Henry Mathews (corporate critic)
Henry Mathews (born June 15, 1966 in Berlin , † July 30, 2006 in Sweden ) was a German journalist, corporate critic and managing director of the umbrella association of critical shareholders . From 1993 until his sudden death, he was its managing director and spokesman. He was a prominent corporate critic who used the opportunities provided by stock corporation law to indict human rights, social and ecological misconduct by German banks and companies.
Career
The trained landscape gardener Henry Mathews became aware of the practices of the Schering Group during his training at the age of 18 . a. alleged that the working conditions in the company's Peruvian factory in Lima caused massive health problems for the workers, or that the company did not admit to its guilt regarding forced labor during the Second World War . In this context, he got to know the BUKO pharmaceutical campaign and the coordination against BAYER dangers (CBG). Based on the model of this network, he founded the SCHERING Action Network (SCHAN), an international association for the critical support of the Berlin pharmaceutical company. When he was only 20 years old, the coordination against BAYER dangers offered him a very modest position as managing director of the organization. At this point, Mathews had already enrolled for a university course, but dropped it in order to devote himself entirely to corporate criticism and accepted the job offer. At the same time, he developed extensive journalistic activities.
In the same year, Henry Mathews founded the umbrella association of critical shareholders together with Helmut Paschlau and Axel Köhler-Schnura . Like many action groups in the Anglo-Saxon world, this association used the provisions of company law to indict social, ecological and human rights misconduct by corporations and banks.
Mathews encouraged supporters and share-owned members to give the association voting rights for registered shares . Equipped with the voting rights, the critical shareholders were now able not only to speak at general meetings of large German corporations, but also to submit proposals in advance, which corporations are legally obliged to distribute to all shareholders. Mathews opened the way to these forums for so many non-governmental organizations and social movements.
The annual general meetings of virtually all major corporations, including Deutsche Telekom , Daimler Chrysler , Deutsche Bank , Dresdner Bank , Siemens, and Bayer AG , were among the shareholders' meetings Mathews regularly attended . With his routine and committed demeanor, he often brought corporations into distress, whose activities were feared for ecological or social damage. His commitment was one of the decisive factors in Deutsche Bank's exit from a planned gold mining project in the village of Olympiada in the immediate vicinity of ancient Stageira , the birthplace of Aristotle ; this threatened u. a. to endanger the environment of the Chalkidiki peninsula and the ancient heritage through massive use of cyanides . His special commitment was the final dissolution of IG Farben , with whose assets he wanted to see survivors of forced labor, such as the Auschwitz III Monowitz concentration camp, compensated. For this he campaigned together with representatives of Auschwitz survivors such as Hans Frankenthal, who died in 1999 .
On July 30, 2006, on the second day of a vacation in Sweden, Mathews suffered cardiac arrest and passed away. His urn was buried on September 5, 2006 in Berlin-Schöneberg . His early and completely unexpected death caused a wide public response; Obituaries appeared in several national German daily newspapers.
In his honor, the governing body of Critical Shareholders has awarded the Henry Mathews Prize since 2007 .
Obituaries
- Frankfurter Rundschau , August 4, 2006 Fight against greed for profit. Obituary for Henry Mathews
- Pascal Beucker : Steadfastly critical of capitalism , taz NRW of August 4, 2006, p. 2
- Hermannus Pfeifer: Sting in the flesh of the DAX corporations , in taz of September 4, 2006
- Association of Citizens' Initiatives for Environmental Protection e. V .: With Henry Mathews, the committed corporate criticism is losing a wise head. On the death of Henry Mathews
- Axel Köhler-Schnura : A courageous heart has stopped beating. Obituary for Henry Mathews. In: Neue Rheinische Zeitung
- Markus Dufner: CEOs had respect. Obituary for Henry Mathews , in: Neues Deutschland , August 4, 2006
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schering-Aktion-Netzwerk and Henry Mathews (ed.): "Schering - The pill makes power - reports on the business of Schering", Schmetterling Verlag, Stuttgart, 1992, 196 pages, DM 22.80, ISBN 3-926369- 42-6
- ↑ Deutsche Bank drops gold project
- ↑ "The gaming shareholders woke up" ( memento of the original from October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Interview of the Hessischer Rundfunk with Henry Mathews
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mathews, Henry |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German journalist and corporate critic |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 15, 1966 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 30, 2006 |
| Place of death | Sweden |