There are very few people on the stage of politics in Berlin who enjoy respect and great support from all sides.
Franz Schoser, the outgoing secretary general of the German Association of Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), is certainly one of them. It was therefore not surprising that at Schoser's farewell, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the Minister of the Chancellery Frank-Walter Steinmeier held moving laudations one straight after the other. The scholar of the famous economist Müller-Armack has worked for the Association since 1973 and has been its secretary general since 1980. His outstanding achievements are the rapid rollout of the chamber network in the new Länder and the systematic promotion of the German chamber network abroad.
Schoser was very well connected and was the perfect symbiosis of perseverance, calmness and reliability. He knew everything and was a master in silence. His self-irony, his dry sense of humour and his fairness made the native Swabian popular with employees and politicians. Of all business stakeholders, Schoser was certainly the one most listened to in the Chancellery.
German original of this article published in Die Welt, 24 November 2001
