BVB’s annual general meeting has its happiest moment as the shareholders
Hans Joachim Watzke say goodbye. Watzke will be managing director of Borussia Dortmund until the end of 2025, and he will speak to shareholders for the last time on Monday. When he finishes his speech, they rise to sustained applause. He can’t show it like that, says Watzke, but the reaction touches him.
Aki Watzke has been at BVB since 2001 and has been managing director since 2005. They went through difficult times together, but during his time as managing director they made it to the Champions League final twice and two championships. But Watzke’s farewell is not the main thing at this shareholders’ meeting. It’s about a sponsorship that Watzke justified in May with nothing less than the protection of democracy: the sponsorship through Rheinmetallthe largest German defense company.
Is a football club allowed to have a defense company as a sponsor, i.e. to advertise weapons? As is well known, you can for more than twenty years Shares of Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA, which is why BVB shareholders are also discussing this important question this Monday. Even outside the hall you are confronted with the topic of the day. There, Michael Schulze from Glaßer offers the rushing shareholders a printed study with the title: “Rheinmetall in the changing times – How an arms company is becoming socially normalized and Borussia Dortmund is contributing to it.” Only a few take advantage.
Schulze von Glaßer is a BVB fan. But he didn’t come as a shareholder, but, like some of his fellow campaigners, as an activist. When his favorite club announced its partnership with Rheinmetall in May, he organized a protest that same day. The managing director of the German Peace Society has supporters for his protest among other parties The left and The PARTY Found.
“I was particularly annoyed that Borussia Mönchengladbach rejected this deal with Rheinmetall,” says Schulze von Glaßer. “Why do they have more courage or more morals than us?” He gives the answer himself. “It’s all about the money.” BVB is expected to receive up to 20 million euros from Rheinmetall by 2027.
An hour later, the vocabulary in the hall is completely different when Watzke and his management colleague, Carsten Cramer, speak. The BVB bosses make no secret of how strong “the pecuniary motive,” as marketing man Cramer calls it, was in the negotiations with Rheinmetall. “Then of course we asked ourselves the question, does this suit Borussia Dortmund?”
At least some of the club members firmly deny this. At the general meeting on Sunday, a two-thirds majority voted to end the collaboration with Rheinmetall as quickly as possible. The vote is not legally binding, but is a clear signal to the club’s management.
A day later, Watzke told shareholders that the vote was not representative. He takes the mood seriously, but only 0.25 percent of the current 218,000 members voted. As he says this, he presses his left hand to his chest. His body language says something like: Dear friends, with all my love, what are we talking about?! On Sunday he promised an online vote among all 218,000 members.
