From the top floor of the Emporio high-rise building, what was the SPD’s successful election slogan in the 2020 general election is to be redeemed in a very concrete way – namely “to have the whole city in view”. From a height of almost 100 meters, the metropolis spreads out in all directions. But on this Monday evening, Henning Fehrmann has little sense for an astonished view of the landmarks, main churches and industrial buildings. As regional chairman of the association “Die Familienunternehmer” he is supposed to ring in the award ceremony for “Family Entrepreneurs of the Year” with a greeting and only needs seconds at the lectern to arrive at his points of frustration: “This town down there is being left behind,” he says.
A few meters away from him is the city’s Senator for Economic Affairs, Melanie Leonhard (SPD). She has to listen to what is going wrong from the point of view of the family business. Excessive bureaucracy, too much control pressure – the obligation to produce sustainability reports binds forces, the supply chain law or the packaging law are mentioned -, plus an energy policy that no longer offers any security for medium-term planning, the shortage of skilled workers that can hardly be compensated for because Germany does not is attractive for the immigration of well-trained people.
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Family Business of the Year
Some of the responsibilities for this lie in Brussels or Berlin, but Fehrmann, himself an entrepreneur, also points to Hamburg directly: “The city is still benefiting from yesterday and is only partially prepared for tomorrow.” It would be useless, theoretical constructs for 2040 or 2050 to design if not even the questions of the near future – for example with a view to the possible uses of artificial intelligence – can be answered. “We have to ask ourselves how Hamburg can remain competitive,” says Fehrmann, adding: “Hamburg has no real vision and no narrative,” there are hardly any networks that want to shape the future instead of just preserving it. This also applies in part to the entrepreneurs themselves.
ArcelorMittal’s Hamburg steel mill
What: Bertold Fabricius
Nevertheless, the bond between the regional economy and the SPD, which has been in power with only a few exceptions, is currently extremely tense, as this evening shows. Leonhard, later in her laudatory speech – the company SUND, which produces plastic bags, foils and packaging in a comparatively environmentally friendly way – won the award – does not go into the allegations any further. She knows that her office, which she has held since December, no longer consists primarily of cutting ribbons and handing over certificates, because the economy functions without politics. But she doesn’t seem to want to throw herself into fights she can’t win anyway. The CDU has recognized this difficult situation, and on Monday the party passed an eleven-point plan to reorganize Hamburg economically. “This Senate, which is at odds over important issues, is now the biggest locational disadvantage for Hamburg’s economy,” says parliamentary group leader Dennis Thering.
Norbert Aust, President of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce
What: Bertold Fabricius
For this Senate, the week that the holidays begin doesn’t get much better. On Thursday, the Chamber of Commerce and the North Business Association made their entries in the Senate report at a joint press conference. Chamber and association presented a traffic light system for evaluating important projects. The dominant color in it is yellow, so it’s average at best, a few times also red, really bad: “Our interim balance doesn’t look good. There is no clear plan for Hamburg as a business location,” said Chamber President Norbert Aust. The representatives of the North German companies want better innovation conditions, including one billion euros in additional funding from the city of Hamburg – and they are calling for more speed, with the sluggish expansion of the infrastructure, with the eternal topic of the A26 motorway and the debates about a new Köhlbrand crossing.
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In addition to the currently high energy costs, business representatives consider the lack of workers and skilled workers to be the greatest locational risk. They do recognize that the Hamburg Senate is having a greater impact on general education schools than before in order to give young people career orientation at an early stage – in the list, some of these points are given a particularly positive rating of green. But there is still a lot more that needs to be done in order to exploit the potential, UVNord President Philipp Murmann warns: “Far too many young people prefer to drive out pizza for an attractive minimum wage instead of starting a good and solid apprenticeship in good time.” Immigrants and refugees must be taken care of by the public sector much more intensively with a view to the labor market, and the integration of these people into German society must be greatly improved.
The Hamburg Senate is aware of all these demands and problems, they occupy the city government day in and day out. In the town hall, one is very annoyed by the demands and allegations. “Nobody has to get on their high horse, not the economy, not the companies,” says the government headquarters. “The economy is always very demanding and is very broad-legged. We are always happy to help and do what we can.”
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Not even the nice, big story about the climate-friendly energy transition brightens the mood between business and politics these days. With wind power on land and at sea, the north will become the center of future German energy supply – directly on the sea-side export routes all over the world. But right now, electricity is extremely expensive, and many companies are considering investing in the US instead. By the time the hoped-for green electricity paradise on the coast actually blossoms, it could be too late for many of today’s projects.