Cold War times

The early 1980s experienced a renewed, but final phase of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. In December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afganistan prompting the West to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. In December 1981, the communist Polish government imposed the martial law to repress the political opposition led by the Solidarność trade-union movement. The West replied by imposing economic sanctions on the Soviet Union.
And what was the role of Schosers in all this?

At the time, Franz Schoser was the secretary general of the German Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. He was thus one of the voices of German business which was affected by the West's economic sanctions against the Soviet Union. It is in this context that the German weekly Die Zeit interviewed Franz to find out how German business coped with the dilemma of being caught between political rationale and economic interest.