between the headquarters, the regional clubs and the business group. The tax authorities are still interested in this.
However, the ADAC leadership only discusses explosive details from the ADAC world with the elected delegates from the regional clubs – but everyday drivers avoid these grassroots events.