"Germany can do it!"

I would like to tell you a story this morning.

The story is about a little boy who is woken up at night by his parents. The year is 1969.
Wide-eyed at the time, he watches as the first man sets foot on the moon. That boy was me and I was 5 years old. That night I couldn't sleep a wink. That's how fascinated I was by these Americans who, from today's technological perspective, flew to the moon with a string and an eagle owl.

Why am I telling you this?

It was an epochal, a decisive event. Neil Armstrong said at the time: "It's a small step for a man, but a giant leap for mankind."

As an entrepreneur, I am therefore convinced that we can do a lot if we want to.

We live in a great country. We are the land of poets, thinkers and inventors. We are the land of many world market leaders and creative innovations. We are a country with a strong economic foundation. Our country is known as the land of the hard-working, the land of the industrious, the land of strong industry, the land of services, the land of crafts and agriculture. We are the land of the strong middle class.

Despite all the discussion, we are a strong country...

You can find the employer president's full speech here. The spoken word prevails.

More about the German Employers' Day 2024 at https://www.deutscher-arbeitgebertag.de/.