Were friends once: Klaus Lutz (left) and Manfred Nüssel (CSU). Picture Alliance / Baywa / Collage: Dominik Schmitt
At the beginning of this year, a spectacular power struggle broke out at the billion-dollar company Baywa. The CEO Marcus Pöllinger and the chairman of the supervisory board Klaus Lutz competed against each other. In the end, the powerful manager Lutz lost out and had to leave the company. Research by Business Insider shows for the first time who was pulling the strings behind the scenes.
The powerful Baywa manager Klaus Lutz had to leave the company after a power struggle. It remained unclear how CEO Marcus Pöllinger managed to outdo his former foster father Lutz.
Research by Business Insider shows: Behind the scenes, CSU politician and former supervisory board chairman Manfred Nüssel pulled the strings and ensured that Lutz had to leave the company.
What’s spicy here is that Nüssel and Lutz have known each other for many years and are even said to have been friends.
“Il Punto” is one of the most popular restaurants in Berlin’s government district. Political celebrities dine at the noble Italian restaurant and top managers, lobbyists and journalists meet. On the evening of January 18th of this year, Klaus Lutz invited people to dinner there. At that time, Lutz was still chairman of the supervisory board of the agricultural giant Baywa. The dinner was in honor of Manfred Nüssel (CSU), Lutz’s predecessor as chairman of the supervisory board.
A number of Baywa supervisory board members came that January evening. Lutz found words of praise for Nüssel, who now bears the title of honorary chairman. Then the group broke up and Lutz disappeared into the Adlon Hotel. The next day there was an important meeting of the Baywa supervisory board. The other supervisory board members went with Nüssel to the Westin Grand Hotel on Friedrichstrasse. What then happened there that evening at the bar led to a spectacular power struggle and would abruptly end Lutz’s long career.
Because the next day, on January 19th, Lutz suffered what was probably his biggest defeat. Completely unexpectedly, he resigned as chairman of the supervisory board. According to research by Business Insider, his long-time companion Nüssel played a key role in Lutz’s involuntary departure. This was reported, among other things, by a whistleblower who reported to Business Insider. In the run-up to the supervisory board meeting, the clever CSU politician Nüssel pulled the strings behind the scenes, including at the hotel bar in the Westin Grand Hotel. Lutz’s fall was also the end of a male friendship.