2370 – The Secretive World of Germany’s Super Rich (ZDF report 2023)

Full report (in German) here: https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/zdfzeit/zdfzeit-die-geheime-welt-der-superreichen-100.html?at_medium=Social%20Media&at_campaign=YouTube&at_specific=ZDFheute (available online till 12.12.2028)

Like any other successful capitalist society, Germany sports some of the highest inequality rates in the world (according to the Gini Inequality researchers Julia Friedrichs and Jochen Breyer have also made a documentary for the German ZDF channel – sadly it is not yet available on English translation, but I felt it was important to post about it here to complete the last series of dedicated posts. Currently, as of 2023, Germany has 237 billionaires (China has 969 and US has 691 resident billionaires). This is a really insightful look into the special tax counseling the rich get. A majority of the secretive richie rich refused to be interviewed but a few accepted – so Jochen Breyer goes on their private jets and yachts to get their opinion on several key issues. So even if the others seem especially camera shy, we still get to meet Hans-Peter Wild (majority holder in Wild Flavors – maker of Capri Sun and leading manufacturer of so-called natural flavors for the food industry) and one of the richest people in Switzerland (he left Germany long ago for the Swiss tax and banking heaven). Billionaires are also a highly volatile transnational bunch, so in order to satisfy their tax phobia, states or rather their governments are constantly lowering taxation and establishing special Economic Zones beyond the purview of democratic regulatory means of control.
They also exert incredible influence on policy for a so-called social market state that prides itself on its social welfare programs and democratic values.

I herby have to acknowledge the ever-informative newsletter by economics historian Adam Tooze Chartbook 254 on world macroeconomics. His recently titled Crazy Rich Germans .. . and the hypocrisy of the “social market economy” was just epic, and below is a telling extract for you to chew on.
By the way, Adam Tooze is also the foremost expert on the economy of the Third Reich with such key books as “Statistics and the German state 1900-1945: The making of modern economic knowledge” (2001) and “Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi economy” (2006).

“When it comes to monitoring elite wealth, the sources are much scarcer. Forbes magazine counted 117 individual German billionaires in 2023. But since large wealth is organized in family holdings, it is more meaningful, as Germany’s Manager Magazine does, to count billion-euro “fortunes” (Vermoegen). The Magazine in 2023 counted 226 such fortunes. The list, however, is clearly incomplete. And the magazine has acknowledged that it has been subject to behind-the-scenes legal pressure to omit several notable families.

We know this startling fact thanks to a new surge of public interest in inequality in Germany. German activists are beginning to flex their muscles and unlock the power of expose and muck-raking. Websites like ungleichheit.info do a great job telling the dramatic story of inequality.”

The two richest German families own more wealth than the bottom half of the German population.

The distribution and gender of Germany’s super-rich is also telling. We are talking here about white, manly, and predominantly West German. Statistics and data analytics are always important, even if hard to come by for us mere mortals amongst so much noise – but ZDFs researchers and investigators made it easy just scroll down on the https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/wirtschaft/superreiche-vermoegen-deutschland-100.html?at_medium=Social%20Media&at_campaign=YouTube&at_specific=ZDFheute to the map provided and click to find out where the top 25 Germany’s richest actually live.

And if the data is to be believed, by the 2010s German wealth-holding was more concentrated than in any other European society (!!). In terms of the gini coefficient (Gini ratio= a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent income inequality, the wealth inequality, or the consumption inequality), Germany is closer to the US (wealth gini 0.81-0.86), than other European countries like France and Italy who have a gini closer to ex-socialist countries like Czech Republic or Poland.

2076 – Truffle Hunters (2020 documentary)

“Deep in the forests of Piedmont, Italy, a handful of men, seventy or eighty years old, hunt for the rare and expensive white Alba truffle-which to date has resisted all of modern science’s efforts at cultivation.” (imdb)

Directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw

Truffle hunters of Perigord (France) in the 19th c on a Liebig meat extract flavored with truffle aroma

This must be one of the most delightful documentaries of these last years. The imagery and the people are just a marvel. We are definitely living in a time where an omnipresent mushrooms mycelium grows unseen through books, exhibitions, documentaries and pop cultural artefacts. Mushrooms have acquired a very special place in our current dead-end situation. Fungi are showing us that even if we rather imagine the end of the world than that of capital, mushroom will continue to be part of a world that is long since post-apocalyptic. Mushroom’s unique role as both putrescientific and putrifictional organisms is well documented. In the gaming world. Just take the Super Mushroom booster (Nintendo’s Super Mario series) or indie gaming Botanicula’s Mr Mushroom character. The association of mushrooms with magic are complex and nearly limitless. There is more to mushrooms than meets the eye. There has been a growing increasing recognition of certain invisible (to the eye) presence of mushrooms called mycorrhiza mushrooms that developed over millions of years a mutualistic, symbiotic relationship with the root parts of the plants all over the planet (that under special conditions can turn parasitical). Mushrooms with their filaments and thread-like connectivity play an important role in the Wood Wide Web. The knowledge about this unseen interwebbed world under our very feet has been growing steadily. I deeply recommend an in-depth history of mutualism in the life sciences – how symbiotic theories evolved, a history written by Canadian historian of microbiology, evolutionary theory, microbiome and biology – Jan Sapp. His books have been a guiding light to me, helping me recognize the value of minor counter-currrents or redesicovered under-currents existing in parrallel (such as those employing the concept of symbiosis).

There are documentaries like the Magic of Mushrooms (2014) or Fantastic Fungi (2019). There is bestsellers such Anna Tsing’s The Mushroom at the End of the World: the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins or the succesfull Entangled Life: How Mushrooms make our worlds, change our minds and shape our futures by Merlin Sheldrake. Gigantic forests of bio-remediating or myco-remediating poisonous mushrooms are central to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga (check this great essay by Gregory Marks here).

There are even SF series such as the Mycelial Network in Star Trek Discovery described as “a discrete subspace domain containing the mycelium, or roots, of the fungus Prototaxites stellaviatori” (Prototaxites the alien fictional mushroom is based on an actual gigantic fossil mushroom or lichen-like organism that existed once in the Devonian age).

Many species of mushrooms have acquired growing relevance, others have always been considered a rarity – to be traded, consumed or valued. The truffle (both its alba – white and black strands) stand apart as a highly treasures biocultural organism. Do not think they are protected in the sense rare species are. They stand at the center of networks linking regional traditional mushroom hunters and their companion species – and five star restaurant and conneisseurs that are willing to pay incredible prices. The truffle combines an unspectacular exterior with an ineffable strong smell (there are no known medicinal proprieties identified).

there is smell testing ritual at potential truffle auction pieces for those interested

Just this smell makes highly attractive to both humans and other animals, a lure for our desires, trophic chains and economic speculation. A smell is mostly appreciated with that most irrational organ – the nose. Truffles are also multispecies vectors, they attract both humans, yet their main carriers and spore dispersal vehicles are pigs (and because of us – dogs). Oil flavored with truffles is enough to change a whole dish. Motovun white truffle (Tuber Magnatum L.) flavored honey liquor from Croatia flavored with just a hint of a truffle (of which I had some unforgettable stinky shots) considered a local Dalmatian speciality.

there are many kinds of truffle flavored trash foods

Anything with truffle flavor (even chips or cheese) is considered a delicacy for that matter. Everything regarding truffles has become highly competitive (with a growing black market). These underground unspectacular lumps (fruiting bodies of a particular mushroom) advertise their underground existence in order to get some quality dispersal by mammals such as pigs that find it irresistible. This smell is hard to describe (and especially impossible to assess what it actually feels like for a pig) – but it turns out to be a certain bio-mimicry, imitating certain bodily odors of mammals, especially because it is quite earthy hormonal perspiration-like – musky with deep heavy notes. Although supposedly aphrodisiac it has never been proven so.

these seemingly banal clumps can garner the most egregious prices

Here is a unique humourous documentary about the lives of these incredible 70 or 80 years old Italian truffle hunters and their unique and dangerous relationship with their prized truffle hunting dogs that they would never ever part with (even when offered large sums). There is also a very sad part to this story -as everywhere the globalized capitalist expansion of markets catering to the luxury taste and high incomes have transformed truffle hunting from a hobby and pleasurable (if always profitable and slightly protective and conflictual) livelihood in northern Italy (Piemonte) into something really mortal where both companion species and the human caretakers are under threat.

There are more killings of hunters and poison baiting of dogs than ever before. It is wonderful that these people, normally weary of strangers and highly protective of their knowhow and favorite patch – have allowed the filmmakers to follow them in the field.

Italy being Italy there also lots of musical numbers

There is an increase in demand and land-grabbing of territories and lands and constant pressure to acquire truffle rich territories – as truffles become ever more popular. This is the background for this documentary – importantly it is not just about truffle hunting although this incredible obsessive activity is central to it. There is also a lot of heartfelt beauty of the surroundings, walks, friendships and a peek into lives of completely dedicated people (almost always men). What is important is that they do not make so much money, the money incentive is just something on the side giving a little spice to their lives.

in the intimacy of the bathroom

They have not only a special sense for these coveted mushroom prizes but also know a lot about their qualities, characteristics and needs. The documentary follows the entire trophic chain from the field to restaurant and parking lot deals to auction houses, from middlemen to the actual gourmet consumer.

in the intimacy of your plate

imdb