While the governing coalition was scraping together the last billions to put together a constitutional budget for 2024, while rhino and coronavirus drove sickness rates in Germany to record highs, ZDF hosted a spreader event for the EJR virus (envy, jealousy, resentment). At prime time, the public broadcaster took its audience of millions on a journey into "The secret world of the super-rich: the billion-dollar game". To Monaco, where countless luxury yachts glisten in the sun in the harbour. To the private jet of Capri Sun billionaire Hans-Peter Wild. To the exclusive China Club Berlin, the "second home" of multimillionaire and wealth researcher Rainer Zitelmann. A few wealthy busybodies then stand for the 237 billionaire families in Germany that the author duo claims to have tracked down, but unfortunately, none of them wanted to be in front of the camera. Presumably, they had a hunch of the distorting context in which they would have been placed in this keyhole report, in which an "informant" from the tax consultancy sector claims in an anonymous interview that it is possible to reduce the tax rate on investment income to less than one per cent by legal means. Fact check? Not a chance!  As if to prove it, a few covertly shot film snippets from a tax conference are shown, in which a head of department from the Federal Ministry of Finance allegedly talks about the toolbox of aggressive tax planning.

If the film about the super-rich were shown late at night on RTL 2 or Vox, it would have the right trash TV environment. But broadcast at prime time on a public broadcaster financed by licence fees, such a documentary makes a devastating contribution to the Germans' already poor financial education. All the prejudices against entrepreneurship and economic success are catered for and garnished with a "secret list" and names such as Quandt, Klatten, Schwarz, Merck, Reimann, Kühne, Albrecht, Porsche, Henkel, Otto, etc. Not a word about the economic significance of entrepreneurial families and their achievements as innovators, taxpayers, investors, venture capitalists, benefactors, and patrons. Instead, completely skewed comparisons about the alleged tax rates of the rich in Germany of over 60% in the 1990s compared to just under 25% today.

Speaking of the super-rich: According to data from Boston Consulting's Global Wealth Report, there are 2,900 super-rich people in Germany. These are people with financial assets of more than 100 million dollars. They hold a fifth of Germans' financial assets totaling 9 trillion euros. What is often overlooked: The entitlements of "poor" German employees to statutory pension insurance, company pensions and civil servant pensions total 7.5 trillion euros.

Dieter Schwarz is right at the top of the list of the wealthiest Germans. The "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" recently profiled the publicity-shy Lidl founder and retail tycoon, who transferred his group of companies to a foundation 20 years ago, which donates part of the proceeds to charitable causes. The most recent example is the establishment of a research centre for artificial intelligence in Heilbronn, the birthplace of the 84-year-old. In cooperation with ETH Zurich, the Schwarz Foundation is financing 20 new professorships over a period of 30 years. They are intended to help make Heilbronn the largest ecosystem for AI in Europe. Many entrepreneurs and their families give large parts of their wealth back to society through foundations, not only in the USA but also in Germany. Those who stubbornly focus on the allegedly too low taxes of rich entrepreneurs remain one-eyed – and don't see any better with the second eye – contrary to the broadcaster's stated claim.