Friedrich Merz and the Demonization of Success

I have no idea whether Friedrich Merz would be the best leader for the Christian Democrats (CDU) as successor to Angela Merkel.  The issue is anyway more or less irrelevant, since it appears that Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer will get the nod.  But the sometimes hysterical attacks on Herr Merz in the German media are ridiculous.  Merz has been a successful attorney and has held various positions with financial institutions. Through his work he has managed to accumulate some wealth.  For many, this would seem to disqualify him as chancellor.

"But questions about Mr Merz’s wealth are beginning to damage his campaign. Few Germans have entered politics after a successful career in the private sector and voters are generally sceptical of millionaires seeking public office. “None of the chancellors who have governed Germany since the second world war were rich — they all lived modestly,” said Gerhard Bosch, a sociology professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen."

“[Germans] just don’t really trust very rich people or big companies,” Thomas Druyen, a sociologist at Sigmund Freud University in Vienna, told German radio. “It’s absurd of course, but it’s a part of our psychological DNA.”

In particular, people are upset about Merz's position as supervisory board chairman of the American fund manager BlackRock Inc.’s German asset management unit. BlackRock funds hold equity stakes in many of Germany's largest corporations, therefore it is believed that Merz is part of some American conspiracy to control the Germany economy.  This is absurd, of course, since Blackrock typically controls less than 5% of the shares of any company – hardly enough to influence the corporate boards.  BlackRock also holds similar positions in US, UK, French, and Japanese corporations.  These funds allow small investors (including German investors) to build wealth by owning a basket of securities rather than buying individual stocks.  Yet BlackRock is seen as an evil enterprise. Here is Jens Berger, writing in the Kremlin-friendly news portal NachDenkSeiten:

Heute ist Merz Aufsichtsrat und Lobbyist von BlackRock Deutschland – einem Finanzgiganten, der sich für die Interessen der Wall Street und gegen die Interessen der Allgemeinheit einsetzt. Oder um es zuzuspitzen: Merz hat sein Millionenvermögen stets ganz explizit mit Tätigkeiten verdient, die gegen die Interessen der Allgemeinheit gerichtet waren. Das ist der entscheidende Punkt! Darum ist Merz auch aufgrund seiner beruflichen Vergangenheit der falsche Kandidat für ein öffentliches Amt. Die Summe seiner Einkünfte ist dabei nebensächlich.

Berger doesn't explain why offering an investment vehicle to small investors to participate in the wealth of Germany's businesses is "against the common interest" (gegen die Interessen der Allgemeinheit) unless he believes that owning shares is by itself an evil undertaking.  Merz himself has criticized his countrymen for shunning stocks and putting their money instead into low interest bank savings accounts.  Only 15% of Germans own equity investments compared to 50% of Americans. 

Berger's criticism of Merz is particularly ironic since Berger's hero- Vladimir Putin – has accumulated at least $2 billion through corruption  – as revealed in the Panama Papers. At least Merz made his (modest) fortune legally, and through his own efforts.