Three Hundred Men

Three hundred German men determine the economic fate of the continent. Walther Rathenau wrote this sentence at the beginning of the 20th century in reference to the intricately interwoven network of bankers, captains of industry and lobbyists that had formed through the rise of companies like Allianz, Krupp, and Siemens. All these men knew one another, spoke regularly – and wheeled and dealed with one another. Right up into the 1990s, this network, known as »Deutschland AG«, decisively shaped both political decision-making and the business culture in West Germany and the newly reunified Federal Republic.

In Three Hundred Men, Konstantin Richter has arranged the stories of these magnates and men of action into a fast-paced, dramatic narrative. In masterfully selected episodes, he takes us deep into their world. We accompany Niclaus Otto and Gottlieb Daimler as they harvest their vegetables, a pursuit in which they competed with the same bitter fervour as in the development of new motors. We are also right there at the table when the Mannesmann brothers get involved in absurd intrigues in Morocco, and we're sitting beside Thomas Middelhoff when he heads off on his morning commute from his residence in Bielefeld to his office in Essen – by helicopter.

All these scenes come together to form a unique epic spanning some 150 years: from the start-up nation of the German Empire to the crisis-ridden present, from the initial rise of the Deutschland AG to its ultimate demise.