Hanseatic Hunter

I am a child of the wall ...

​

…that is, the crumbling wall: 30 years ago the ultimate symbol of oppression and socialist society, the Berlin wall, came tumbling down. And I had just missed it. After spending five years in West Berlin studying business, I finished in 1988 and moved to New York City. However, I had experienced the separation first hand. I lived through painstakingly thorough border controls in my trips back and forth from my home town Hamburg to Berlin and had to listen to regular reports of people getting shot at the wall. In a funny way, I was also a beneficiary. The Allied protection of West Berlin had its perks. As a player of a Bundesliga level sports team, we got to fly to our away games in West Germany. While a great experience when you are a poor student, it was a reminder that you were living in a cage. So when November 9, 1989 happened, I had a feeling of utter relief, happiness and excitement of things to come.

​

However, emotions are never a good guide to rational decision making. Germany’s reunification chapter is now going down in history as a massive failure. How can I say this when current media is celebrating the 30th anniversary? To answer that we have to go back to the “Aufbruchstimmung” of end-1989/beg-1990. The expectations and dreams of positive developments to come were extraordinary. Already the strongest economic power in Europe at the time, we dreamt of not only overtaking Japan, but of reaching American heights, our post-war mentor/parent. We had 60 million very well educated and productive people in West Germany and were gaining 20 million from East Germany that were well educated (less productive in comparison) from the most productive socialist state ever. When you mix top engineering talent with a productive cheap labour force, you get a world winning formula. Germany could have been the China of the 2000s.

​

It is strangely funny that the picture from 1989 of West Berliner crowds cheering East Berliners entering the West with their polluting Trabi’s can now stand as a symbol of what has happened since: Many of the bad habits of an authoritarian regime have come back. We are less free (explosion of laws and regulations), we pay more taxes, our international rankings are declining (education, economic freedom, a.o.) and even the Italians have more per capita wealth than us. (😉, but true fact: OECD source). Our democratic spectrum has also changed. Superficially most main political parties still exist. However, not only has the pendulum swung to the left, but the whole spectrum has narrowed. Compared to 30 years ago, today’s CDU/CSU, FDP, SPD, Greens are at the core only marginally different and would all fit into views within the SPD of 1989. The effects on freedom of speech have ironically also been negative. In 1990, all Germans could finally voice their opinions. Nowadays, on the topic du jour, you get called a “climate denier” even if you do not deny climate change, but just question whether the single focus on CO2 could have negative consequences for humanity. You may lose your job or at least have a severe disadvantage in the promotion game.

I can only speculate on the causes of this downtrend. Perhaps because of our so called historical debt, which only Germans seem to ever have acknowledged, we felt the need to hand out presents rather than invest into the future. However, there may be a relatively simple psychological explanation which could be observed throughout the history of civilizations: The price of prosperity. This phenomenon can be observed in sports all the time. A successful team of talents is built, skills developed, motivation rises and a championship is won. Possibly a repeat the following year. Then it gets tough. Arrogance seeps in, the extra training effort is not given, you continue to live of past fame for a while, but eventually reality catches up. My beloved HSV is a perfect example: from champions of Europe to second division. Sad.

​

Not to despair. We have a new generation of technological problem solvers that will turn to societal problem solvers without any ideological motives in mind, but to have a better and fulfilling life for themselves. They will organize their lives efficiently, largely ignoring the status quo of politics and will eventually supersede our failing institutions. But there still is a role for us “50 plus” people. It is up to us experienced generation (1) to get out of the way or at least try to reduce the enormous burdens we are already leaving them with, and (2) to provide guidance gleaned from our experiences, hopefully such as having learned from our mistakes.

​

Personally, I have started by breaking down a wall that I only realised a couple of years ago surrounded my job, after 30 years in the corporate world. I quit. Not everybody wants to deal with the consequences of more freedom as it means taking on responsibility and often discomfort. I intend to embrace it and give back to the new generation …

                                 Carpe diem!

… and will keep you posted and share some special insights going forward.

​

The HanseaticHunter, Nov 8, 2019

​

#freedom  #responsibility  #investing