Thorsten Schulte

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Thorsten Schulte , pseudonym Silberjunge (born March 18, 1973 ), is a German management consultant and bestselling author. In his political publications he advocates conspiracy theories and practices historical revisionism . Critics assign him to the new right populism and see him as an AfD sympathizer.

Life

Thorsten Schulte completed an apprenticeship as a banker. From 1999 to mid-2008 he worked as an investment banker for DZ-Bank in Frankfurt, in between for HSH Nordbank and for a short time also for Deutsche Bank . He then went into business for himself as a management consultant.

Between 2010 and 2019 Thorsten Schulte published four non-fiction books, the first two on investment issues, the last two on political issues. As a “FOCUS online expert”, he also writes guest columns in Focus . In 2016 he founded the initiative "Pro Bargeld - Pro Freiheit eV" with Bernd Lucke

In his opinion, his publications were partially boycotted by the German book trade because they were viewed as close to the AfD , conspiracy theory and populist . Georg Meck (FAZ) suspects that it was only the rejection of booksellers who increased interest in the publication. The bookstore chain Thalia then changed its sales policy.

Political activity

Schulte joined the Junge Union at the age of 14 and was a member of the CDU until October 2015 .

In 1994 he was the campaign manager of Laurenz Meyer when he ran unsuccessfully for the office of Lord Mayor in Hamm .

In the 2017 federal election campaign , he gave (according to his own statement as a non-party) lectures at AfD events in which he dealt with the topics of his books and his association.

Memberships and functions

Since 2016 he has been chairman of the “Pro Bargeld - Pro Freiheit” association registered in Bautzen . Schulte denies a "political legal bias" of the association.

Publications

Loss of Control (2017)

Schultes third book, loss of control , reaching loud Buchreport end of September 2017 the first place of the non-fiction bestseller list of the mirror . Willy Wimmer wrote the foreword “Freedom we mean” .

Georg Meck ( FAZ ) characterizes the content of the book as “what AfD supporters like to read, but also what CDU / CSU people have already formulated.” With this he refers to the breaches of contract in refugees claimed by Schulte - such as the euro -Crisis regarding the Dublin Agreement and the Maastricht Treaty , as well as the zero interest rate policy of ECB President Mario Draghi . In addition, Schulte is fighting against the abolition of cash , for more direct democracy and for the freedom to carry weapons in Germany . However, in Schulte, who comes from the middle of society, as is to be expected, Meck does not find any calls for violence, nor any “nationalist, right-wing extremist ideas”. In Schulte's opinion, the Union had betrayed its values ​​and had radicalized itself, a thesis with which, according to Meck, he was “based on the frustrated and ostracized in the CDU”.

Gerrit Bartels thinks the book goes well with the Kopp Verlag range . In the review of the Tagesspiegel, he highlights Schulte's criticism of the Merkel's government's financial and refugee policy, his plea for keeping cash, his investment advice. According to Schultes, Merkel has committed a breach of the law in immigration policy, Schulte also calculates the immense costs of immigration and "in this context" speaks out in favor of the alleged natural right to self-defense through private firearms.

"Thorsten Schulte teaches the creeps with his conspiracy-theoretic book, and on the relevant Internet pages there are once again the usual accusations that the" mainstream media "and the book trade are ignoring and boycotting the book. What only promotes his success - a book success that fits into the picture after the AfD moved into the Bundestag, especially since Schulte gave lectures at AfD election campaign events. Da-didel-dum, populism is going on. "

Denis Scheck described Schulte in the ARD telecast off the press in 2017 because of the statements in loss of control as "crazy conspiracy theorist"

"Seldom have I had the impression of being so directly connected to the circuit of populist madness as in this pamphlet by an investment banker who warns of the impending abolition of our cash - and in his appeal to strengthen individual rights of freedom also calls for firearms for everyone. "

Externally determined (2019)

In the foreword Schulte explains his objective: He wants to show that political development leads to a controlled democracy in which democracy is only fooled the citizens. For Schulte, the forces that strive for the opposite of freedom and truth are “part of a plutocracy, a rule of wealth, if not a kleptocracy (...). Resolving them is the aim of my book. I understand it as a wake-up call combined with a call. We have to understand the gain in knowledge as a mandate to act. "

In the introduction he gives an overview of the content: In the first part he shows how “the USA and Great Britain drove a wedge between Germany and Russia and are constantly driving, how our view of history is ingeniously falsified and propaganda penetrates our minds.” The second Part is devoted to the “party state as a phenomenon of decline of the republic”, the, in his opinion, directed and controlled mediocracy (rule of mediocrity) .

After Kopp Verlag and FinanzBuch Verlag were not ready to publish the title, the title is now being published by its own publisher VFFW (Verlag für Frieden, Freiheit & Truth GmbH).

Positions

Investments, mostly silver

In 2010 he explained why he has been betting on silver since 2001. He started from the economic importance of silver and based, among other things, on an expert report by the federal government that in 2030 78% of the total silver production would be "absorbed" by future technologies . With an 80% probability of occurrence, he was convinced that the price of silver would rise to 25 to 30 dollars in 2010/11 and even to 100 dollars per troy ounce in 2012/13. "We are convinced that silver will start at $ 100 by 2012/13." He explained deviations from these forecasts due to the changed economic situation and the manipulation of the price via 4 large anonymous players on the silver market. Schulte advocates “ anti-cyclical investing ” and therefore promotes silver as an investment, which is why he calls himself “silver boy”. He sees physical possession of silver as the best protection against inflation.

Cash

Schulte assumes that the “ financial establishment ” wants to enforce a cash-free society in which “ transparent citizens ” are monitored by the state. In addition, the “defenseless savers” without cash could be expropriated directly to rescue banks in the event of imminent bank failures and gradually expropriated through negative interest rates .

“Without cash, the saver cannot escape the negative interest rates of the European Central Bank. (...) Without cash, consumer behavior for the large corporations will also be completely transparent. Good for the economy, but is it really beneficial for all of us? The development in Sweden is a wake-up call for those who value cash. "

Cryptocurrencies

Schulte believes that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will not remain anonymous and free from government control. He also cites the cryptologist Adi Shamir : "At some point governments will intervene violently and restrict and punish the use of Bitcoin for illegal purposes - that will be the time when the value will fall sharply". According to Schulte, cryptocurrencies, like paper money, are only dependent on the continued trust of investors. Voltaire's phrase also applies to this : “Sooner or later, paper money will return to its intrinsic value - zero”.

ECB

Schulte criticizes the ECB for its zero interest rate policy , the bond purchases and for alleged lack of transparency. He asked Draghi in a press conference about the consequences of the ECB's policies. With its bond purchases, the ECB is primarily helping the large corporations, he told Draghi:

“The purchases of corporate bonds lower the yields on these bonds and raise the prices of the bonds. As a result, corporations can get money on the capital market cheaper than ever. (...) With the money they can then buy up competitors, especially small and medium-sized companies, cheaply. Even huge mergers such as Bayer's acquisition of Monsanto are possible. "

The distortion of competition would disadvantage small and medium-sized enterprises, said Schulte, whereupon Draghi took the opposite view. Schulte, Allianz, Daimler, Volkswagen, Shell and Enel, but also Swiss companies such as Nestle, Roche, Novartis and even Glencore , said that among the almost 200 corporations that had benefited from the acquisitions . When he asked Draghi about it, the latter left the question completely unanswered.

criticism

Daniel Schönwitz from Wirtschaftswoche counts Schulte among those financial experts and service providers who work “with gloomy forecasts” and at the same time “propagate simple solutions”, which is “strikingly reminiscent of the populists in politics”.

Christoph Giesa , to whom Schönwitz refers, sees behind the investment advice the conviction that a crash alone enables a system change - away from the euro, the ECB and the EU. He considers the investment strategies to be politically motivated.

Schulte published some of his non-fiction books in the controversial Kopp-Verlag, which publishes, among other things, right-wing populist, conspiracy theory and esoteric book titles. Schulte commented on his choice of publisher that he had made a conscious decision to do so out of solidarity with the publisher and authors, because he rejects "conviction terror", although he is not a friend of esoteric and UFO literature. He published his book External Determination: 120 Years of Lies and Deception (see above).

Publications

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dresden District Court, Register of Associations VR 9694
  2. ↑ (Spiegel bestseller hardcover over 24 weeks: 1st place in 40/2017) book report . Retrieved September 27, 2019 (German).
  3. ↑ FOCUS Online: Thorsten Schulte - Experts - Finances. Retrieved November 10, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Georg Meck: Controversial bestselling author: Der Provokateur . In: FAZ.NET . November 9, 2017, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed March 26, 2018]).
  5. ↑ a b Ex-CDU member from Hamm ends up with Merkel criticism in the bestseller list in the Westfälischer Anzeiger on August 25, 2017
  6. ↑ a b FOCUS Online: Thorsten Schulte - Experts - Finances. Retrieved November 10, 2019 .
  7. ^ Georg Meck: Controversial bestselling author: The provocateur . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed November 10, 2019]).
  8. ^ Georg Meck: Controversial bestselling author: The provocateur . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed November 10, 2019]).
  9. ^ Georg Meck: Controversial bestselling author: The provocateur . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed November 10, 2019]).
  10. ↑ On Sunday the AfD will move into the Bundestag. Your luck there could soon end again: Let off steam with the AfD , Jungle World , September 21, 2017
  11. ↑ Hanning Voigts: Fear about the cash. Frankfurter Rundschau , August 23, 2016, accessed on September 26, 2017 .
  12. ^ Georg Meck: Controversial bestselling author: The provocateur . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed November 10, 2019]).
  13. ^ Right-hand book “Loss of Control”: Silvered Populism , Der Tagesspiegel , October 2, 2017
  14. ↑ Denis Scheck comments on the top ten non-fiction books | Hot off the press. Accessed November 30, 2017 (German).
  15. ↑ External determination: 120 years of lies and deception, pp. 5.ff (foreword)
  16. ↑ External determination: 120 years of lies and deception. Explosive and revealing! | The new book by Spiegel bestselling author Thorsten Schulte. Retrieved August 2, 2020 .
  17. ↑ In conversation: silver expert Thorsten Schulte: "New highs in the silver price are only a matter of time" . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed November 17, 2019]).
  18. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH: Precious metals: Silver is actually ripe for a correction. April 21, 2011, accessed November 30, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Silver price development in USD | Silver chart in dollars | Silver price trend. Retrieved November 17, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Andreas Toller: Silberjunge: "Silver is the best protection against inflation". Accessed on November 17, 2019 : “According to the futures market supervisory authority, the four biggest players on the silver futures market made net short sales of a peak of 278 million troy ounces in November 2012. That corresponds to 37 percent of mine production in one year. In no other commodity do we see such a dominant position of the four largest players. However, the supervisory authority does not reveal who these players are. Even now, almost 195 million ounces, more than a quarter of the annual production, are moved there. "
  21. ↑ Daniel Eckert: Silver: The metal is booming more than gold. In: welt.de . May 19, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2017 .
  22. ↑ "New highs in the silver price are only a matter of time". In: FAZ.net . August 24, 2010. Retrieved September 29, 2017 .
  23. ↑ Andreas Toller: Silberjunge: "Silver is the best protection against inflation". Retrieved November 17, 2019 .
  24. ↑ FOCUS Online: That would be really awesome! Will there be no more cash in Sweden soon? Retrieved November 10, 2019 .
  25. ↑ FOCUS Online: With Bitcoins, anonymity can be over quickly. Retrieved November 10, 2019 .
  26. ↑ FOCUS Online: The ECB has already bought bonds from almost 200 corporations - even from Swiss. Retrieved November 10, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Daniel Schönwitz: Crash Protection: Investors lure with the fear of doom. In: wiwo.de. May 3, 2017. Retrieved September 29, 2017 .
  28. ^ Liane Bednarz, Christoph Giesa: Dangerous citizens. The new right takes hold of the center. Carl Hanser Verlag Munich, August 24, 2015
  29. ^ Lara Malberger: CDU members for the AfD. correctiv , September 17, 2017, accessed September 26, 2017 .
  30. ↑ SPIEGEL list: The best-selling books . In: Spiegel Online . September 12, 2014 ( spiegel.de [accessed September 17, 2017]).
  31. ^ Georg Meck: Controversial bestselling author: The provocateur . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed November 10, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Schulte, Thorsten
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Silver boy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German management consultant and non-fiction author
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1973