A household that can’t do in any other case | EUROtoday

Die Stadt Frankfurt hatte in den Kaisersaal im Römer geladen, um das 350. Firmenjubiläum des Bankhauses Metzler zu feiern. Das passt insofern, als für diesen repräsentativsten Raum im Frankfurter Rathaus die Familie Metzler auch ein Bildnis von Kaiser Maximilian II gestiftet hat, dem ersten Kaiser, der 1562 in Frankfurt nicht nur gewählt, sondern auch gekrönt wurde.

Oberbürgermeister Mike Josef (SPD) lobte die Metzlers allerdings für andere Spenden, mit denen sie sich mit der Stadtgesellschaft „verbunden“ und diese „bewegt“ hätten: fürs Städel- und Senckenberg-Museum etwa, 2012 mit Deutsch-Sprachstipendien oder nun mit einer „namhaften“ Spende an Tumo – ein kostenloses IT-Lernzentrum für Jugendliche im nicht besonders privilegierten „Nordwestzentrum“.

Frankfurt's mayor even spoke of “Metzler's mathematics” that had expanded Adam Riese's legal guidelines: “One and one became three,” mentioned Josef, recalling the preliminary donation of 1 million DM for the financial institution's 325th anniversary, which in the end resulted in 7 million DM as a result of the Metzler household – after others had donated – added more cash. Today, in monetary jargon, we may converse of “leverage.”

In his speech, former Federal President Joachim Gauck centered on two principal matters: the idea of duty and the top of entrepreneurship through the GDR period. The firm's historical past offered him with factors of reference for this.

Benjamin Metzler, the fifth of ten youngsters in a household of pastors from Cranzahl within the Ore Mountains of Saxony, set off to Nuremberg to study on the age of 13. In 1674 he settled in Frankfurt with a buying and selling enterprise for material and payments of change. Benjamin set off as a result of he believed he would succeed, says Gauck.

Since Benjamin was granted citizenship three years after arriving in Frankfurt, it has been a part of the Metzler DNA to “have a say in the city through donations.” Gauck talked about the Polytechnic Society, based in 1816, the Städel, the college – members of the Metzler household have been concerned in every single place. The financial institution's income have been after all the premise for this. “But I like having other goals,” mentioned Gauck, including: “A family that can't help but get involved.”

At this level, Gauck spoke about his life within the GDR, the place he had solely seen small, privately owned craft companies. Communism had the objective of constructing individuals extra equal and happier, however in the long run it had misplaced every thing. “If Metzler had been run in Saxony, everything would have been ashes,” mentioned Gauck, warning: “What we have created will not remain by itself.” There is now a “danger that Germany will sit on its laurels.” Gauck briefly requested whether or not political targets, corresponding to local weather coverage, are helpful to Germany's financial future.

Then he got here again to the Metzlers and praised them as a dwelling instance of “civilized capitalism” wherein entrepreneurs contribute to the group. “The freedom of adults means responsibility,” mentioned Gauck, praising the following era of Metzlers, together with board member Franz and supervisory board members Elena and Leonhard, for “not partying on yachts.” Instead, they’re in search of “sustainable happiness” by taking over duty within the financial institution and for society.