Podcast „Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum“

The whole country knows him from the commercials with the talking monkey: For more than half a century, Wolfgang Grupp led the textile manufacturer Trigema. At the beginning of the year, the patriarch handed over the company to his children. His son, Wolfgang Grupp Junior, and his daughter, Bonita Grupp, are managing partners.

In the podcast 'Alles Neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum' the siblings talk about their succession, political involvement, and plans for the future. Bonita Grupp, who recently took a seat for the CDU on the Zollernalbkreis district council, explains why she is getting involved in politics. "As the business community, we can't always complain if we don't get involved and try to bring economic issues into regional politics," she says. She also talks about a study on Trigema during the Nazi era, which the Grupp family commissioned in 2020. Today, the company is part of the initiative 'Made in Germany. Made by Diversity,' which was recently harshly criticized by Björn Höcke, the head of the AfD in Thuringia. The response to Trigema’s participation in the initiative has mostly been positive, says Wolfgang Grupp Junior. "But we've also received emails saying we have blood on our hands or are responsible for Solingen." Regarding their succession, he says, "At the moment, we've been placed in a ready-made nest and are being allowed to give it a try. But whether we are capable of it remains to be seen." In the podcast, the two also answer another important question: What's next for the monkey?"

How can the origin and future of Mittelstand companies be courageously united? What are the challenges facing family businesses and what experiences do they gather in digital transformation? These questions are answered by “Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum“, the interview podcast for German Mittelstand*. Once a month, Tobias Rappers, Managing Director of Maschinenraum, and Nils Kreimeier, Senior Editor of the business magazine Capital, talk to thought leaders and makers from the heart of the German economy and focus on the personalities and their motivation. *The podcast is in German.

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