Germany: Chancellor Gerhard Schröder visits Altona’s Holsten brewery

Federal German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder visited the Holsten brewery in Altona on August 4, at the joint invitation of the Holsten-Brauerei AG Executive Board and Works Council. After Erik Juul Rasmussen, member of the Executive Board with responsibility for technical matters, had explained to him how the PET installation functions, the Chancellor praised this as a good example of how to adjust to changing challenges. With this installation Holsten had made the right economic response to an ecological necessity. Executive Board Chairman Wolfgang Burgard and Works Council Chairwoman Cornelia Felten welcomed the Chancellor in the canteen before an audience of some 250 Holsten employees and 60 journalists. Wolfgang Burgard referred in his address to the challenges now facing the brewery sector. Cornelia Felten emphasised the stresses to which the workforce was exposed.

In his short reply the Chancellor stressed the need for industry to be innovative in its approach to the market and never to underestimate the advantages of worker codetermination when restructuring became necessary. He then mixed with crowd whilst enjoying a glass of Holsten Pilsener in front of the cameras and a barrage of flashlights from the journalists.

10 August, 2005