Berlin's Geo-Logistics

State-centered and at the pre-war level: German logistics companies secure top international positions for themselves.

BERLIN (Own report) - With billions from its Covid-19 programs, Berlin is subsidizing the world's leading logistics groups. Top unrivaled companies in Europe, such as DB Schenker (Deutsche Bahn AG), DHL (Deutsche Post AG), Lufthansa, TUI, DER (Deutsches Reisebüro) or Kühne & Nagel are stabilizing their temporary Corona losses with state financing, in some cases increasing their 2020 sales and profit figures by five percent, in spite of the persisting economic crisis. Companies, such as DHL (Deutsche Post AG, 20 percent state-owned) are now announcing substantial purchases for a significant increase of their machines and are announcing rising profit forecasts for 2021 and 2022. Therefore, it is foreseeable that, within the EU, the monopoly positions of German logistics enterprises will lead to regional EU providers collapsing. The national concentration of the cross-border transportation potential resembles the situation during the years leading up to World War II. At that time, particularly Schenker & Co. was trusted to cover Europe, in the event of crisis or war. A study published on the occasion of the upcoming day of commemoration, January 27, highlights the political significance of a monopoly on European transportation and the role played by Schenker (already then and still currently state-owned) in the "reorganization of the continent." german-foreign-policy.com publishes today Part 1 of the expertise published in conjunction with the "Train of Commemoration."

During the corona crisis, Germany's top cross-border logistics companies have been provided with between €19 and €22 billion in capital from the taxpayers pockets. To the extent that the subsidies are aimed at limiting job losses, they flow to domestic-based sectors of the companies, while employees at foreign branches, for example, in Austria or Belgium, lose their jobs at a higher percentage, as is the case with Lufthansa.[1] Lufthansa has booked capital inflows of between €9 and €11 billion, the Deutsche Bahn AG - and indirectly DB Schenker - have received €5 billion ("equity assistance"). Benefiting from corona, DHL (Deutsche Post AG) is making it through the crisis. The company delivers vaccines against the pandemic to a dozen EU countries and announced January 12 that it was expanding its air fleet with 8 new Boeing 777F freight planes - at a list price of US $200 million per plane.[2] TUI, a company, considered in Germany as an innocent professional for vacationers, enjoys public subsidies and credit lines amounting to €4 billion by December 2020, and has been increased further (25%) with a government subsidy from Berlin's Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) at the beginning of the year.[3]

"Always on Site"

However, neither TUI (the world's largest tourist company) nor Lufthansa or DHL are innocent mega-companies for tourism and postal services. Their civilian applications obscure their state access, for which they are earmarked and held on standby. In periods of peace, they expand their logistical network, which consolidates the local movement of goods and can be traced to the source of the value added chain - essential for geosciences, raw materials research and industrial espionage. In periods of crisis and conflicts abroad, this network - including transporters - stand ready for transformation. TUI, Lufthansa, DHL or DB Schenker are integral components. "Community unity" [4] is the bond between the German logistics companies and the coordinating specialized department in Berlin's Ministry of Transport as the way station to Germany's emergency and military authorities. The latter's "employees are, therefore, always on site and maintain contact" to German logistics companies, according to the government's standby service for "tension and defense' situations" located within the Federal Office for Goods Transport (BAG).

"System Relevance"

Then, the colorfully labeled ocean liners will be transformed into military hospitals serving foreign interventions (TUI is an option), and postal freighter planes, into troop transporters (DHL). The railroad network will provide rapid relocation for "defense operations," and the railroad will be "assigned" "cross-border[!] transport for the armed forces" (also important for Schenker's rail department).[5] What is supposed to serve as protection for the civilian population during the corona crisis ("system relevance"), the law [6] circumscribes to the military: Logistics reserves for "emergency" and war.

Geopolitical Network

The crimes that were committed by the leading German logistics enterprises during the Nazi "Reich" give an indication of where the structural coupling of the state apparatus with the expansive interests of geo-logistics can lead. Today's logistics companies in Germany owe their origins to these criminal enterprises, for example Kühne + Nagel (Hamburg), has the same name as the bulk freight carrier that can be said to have been "relatively close to the mass murders" [7] and the thousands of cases of plunder in neighboring countries under German occupation - such as in France. Kühne + Nagel is one of the current corona beneficiaries receiving government contracts.[8] Even more explicit is the heritage of Schenker, today a subsidiary of the state-owned DB group and the namesake of Schenker & Co., which had played a leading role in the habitual criminal gang-like crimes in the anti-Semitic/anti-Slavic policy of annihilation. It was carried out within the geopolitical network of Germany's expansive pre-war foreign policy interests.

Mute Legacy

What the heirs of these crimes have in common, including the DER (Deutsche Reisebüro) sector of the REWE group, is their persistent refusal to publicly and comprehensively expose their backgrounds. By remaining mute about their heritage, they seek to avoid the material consequences of justice, they owe to their victims and to the lessons of Germany's history - DB Schenker's history provides a good example.

 

Please read also: The Schenker Crimes.

 

[1] Die Lufthansa-Hilfen verzerren den Wettbewerb. capital.de 09.12.2020.

[2] Deutsche Post AG erhöht Ergebnisprognose für 2022 nach vorläufigen Zahlen 2020. Veröffentlichung einer Insiderinformation nach Artikel 17 der Verordniung (EU) Nr.596/2014 vom 12.01.2021.

[3] Drittes Milliarden-Hilfspaket für Tui - Staat könnte zum Großaktionär werden. Handelsblatt 02.12.2020.

[4] Bundesamt für Güterverkehr (BAG) sorgt für Bewegung. eurotransport.de/artikel/zivile-notfallvorsorge 20.01.2021.

[5] Allgemeine Verwaltungsvorschriften zu § 17 des Verkehrssicherstellungsgesetzes (VSG) i.d.F. vom 29.06. 1998.

[6] Vgl. Verkehrsleistungsgesetz (VerkLG) i.d.F. vom 12.12.2019.

[7] Henning Bleyl: Lasten der Vergangenheit. taz.de 31.03.2015.

[8] Kühne + Nagel übernimmt Logistik des Moderna-Impfstoffs. Handelsblatt 07.01.2021. Corona und Brexit: Der Logistiker Kühne + Nagel antizipiert neue Chancen. Neue Zürcher Zeitung 20.10.2020. Einen Staatsauftrag zur Lieferung von Corona-Impfstoffen vergab das Land Nordrhein-Westfahlen (NRW).


Login