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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 30, 1984
While the day-to-day operations are run by [Hans Werner] Kolb and
others out of company headquarters in Duesseldorf, the chairman,
Friedrich Karl Flick, charts his company's broader course in the
quiet of his private home outside Munich. Mr. Flick, 57, re
cently was listed as the second wealthiest person in Europe by
Quick, a popular West German magazine that estimated his worth at
6 billion OM. He assumed full control at Flick in 1982, upon the
death of his father, the group's founder, Friedrich Flick, who
spent several years after World War.!.! in Allied prisons after
being convicted of bankrolling the Nazi party and employing slave
labor at his factories.
One of Germany's most influential political analysts is Theo Sommer, an
editor of the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. In the October 26 issue he wrote,
in an article entitled "Buying and Being Bought," that the "Flick affair"
is similar to the way the same company bribed its way in the corridors of
power of the ill-fated, post World War I Weimar Republic. Inherent in Som
mer's remarks is that an increasingly angry public, distraught with their
democracy being destroyed by the democratic leaders themselves, may demand
another leadership--one stronger and incorruptible.
The question is: Who is actually conjuring up the danger, that
Bonn is becoming a Weimar Republic? Who is undermining the mor
als of the West German society? Who is to blame for the corrup
tion of our political structure.... Such bestowing of gifts to
parties and politicians for promoting their own business inter
ests has become a tradition in this company; and here is the real
connection to the Weimar Republic. In this way, Flick raked in
the money back in [Chancellor] Bruening's time when he was suc
cessful in selling his Gelsenberg shares to the State during the
world economic crisis. In the same manner, Flick's manager Eber
hard von Brauchitsch strove to gain influence in the 70s with
well-spread payments..••
This poorly thought out endeavor to corrupt State servants and
leaders has been unprecedented in the history of the Federal Re
public.••• Such insensitivity is taking the breath away from our
citizens who are concerned about our democracy. Doesn't any one
in the capital know how the people feel?
"They have all gone
crazy; they are all from the tribe of 'take'; they cut back the
pocket money of the elderly and rake in two or three times as much
for themselves; they are more concerned with getting their money
instead of giving their service." These are typical remarks of
sincere Democrats. Resentment is spreading; dangerous resent-
ment.•.•
If this supposition is not refuted, we will have to fear for
Bonn's system.•.. It isn't the enemies who are ruining our demo
cracy. Germany's democracycould very well be ruined _!2Y the Dem
ocrats themselves.
The NEW YORK TIMES top political analyst, Flora Lewis, came to some of the
same conclusions in her October 27 dispatch from Bonn:
The West German government is in trouble. One respected commen
tator warns of the Weimar Republic, the ineffective democratic