GFT founder Ulrich Dietz is concerned about the economic situation in Germany. Other countries have coped better with the aftermath of the Ukraine war or other challenges, he says. He severely criticizes the fact that the Germans treated this fact with indifference.
Ulrich Dietz describes the current situation in our economy as a “permanent depression”. The IT pioneer spoke to the “Handelsblatt” about, among other things, how Germany is coping with the rise in gas prices as a result of the Ukraine war. Dietz is an entrepreneur and is considered an important driving force behind digitization in this country. In 2011, for example, he received the “Entrepreneur of the Year” award.
“It’s problematic, other parts of the world deal with it differently,” he said. His company, GFT Technologies, has offices in more than 15 countries. The markets in the Asia-Pacific region or America are “much more optimistic”.
Compared to other countries, such as Israel, “Germany has become a ‘shit give a fuck’ nation,” he criticizes. In his view, we would put up with conditions that were not tolerable. “Whether you’re on a plane and for two hours you don’t get any information as to why you’re standing on the runway. Whether trains simply break down or there are permanent construction sites on the roads where no work is done for weeks,” he gives examples. “Somehow nothing works properly in this country anymore.”
He accuses German society of indifference, saying it is “intolerable”. He also denounces the fact that the digitization of the administration is not progressing. The quality feature “Made in Germany” is becoming less and less important. We are “trapped in a federal structure”, one blames the other.
With us, for example, it is now becoming an exception when the train is on time. In Switzerland, on the other hand, rail traffic works almost seamlessly. We shouldn’t be satisfied with these conditions, he believes – and calls for the government to be held responsible.
The crisis management of the traffic light and the measures taken with it are far too short, criticizes Dietz. The result: companies reacted and would produce in future where it made economic sense. With the energy price and the wage costs, the need to be independent of the German market increases. In many other countries, the economic situation is “simply more dynamic”.
Nevertheless, Dietz makes a suggestion for Germany: In order to get gas prices under control, the state should, if necessary, cap gas prices. This is “the only option that makes sense in this special situation.” The price cap would help most, especially medium-sized companies and people with low incomes.
In his view, however, Germany should “definitely not” approach Putin to mitigate the effects of the war. Instead, we must help Ukraine “roll back Russian aggression.”
