The first day - Berlin!

The day started very early - at 5 a.m. the bus started its way to our first destination: Berlin.
We arrived at 2 p.m. and visited "STORYHOUSE PRODUCTIONS GERMANY", an international, Emmy-nominated, media production company with offices in Washington DC, Berlin, and Munich. We had a discussion with the Head of Finance, Vincent Renner and with Raik R. Böttcher, Director of Finance and Administration. STORYHOUSE focuses on documentations and reality shows. Well known customers are ZDF, VOX, Pro7, National Geographic. They produce about 120 - 150 hours per year and have a turnover of $ 17-25 million.


After that we visited the Federal Ministry of Finance - some students saw Dr. Schäuble!
Dr. Elke Baumann presented us the main tasks of the MoF, the different departements and the financial status of Germany. She also gave us details about the treaty of Maastricht and possible sanctions. On the one hand she showed us how the EU tries to avoid debts, on the other hand Dr. Baumann explained the new "Schuldenbremse" and how Germany itself tries to minimize debts. If everything works out, new indebtedness will be gone in the 2020s.

Tomorrow we continue our trip. Next destination: BASF Polska!