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Written by David Cohen for SouthFront
The statement “One person, one vote” finds its counter-confirmation in the fact that opinion-making billionaires can mobilize many votes for their purposes. An impressive example of this are Bill Gates and George Soros. Bill Gates has invested more than 46 billion euros in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, while George Soros gave a whopping 18 billion euros to his Open Society Foundations in 2017. Together, these two billionaires have mobilized over 64 billion euros to realize their social ideas.
But these two foundations are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many such foundations with similar, if not the same, goals.
According to internet research, the German Mercator Foundation was founded by the Karl Schmidt family. The foundation has endowment capital of 116.8 million euros. In 2022, the foundation approved a total of 91 projects with a funding amount of 58 million euros. Since the start of its activities, Stiftung Mercator has spent a total of around 798 million euros. The Mercator Foundation awards scholarships and supports student exchanges.
According to internet sources, the Amadeu Antonio Foundation was founded in 1998 on the initiative of Anetta Kahane and is a recognized non-profit German foundation under civil law with its headquarters in Heidelberg and an office in Berlin. The foundation capital amounted to 1,146,489 euros in 2020. In 2018, the foundation had income of 4.33 million euros, of which 2.77 million euros were state grants, 1.52 million euros were donations and 43,000 euros were other income. Since its founding, the foundation has provided support in the form of scholarships and assistance with student exchanges totaling undisclosed amounts.
The previously mentioned foundations, like many others, work more or less together. They support a variety of NGOs that pursue different goals, but are more or less the same in their goals. These include organizations such as Birdlife, Greenpeace, Nature Friends, Nature Conservation Association, VCÖ, WWF and Global 2000. These even officially joined forces in 2014 to form an alliance in order to have a stronger voice at national and international level.
Other foundations that should be mentioned here include: Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH (Germany): equity in million euros 5358.53, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung (Germany): equity in million euros 1200.03, Baden-Württemberg Stiftung gGmbH (Germany): Equity in million euros 2246.13, Bertelsmann Stiftung (Germany): Equity in million euros 1252.03, Bremer Heimstiftung (Germany): Equity in million euros 29.23, Wellcome Trust (Great Britain) : Assets in million pounds sterling 29,100, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (USA): Assets in million US dollars 22,600, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (USA): Assets in million US dollars 12,400, Ford Foundation (USA): Assets in million US dollars 12,000.
The massive amount of money behind these organizations allows them to recruit people of any number and quality. This enables actors to recruit the best of the best, and even make sure to include extremely attractive people among them. The only requirement is that they are prepared to support and pursue the goals of their sponsors. For those recruited, this can lead to anything from a small additional income to a successful career. For many independent scientists, this could lead them to reconsider and adjust their position to reach an appropriate conclusion. All in all, with a lot of money you can set a lot in motion.
In Germany there are also public broadcasters and television companies. Public broadcasting in Germany is financed by the broadcasting fee, which is a compulsory levy. Since July 20, 2021, the monthly broadcasting fee has been 18.36 euros. In 2021, the broadcasting fee brought a good 8.4 billion euros into the coffers of the public broadcasters.
According to “Interest groups for freelancers in public broadcasting”, around 42,000 people are employed by public broadcasting companies. This probably doesn’t even include those who work as suppliers of complete television projects for public broadcasters and television companies.
This corresponds to an average budget per employee of €200,000.
Talk shows like Anne Will, Maybrit Illner and Markus Lanz are bought by the broadcasters. You can read something about the costs here. Based on 75 minutes of broadcast time, each “Markus Lanz” edition would cost 106,800 euros. Applied to the enormous number of programs per year, this means that the production of this individual talk show alone costs ZDF exactly 14,631,600 euros.
Not only with these broadcasting formats, the public broadcasters continue exactly where the opinion-maker billionaires stop or start, depending on how you look at it. They are implementing the billionaires’ agenda. It has already become the norm for panelists invited to talk panels to be either directly or indirectly on the payroll of the opinion-maker billionaires. On September 7, 2023, Markus Lanz hosted migration expert Judith Kohlenberger. Judith Kohlenberger is a migration expert who is active in Austrian politics. Ms. Kohlenberger commented on CDU politician Thorsten Frei’s proposal to change asylum law so that those affected can be brought to Germany directly from their countries of origin in order to replace the current illegal, uncontrolled migration. She agreed with Frei’s suggestions in this respect, but she had additional contingents in mind.
With such striking statements from Ms. Kohlenberger, one should take a closer look at who Ms. Kohlenberger actually is. Yes, Judith Kohlenberger has worked with environmental organizations in the past. From 2014 to 2019, she was managing director of the environmental organization Global 2000. She was also part of the sustainability coordination team at Global 2000. In addition, Judith Kohlenberger and other experts in social inclusion and environmental organizations have joined forces in the alliance.
Global 2000 is an Austrian environmental protection organization committed to protecting the environment and promoting sustainable practices. The organization was founded in Vienna in 1982 by six activists.
Global 2000’s work covers a wide range of issues, including climate change, energy, transport, agriculture, biodiversity and waste management. The organization advocates for policy change and works with other organizations and the public to raise awareness and find solutions to environmental problems. The activities of Global 2000 are part of the “Active for the Environment” project, which is supported by the Federal Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Protection and the State of Upper Austria.
Judith Kohlenberger was Managing Director of Global 2000 from 2014 to 2019 and was also part of the Sustainability Coordination Team at Global 2000.
Global 2000 has worked with various organizations to find solutions to environmental problems. This also includes “Friends of the Earth”, the largest international network of environmental organizations, of which Global 2000 is a member.
There is also evidence that Global 2000, an organization that is a member of Friends of the Earth, has worked with Stiftung Mercator in the past to collect and disseminate research on environmental issues.
It is known that Global 2000 cooperates with the Greens. Global 2000’s website mentions that they have a strategic partnership with the Greens. In addition, the managing director of Global 2000, Leonore Gewessler, ran for the Greens in the 2019 National Council elections.
Global 2000, an organization that is a member of Friends of the Earth, has worked with Stiftung Mercator in the past to collect and disseminate research on environmental issues.
Global 2000 cooperates with various NGOs. Some of the NGOs that Global 2000 collaborates with are:
- Bird life
- Greenpeace
- Nature lovers
- Nature Conservation Association
- VCÖ
- WWF
These NGOs formed an alliance in 2014 to have a stronger voice. However, it should be noted that Global 2000 also works with other NGOs, as mentioned on their website.
The opinion-making billionaires’ foundations and the public radio and television companies, which are financed by compulsory contributions, exercise enormous power over the people with only one vote.
When the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz says that 95% of public broadcasting employees are green or left-wing, this is extremely worrying, but not as catastrophic as if you look at things as a whole.
The compulsory pay propaganda broadcasting and television broadcasters should be abolished immediately. The state should not give money to foundations and NGOs that conflict with the interests of citizens. It is not fair that citizens have to finance institutions whose goals contradict them.
the effects of this sort of capitalism are little different than fascism as it becomes a hollywood of lies for the people.
the ‘right to vote’ and ‘democracy’ have never been the same thing. uk mps are compliant toadies, pre-selected by the big political parties; genuine independents can’t win seats. the fptp electoral system is biased to the big 2 mainstream centrist parties serving land owners, the corporate, the usa and the privileged class. there’s no pretence of an ‘opposition’ to challenge government decisions; everyone’s a neo liberal. uk based billionaires are safe, unless they’re russian.