Family Business Foundation

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Family Business Foundation
Logo of the family business foundation
Legal form: non-profit foundation under civil law
Purpose: Research funding and advocacy
Chair: Rainer Kirchdörfer, Ulrich Stoll
Managing directors: Stefan Heidbreder
Consist: since 2002
Founder: Brun-Hagen Hennerkes
Seat: Munich , GermanyGermanyGermany 
Website: www.familienunternehmen.de

The Family Business Foundation is a non-profit foundation under civil law with its headquarters in Munich and a representative office in Berlin near the Reichstag building . It has existed since 2002 and advocates the interests of large family businesses . To this end, it promotes scientific work related to family businesses and also organizes events.

The foundation is accused of specifically lobbying . It is registered with the German Bundestag as an interest group .

history

Scientific advisory board of the Family Business Foundation in front of the representative office in Berlin in 2019.

In 2002, Brun-Hagen Hennerkes founded the Family Business Foundation. The aim was to give the interests of such companies an institutional framework. According to Hennerke’s assessment, they were previously only noticed selectively.

One of the first projects of the Family Business Foundation was a series of events in which the generation change was identified as a structural problem for family-run companies. In order to assess the competitiveness of Germany as a location more precisely, the foundation commissioned the first studies from the Mannheim Center for European Economic Research and the Bonn Institute for SME Research .

Against the background of the debate about the reform of the taxation of companies, the Foundation for Family Businesses advocated relief of business assets in the context of inheritance tax . She rejected the much discussed reintroduction of a wealth tax. The taxation of family businesses has remained an important topic of their activities over the years. However, she also dealt with other questions, such as the return on investment and equity ratio of listed family businesses and the influence of the founding families.

In 2012 the foundation opened the "House of the Family Business" on Pariser Platz in Berlin-Mitte . There she seeks dialogue with representatives from politics and the public. Due to its proximity to the Bundestag and the federal government, it moved into the focus of its critics.

Foundation structure

The Foundation for Family is an unincorporated foundation under civil law . It was built in accordance with the provisions of the Foundation Act for Baden-Württemberg. According to the statutes, their purpose extends to “promotion, information, education and upbringing” as well as the “exchange of scientific experience in the field of family entrepreneurship in Europe”, for example through public relations measures . The foundation pursues tax-privileged purposes within the meaning of the tax code .

The executive board has the position of a legal representative and consists of at least two and a maximum of four members. Their term of office is five years. The board of trustees elects the board members. The committee is currently made up of Rainer Kirchdörfer and Ulrich Stoll. The board of directors has appointed a manager to handle the ongoing work . Stefan Heidbreder performs this function.

The board of trustees monitors the work of the foundation. It has at least five members whose term of office is also five years. The Board of Trustees expands itself by election and consists of 47 people (as of May 2020). More than two thirds of the members represent large companies with an annual turnover of more than 100 million euros. Examples are Henkel , Merck and the Theo Müller group of companies . Asset managers are also represented.

The Board of Trustees of the Family Business Foundation is supplemented by a scientific advisory board that advises companies and politics in topics that affect family businesses. Its chairman is Rainer Kirchdörfer, other members are Tina Ehrke-Rabel, Udo Di Fabio , Gabriel Felbermayr , Clemens Fuest , Hans-Werner Sinn and Kay Windthorst .

The Family Businesses Foundation is a member of the Federal Association of German Foundations and follows its principles of good foundation practice.

financing

The supporters of the Family Business Foundation include around 500 companies from among the largest German family businesses. According to the company, there are no individual donations that make up more than ten percent of the total annual income.

activities

In a wide variety of projects, the foundation deals with the importance and needs of family businesses , i.e. companies that are significantly influenced by a family or family group. To this end, she maintains contact with representatives from business, science, politics and the media, for example at events and congresses. In response to the global economic and financial crisis , the foundation positioned family-run companies as an alternative to capital market-oriented forms of organization.

The foundation promotes scientific work in the field of family businesses. To this end, it regularly awards study contracts to individual scientists or research institutes. It also supports institutions such as the Witten Institute for Family Business at the University of Witten / Herdecke , the Friedrichshafen Institute for Family Business at the Zeppelin University , the Research Center for Family Business at the University of Bayreuth , the Institute for Family Businesses Ostwestfalen-Lippe at the University of Bielefeld and the Corvinus Center of Family Business at Corvinus University Budapest . The foundation also supports dissertations and post- doctoral theses .

Events (selection)
  • Family Business Career Day (since 2007)
  • German Family Business Day (since 2008)
Publications (selection)
  • Country index family businesses . Family Business Foundation, ISSN  2566-8544 (since 2006).
  • Germany's next generation of entrepreneurs . Family Business Foundation, Munich, DNB  1027875459 (since 2011).
  • Annual monitor of the Family Business Foundation . Family Business Foundation, Munich (since 2017).

criticism

When assessing the activities of the Family Business Foundation, on the one hand the importance of the economic, employment and regional political as well as social stabilization function of family businesses must be recognized, which has been emphasized again and again since the 1980s - especially in times of crisis. In return, falling profits were partly accepted. On the other hand, it must be taken into account that the German family businesses are often not small or medium-sized companies, but also large and very large companies that have an impact on the work of the foundation.

In 2015 Lisa Paus ( Bundestag parliamentary group Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen ) questioned the charitable status of the Family Business Foundation. The Stuttgarter Nachrichten quoted them with the assumption that “individual material advantages” of the owner families would determine the purposes of the foundation. At the same point, Lothar Binding ( SPD parliamentary group ) also spoke, who described the foundation's activities as “rock-hard lobbying”.

The non-profit association Lobbycontrol was similarly critical in 2016. Among other things, it objected to the composition of the board of trustees, on which there are hardly any representatives of medium-sized companies. Lobbycontrol described the foundation as very opaque, as it does not publish an annual report, sources of funding or other information on its budget.

In 2017, the parliamentary group Die Linke addressed the political influence of the Family Business Foundation in a small question , for example through congresses, lectures and other events. The occasion was discussions about the introduction of a wealth tax and the reform of the inheritance tax . The Federal Government replied that the Federal Ministry of Finance was "in principle in contact with all representatives from the (financial) political, economic, scientific and civil society sectors".

In the same year, the online magazine Krautreporter reported on the targeted influencing of politicians by the Family Business Foundation as part of the amendment to inheritance tax law. Upon request, she was unable to provide concrete evidence of the presumed threat to jobs from inheritance tax.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Imprint. Family Business Foundation, accessed on February 10, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c Christina Deckwirth: Inheritance Tax: Who are the lobbyists of the rich? Lobby control, September 21, 2016, accessed on August 28, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Lobby organization: common benefit. In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten. August 31, 2015, accessed November 2, 2019 .
  4. ↑ lobby list. German Bundestag, accessed on June 17, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Anja Müller: Brun-Hagen Hennerkes: The loudspeaker of the family business. In: Handelsblatt. June 22, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Jörg Eigendorf: The networker . Brun-Hagen Hennerkes has given family businesses in Germany a face. In: The world . October 2, 2009, p. 12 .
  7. ↑ Brun-Hagen Hennerkes, Rainer Kirchdörfer: The family and their company: strategy, liquidity, control . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt a Main 2015, ISBN 978-3-593-50266-3 , p. 539 .
  8. ↑ Brun-Hagen Hennerkes: A successful model threatens to wither . The problems of family businesses are only sporadically noticed. In: Der Tagesspiegel . June 16, 1996.
  9. ↑ Birgit Gehrmann: When things get hot in the family business . In: Handelsblatt . September 12, 2005, p. 4 .
  10. ↑ Daniel Mohr: Fear of the generation change . In: Der Tagesspiegel . October 2, 2005, p. 26 .
  11. ↑ Germany is not ideal for family businesses . In: Bonner General-Anzeiger . March 30, 2006, p. 22 .
  12. ↑ Joachim Weber: Many family businesses are doing better abroad . In: Handelsblatt . April 4, 2006, p. 21 .
  13. ↑ Bernd Hops: Family companies feel disadvantaged . Company: Current tax debate ignores the problems. In: Der Tagesspiegel . March 1, 2005, p. 15 ( tagesspiegel.de [accessed June 22, 2020]).
  14. ↑ Economy criticizes inheritance tax reform . In: Financial Times Germany . April 20, 2006 ( genios.de [accessed on June 22, 2020] via GBI-Genios ).
  15. ↑ Sven Afhüppe, Bert Fröndhoff: Schwieriges Erbe . In: Handelsblatt . February 1, 2007, p. 2 ( handelsblatt.com [accessed June 22, 2020]).
  16. ↑ Carsten Dierig, Olaf Gersemann: Economy railed against wealth tax . In: Welt am Sonntag . April 19, 2009, p. 1 .
  17. ↑ Marc Beise: Wealth tax as poison. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. May 29, 2017, accessed April 21, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Andrea Frühauf: Unequal tax burden . In: New Westphalian . March 3, 2016.
  19. ↑ Carsten Knop: Family businesses pay more . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . March 2, 2016.
  20. ↑ Elizabeth Dostert: Study: Family business operate more successfully. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. August 26, 2019, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Jens Castner: Market Report: The stock exchange ignores entrepreneurial virtues. In: finanzen.net. October 23, 2009, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Wolfgang Gillmann: Study: Family businesses are strong. In: Handelsblatt. October 20, 2009, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  23. ↑ House of the family business. Family Business Foundation, accessed on June 18, 2020 .
  24. ↑ The Family Business Foundation positions itself close to the government. Active Citizenship Foundation, March 2012, accessed on April 10, 2019 .
  25. ↑ A new place for dialogue with politics. The house of the family business is to become a meeting point. In: The capital letter. April 23, 2012, accessed April 10, 2019 .
  26. ↑ Rich, powerful, in the center of the capital - the lobby of the super-rich company heirs. Campact, August 2, 2016, accessed April 10, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Rico Grimm: How rich families manipulate the inheritance debate. Krautreporter, September 21, 2017, accessed April 10, 2019 .
  28. ^ Articles of Association. Family Business Foundation, accessed April 10, 2019 .
  29. ↑ Board of Directors and Management. Family Business Foundation, accessed on February 10, 2019 .
  30. ↑ Board of Trustees. Family Business Foundation, accessed on May 21, 2020 .
  31. ↑ Scientific Advisory Board. Family Business Foundation, accessed on May 21, 2020 .
  32. ^ Directory of German foundations. Federal Association of German Foundations, accessed on April 10, 2019 .
  33. ↑ Transparency. Family Business Foundation, accessed April 10, 2019 .
  34. ↑ Anja Müller: Family Entrepreneur Day: Banger look into the world. In: Handelsblatt. June 25, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2019 .
  35. ↑ Inga Michler: Growth without pressure from the stock exchange. In: The world. May 8, 2007, p. 12 , accessed May 18, 2020 .
  36. ^ Brun-Hagen Hennerkes: Closing ranks in times of crisis . Even in family businesses, liquidity problems are combined with shrinking sales and declining earnings. In: Handelsblatt . March 16, 2009, p. 8 .
  37. ↑ Martin Buchenau: In the crisis, family businesses outperform the heavyweights in the DAX . In: Handelsblatt . November 24, 2009, p. 30 .
  38. ↑ Scientific work and funding. Family Business Foundation, accessed on March 5, 2020 .
  39. ↑ Career day a great success . In: Südwest Presse . October 24, 2007, p. 21 .
  40. ↑ Christoph Hardt: Everything stays in the family . In: Handelsblatt . June 17, 2008, p. 9 .
  41. ↑ Nadine Schlömer-Laufen, Christoph Lamsfuß, Jutta Große, Simone Chlosta: Economic development of large family and non-family businesses - a balance sheet analysis for the period 2008 to 2013 . In: IfM materials . No. 235 . Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM), Bonn 2014 ( ifm-bonn.org [PDF; accessed on July 6, 2020]).
  42. ↑ Carsten Dierig: The underestimated power of family businesses. In: world. June 16, 2016, accessed July 6, 2020 .
  43. ↑ Markus Grabitz: MPs: Remove tax privilege from lobby groups. In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten. August 31, 2015, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  44. ↑ Printed matter 19/52. (PDF) German Bundestag, November 13, 2017, accessed on April 10, 2019 (107 KB).
  45. ↑ Printed matter 19/152. (PDF) German Bundestag, November 29, 2017, accessed April 10, 2019 (121 KB).
  46. ↑ How Rich Families Manipulate the Inheritance Debate. Krautreporter , September 21, 2017, accessed September 24, 2017 .