“Crazy Rich” by Julia Fredericks

In Crazy Rich, Julia Fredericks delves into the world of the wealthy and makes it clear from the start: Talking about wealth is seriously underdeveloped in this country. Financial relationships are a taboo subject, which is why most people have only a vague idea of ​​what “wealth” is. There is a huge difference between an employee, a senior government employee, and people who own hundreds of millions or even 200 billion euros.

In order to explore how extreme wealth shapes the psychology of those who own property, but also society and democracy, and what knowledge gaps exist when it comes to the topic of extreme wealth, the author embarks on a diverse research journey in her book.

She consults economic and social wealth research, which suffers from a glaring lack of data. The German state does little for transparency; Official wealth statistics are not collected ex officio. For this reason, Julia Fredericks complains that even the most banal questions cannot be answered with certainty. So no one knows exactly how many billionaires and billionaires there are in Germany, who belongs to the circle of the wealthy, exactly how many trillions they own, what proportion of Germany's total assets they represent, and whether their wealth consists of companies. Or stocks or real estate.

Julia Friedrich has also been able to have insightful conversations with wealthy people and their asset managers, many of them under the guise of anonymity. She talks dramatically about how hard it is to start conversations and how awkward, arrogant, or internalized conversations can be.

The entire book navigates Sebastian, whose billion-dollar inheritance has become so deeply woven into the family estate that he can't get rid of it. The way Sebastian reflects on wealth and elitist thinking in hours-long conversations with the author, considers questions of justice and describes his personal efforts to maintain normalcy and unencumbered friendships is one of the highlights of the book.

At the other end of the sympathy spectrum is Theo Müller, who became rich by around three billion euros with the idea of ​​turning replaceable milk into the expensive branded product Müllermilch. He agrees to an interview, but stipulates that Julia Friedrich first read the old work of a radical liberal economist – and after she tortures herself through the inhumane, misogynistic book, he again cancels the interview.

The author adds a lot of information to the emotional passages in the book. It's about tax morale, partisan donations, wealth as a climate killer, and philanthropy at will — but also about efforts to find democratically responsible options to let excess money flow back into broader society.

When Julia Fredericks offers suggestions at the end of her book about how to reduce excess wealth, she has already achieved one of her goals: excessive wealth needs to be talked about more openly by those who have uneasy feelings about it, because it exists. – And by everyone, too.