Does German cabinet have crisis managers?

The Great Fuhrer had five top class crisis managers who handled the entire bureaucracy of the Third Reich. Let us look at the German cabinet of today. Do they have at-least a single cabinet minister who could rise to the occasion? My thoughts:

Let me give details of the five great crisis managers who served Adolf Hitler:

1. Joseph Goebbels: Managing public image of the Government and guardian of German morale in addition to handling task of Reich Plenipotentiary.

2. Heinrich Himmler: Head of the SS and German police in charge of domestic security as well as to be ready at any time to face emergency situation.

3. Albert Speer: As Minister of Armaments he was a super crisis manager consolidating geoeconomics as well as boosting domestic production capacity.

4. Martin Bormann: He had multiple hats: Head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, Hitler’s Private Secretary and Cofidente’ of the Fuhrer.  He also had responsibility for resolving disputes and disagreement within the party as well as in macro political structure.

5. Hermann Göring: As the crisis manager par excellence he went on consolidating power in Prussia along with establishing & managing the Gestapo.

So far to my knowledge there is not a single note-worthy person in the present German cabinet who could match the skills and professionalism of those served in the Third Reich.

Here are few issues of broader strategy and geoeconomics bedevilling present day Germany:

1. The IMF World’s 20 Largest Economies Forecast in 2026 identifies GDP Growth Rate of India 6.5% at first place, Poland 3.3 % at fourth place and Germany at seventeenth place with a mere 0.8%.

2. Does this mean Germans are poor savers and not contributing to the domestic economy? No my friend! Here is the snippet of Net Household Saving Rate by Country, where Sweden 16.0% holds first place and Germany is placed 6^th with 11.2 %.

3. Now emerges one of the real crisis facing the Aryan land: Kazakh oil supplies heading toward Germany via Druzhba pipeline is to be diverted beginning 1/5/2026, according to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, effectively outlawing Germany as a recipient.

By the way, Transneft Druzhba who owns Druzhba network of pipelines connecting Russian and Kazakh oil with several countries including Germany, is under Russian management. Germany imports about 43,000 barrels per day of Kazakh oil through this pipeline to its PCK refinery in Schwedt. Even though this quantum constitutes only 17% of the refinery's processed crude, serving Berlin and Brandenburg, rising of demand would hikes up the need for more Kazakh oil.

On paper, Germany has effectively ended its dependence on Russian crude oil supplies, but she still needs Kazakh supplies. The only alternative is to depend on two countries: Norway and USA!

Navigating strategy amid geoeconomics, therefore, requires the emergence of excellent crisis managers similar to those under the Fuhrer.

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff Rajulu

Strategy Adviser

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail: cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Strategy Adviser