His association’s European campaign is not as loud as the Magdeburg mill is roaring inside. She is rather funny, playful. But now Christoph Minhoff is putting plugs in his ears. The head of the association has already put on a white coat. He pushes open the heavy door to the silo and then he goes up the steep stairs in the more than 100-year-old building.
Thomas Brumme, the head of the mill on the Elbe, which is one of the largest flour producers in Germany, leads the way without earplugs. He supports the call by the Federal Association of the Food Industry to go to the European elections on June 9th. A few years ago this probably wouldn’t have been worth mentioning. But the political climate in Germany has now heated up. Internet platforms spread hate and hatred. Right-wing populists benefit from this and, according to surveys, could make strong gains in the elections. And then there are state elections in three eastern German states in the fall.
In the silo, if you want to say something, you have to speak loudly into the other person’s ear. That’s why it’s best to talk about the campaign outside on the factory premises on the Elbe. There are also the two vans with the advertising motifs: colorful billboards, approximately four by five meters in size. With sayings that are based on well-known sayings and have something to do with food. Even from a distance you can read something like: “Don’t suck old camels! Go vote!” In slightly smaller print it reads: “We’ve had ethnic nationalism before – it ended in catastrophe. We’ve also had real socialism, which resulted in the building of the wall! Don’t let yourself be fooled – strengthen European cooperation!”
Minhoff came up with all the sayings himself. A dozen were posted. It was probably an advantage that he used to be a television journalist at BR and Phoenix. Now the short, pointed formulations help him get to the point as the food industry’s chief lobbyist. The industry, he says, is characterized by diversity and cosmopolitanism.
With almost 640,000 employees, it is the fourth largest industrial sector in Germany. The association’s members include global corporations such as Nestlé, Mondelez and Unilever. However, 90 percent of the companies are medium-sized companies like the Magdeburger Mühlenwerke, which belongs to the family-run Engelke Group. The industry’s export quota is 35 percent. It is clear that Europe is the basis for prosperity here. The flour from Magdeburg is also delivered to other European countries and even overseas. A Dexit, Germany’s exit from the EU, is therefore a horror scenario for the industry.
“The program of the populist nationalists threatens your job”
That’s what it says explicitly on the pink billboard at the back of the second van: “Don’t cut your own flesh! The program of the populist nationalists threatens our economy and your job. 2.2 million jobs would be lost if Germany were to leave the EU, which is ‘ Dexit’, endangered. Anyone who wants that doesn’t want anything good for you. Say no to new borders, say yes to the EU.”
“Most people smile when they see that,” says one of the two drivers, “and then they start talking to each other.” It is the driver’s job to drive billboards with a wide variety of motifs around the area for other clients. “But this generates more positive attention than ever before,” says one of them.
The pro-Europe campaign is also unique in other ways; no other association, no other company does it in this form. Some entrepreneurs, including CEOs of large listed companies, warn of the danger of right-wing populism, of course. But this is something different: the campaign lasts several weeks. The vans drive across Germany, from Lübeck to Füssen. They will be in Dortmund on Tuesday. At the same time, the motifs are distributed via print and online media and on online platforms.
Of course, as it is, when you take action, it is not always met with love. It was the same with Minhoff. Isn’t that too bright?, some asked internally. Can you say that so boldly? Aren’t we making ourselves vulnerable? Extreme right-wingers have long been intimidating entrepreneurs. The Edeka dealer Peter Simmel, for example, printed the slogan “For democracy – against Nazis” on advertising brochures for its branches in Thuringia and Saxony. He was then attacked and threatened. And the Nougat manufacturer Viba in Schmalkalden was hit with calls for a boycottwhen Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) came to visit the factory.
Minhoff finds this worrying. He wants to strengthen the democratic forces in the country and is therefore calling on people to go vote. “We don’t want a nationalist-anachronistic, xenophobic, anti-European, small-minded, populist, Russia-dependent, anti-Western, anti-system, extremist alternative for Europe,” he says. A united Europe is essential for peace, freedom, democracy and prosperity.
Without an internal market, prices would rise
The food industry has a few facts that clearly speak in favor of the EU. Almost 300,000 seasonal workers in the German fields come from the EU. Without them it would be difficult to eat asparagus. 90 percent of the vegetables in Germany come from other European countries. Without the internal market, prices would rise. Two thirds of the oats processed into food in Germany come from other EU countries. Without the flakes, many Germans’ breakfasts would be far less rich.
And without the EU, exports would become more expensive. This also applies to the flour from Magdeburg, which the mills deliver to Thailand and Dubai. Thomas Brumme tells how the factory developed from a state-owned company in GDR times into a company with a turnover of 100 million euros. It primarily supplies large industrial bakers such as Harry Brot. He has his own factory on the other side of town, near the new Intel location. Only surprisingly few employees are needed to produce more than 300,000 tons of flour, including for Edeka, Kaufland and Aldi. Just 90, a third of whom are truck drivers.
Not a single one can be seen in the silo. At the bottom, several rollers grind the grain. Then it races upwards through crisscrossing pipes, shooting up and down over several floors. It is shaken back and forth in large rectangular containers, sieved and the rest is ground again. Until the finest flour ends up in a sack or a one-kilo package from the Bördegold brand.
The vans with the billboards have now driven into the city center to have some audience. They weren’t exactly surrounded by interested employees on the factory premises. The local press didn’t appear either. But that doesn’t have to mean anything. The campaign has just started and the election is only a few weeks away. Minhoff is combative, he knows: “There is a lot at stake.”