Attack on Innogy CFO By Connor Botz

In breaking news this week, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of German energy company Innogy was the victim of an acid attack on the morning of Sunday March 10th near his home. Bernhard Gunther (pictured below) was attacked by two men who poured what is thought to be sulfuric acid on his face.
Deutschland innogy Bilanzpressekonferenz 2017 | Bernhard Günther (picture alliance/SvenSimon)
 Gunther was severely injured by the incident and the suspects fled the scene and have yet to be identified. The company Gunther works for, Innogy is an energy and utility company formed by larger energy company RWE. RWE has come under recent scrutiny for its detrimental effects on Hambacher Forest near Cologne where the company is currently operating an open-pit mine. Groups protesting the company have made recent attempts to stop the mining, and some wonder if the acid attack may be related. 
This attack would not be first on a high-ranking employee in a controversial German business. In the past, a head of a research institute that recommended decreasing support for welfare and unemployment payments had his car burned. Further, the Red Army Faction (RAF), a left-wing radical terrorist group, has been responsible for the deaths of bank CEO Alfred Herrhausen and Detlev Rohwedder, the president of a firm that specializes in the privatization of firms previously owned by the East German government. 
While calls for accountability and social reform are crucial, I disagree with RAF's tactics. No change for good can be made through further human suffering and death. Tensions are clearly extreme between the people of Germany and those who run these large companies. Like the US, Germany has a strong divide between the extremely rich and the average population. As the demand for change and equality continues, it will be interesting to see if violence escalates further. As of now, it is unclear whether or not the attack on Innogy CFO Bernhard Gunther is related to a political group, but it is certain regardless that the German people are no longer content with the economic distribution of wealth and social programs in their country (dw.com).

Comments

  1. RyanVMarch 10, 2018 at 12:08 PM

    Its interesting how something like this can slip past the media without anyone really noticing; someone was intentionally attacked because of businesses decisions about how they do their job. The fact that prior to this there was a lot of protest to some of this company's business decisions, particularly the mining issue, it does point some fingers as far as being correlated to the acid attack. This is very interesting and I might just have to go and research it myself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mary SpaethMarch 19, 2018 at 12:17 PM

    Let us know what you find, Ryan, and Connor--keep us updated!

    ReplyDelete

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