During the pandemic, the large German logistics companies received tens of billions of euros in public aid guaranteed by the Berlin government, which officially claimed to have done so in order to reduce the impact of redundancies on employment. German Foreign Policy in its latest article, however, puts forward the hypothesis that behind this choice of the Berlin government there is the desire to protect an important instrument of geopolitical projection, namely the large transport companies by sea, air and land. For GFP, this would be nothing new, given that even in the days of the Reich, the logistics sector was perfectly integrated into the expansionist projects of the time. The always well-informed German Foreign Policy writes
The large German companies in the international logistics sector were able to count between 19 and 22 billion euros in the form of capital inflows from the public purse during the Coronavirus crisis. Insofar as these subsidies were aimed at limiting job cuts, the aid mainly remained in the German operating part, while employees in foreign subsidiaries, e.g. in Austria or Belgium, lost many more jobs in percentage terms, as for example in the case of Lufthansa. 1] Lufthansa received capital injections of between 9 and 11 billion euros, Deutsche Bahn AG and indirectly DB Schenker received 5 billion ("equity assistance"). DHL (Deutsche Post AG) is also going through the crisis by taking advantage of the coronavirus-related aid. The group is supplying a dozen EU countries with pandemic vaccines and announced on 12 January that it will expand its fleet with eight Boeing 777F cargo planes: the price per unit will reportedly be around $200 million. [2] TUI, a company regarded in Germany as an inoffensive holiday specialist, has obtained public subsidies and credit lines amounting to over €4 billion until December 2020, which grew further (by 25%) earlier this year with the government's participation in the Berlin "Economic Stabilisation Fund" (WSF) .[3]
"Constantly on the ground"
But neither TUI (the world's largest tourist company), nor Lufthansa, nor DHL can be considered as large, harmless holiday companies or mere mail carriers. Their civilian use masks the possibility of state intervention and the fact that they are always kept on standby: in peacetime, they extend their activities over a logistics network that coordinates the movement of goods locally and follows them all the way up the value chain - an important source of information for geoscience, raw materials research and industrial espionage. In times of crisis and foreign conflicts, this network (together with the carriers) is ready for its reconversion. TUI, Lufthansa, DHL and DB Schenker are firmly integrated. There is a "communion of intent" [4] linking the large German logistics groups and a specialised department for control and direction at the Berlin Ministry of Transport, a department set up with a transit function to the emergency and military authorities of the Federal Republic. Their "field employees are therefore constantly on the spot and maintain contact" with the German logistics companies; the reference is to the state emergency service for "tension and defence cases" at the "Federal Office for Goods Transport" (BAG). (BAG).
"'Systemic relevance'.
Coloured cruise ships could then be turned into military hospitals for foreign missions (this is where TUI comes in), and mail planes could become troop carriers (DHL). The railway network would be used for rapid transfer in 'defence operations', while the railways would be 'assigned' tasks of 'cross-border transport [!] for the armed forces' (also significant for the Schenker railway division). [5] What promises to protect civil society in the crisis caused by the Coronavirus ("systemic relevance"), the law [6] circumscribes to the military: logistical reserve for "emergency" and war.
Geopolitical network
Where the structural alignment between the state apparatus and the expansive interests of geo-logistics can lead is shown by the crimes committed by major German logistics companies in the days of the Nazi "Reich". Today's logistics companies in the Federal Republic owe their birth to these criminal enterprises, e.g. Kühne + Nagel in Hamburg has the same name as the large shipping company that can be said to have had "a certain contiguity with mass extermination" [7] and with thousands of lootings perpetrated in the neighbouring states occupied by Germany, e.g. in France. Kühne + Nagel is one of the current companies to have benefited most from the Coronavirus and to have obtained contracts from the German state. 8] This legacy is even more evident in the case of Schenker, a company now part of the state-owned DB group, with the same name as Schenker & Co, a company with a prominent role in the crimes committed during the anti-Semitic and anti-Slavic extermination policy. A policy that arose as part of the geopolitical network of expansionist interests of German foreign policy that emerged before the war.
Silent legacy
What the heirs of these crimes have in common, including the REWE group's DER (Deutsches Reisebüro), is their constant refusal to reveal their origins publicly and completely. By keeping silent about the legacy they carry with them, they want to escape the material justice they owe the victims and the lessons of German history - to what extent this is true, after all, is exemplified by DB Schenker's past.
[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).
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento