7. Negative Reaction to Charity Campaign

Der Spiegel Online

The following article appeared in Der Spiegel Online, the English-language version of a German news source. The interview is with Peter Krämer, a multimillionaire shipping magnate who criticizes the Giving Pledge.

Germany’s super-rich have rejected an invitation by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to join their “Giving Pledge” to give away most of their fortune. The pledge has been criticized in Germany, with millionaires saying donations shouldn’t replace duties that would be better carried out by the state.

Last week, Microsoft founder Bill Gates attempted to convince billionaires around the world to agree to give away half their money to charity. But in Germany, the “Giving Pledge,” backed by 40 of the world’s wealthiest people, including Gates and Warren Buffett, has met with skepticism, SPIEGEL has learned.

“For most people that is too ostentatious,” said the asset manager of one of the billionaires contacted by Gates, adding that many of the people contacted had already transferred larger proportions of their assets than the Americans to charitable foundations.

Dietmar Hopp, the co-founder of the SAP business software company, has transferred some €2.9 billion to a foundation. Klaus Tschira, another founder of SAP, has handed more than half of his wealth to a foundation.

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Peter Krämer, a Hamburg-based shipping magnate and multimillionaire, has emerged as one of the strongest critics of the “Giving Pledge.” Krämer, who donated millions of euros in 2005 to “Schools for Africa,” a program operated by UNICEF, explained his opposition to the Gates initiative in a SPIEGEL interview.

Spiegel: Forty superwealthy Americans have just announced that they would donate half of their assets, at the very latest after their deaths. As a person who often likes to say that rich people should be asked to contribute more to society, what were your first thoughts?

Krämer: I find the U.S. initiative highly problematic. You can write donations off in your taxes to a large degree in the USA. So the rich make a choice: Would I rather donate or pay taxes? The donors are taking the place of the state. That’s unacceptable.

Spiegel: But doesn’t the money that is donated serve the common good?

Krämer: It is all just a bad transfer of power from the state to billionaires. So it’s not the state that determines what is good for the people, but rather the rich want to decide. That’s a development that I find really bad. What legitimacy do these people have to decide where massive sums of money will flow?

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Spiegel: It is their money at the end of the day.

Krämer: In this case, 40 superwealthy people want to decide what their money will be used for. That runs counter to the democratically legitimate state. In the end the billionaires are indulging in hobbies that might be in the common good, but are very personal.

Spiegel: Do the donations also have to do with the fact that the idea of state and society is such a different one in the United States?

Krämer: Yes, one cannot forget that the U.S. has a desolate social system and that alone is reason enough that donations are already a part of everyday life there. But it would have been a greater deed on the part of Mr. Gates or Mr. Buffett if they had given the money to small communities in the U.S. so that they can fulfill public duties.

Spiegel: Should wealthy Germans also give up some of their money?

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Krämer: No, not in this form. It would make more sense, for example, to work with and donate to established organizations.