From Rhenish Metallurgy to the Global Production of Instruments of Death
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The German ambition is clearly stated: “to make the Bundeswehr the most powerful army in Europe” (Olaf Scholz) and this, “whatever it takes” (Friedrich Merz). “Rearming Europe” means above all “Rearming Germany”. A key and driving element of this rearmament is the company Rheinmetall, born under the Second Reich (Empire), flourishing under the Third and rising to the firmament under the Fourth. One figure says it all: the company’s share price has risen from €60 in 2016 to €1,164 at the time of writing. Dividends per share paid to shareholders this year will be €11.50, compared with €8.10 last year. The turnover forecast for 2026 is expected to be 40 to 45% higher than in 2025, i.e. between €14 and €14.5 billion. The number of employees worldwide has risen from 23,000 in 2020 to 34,000 today, spread across 160 sites on four continents. In short, the sponsor of Borussia Dortmund (€20 million. Read ‘Finding a club’, by monazneefer ) can proudly proclaim: “Wir sind wieder wer“ [We’re somebody again], the self-satisfied slogan of the “German economic miracle” of the 1950s and 1960s. And this while focusing exclusively on military production, after having liquidated all its civilian production activities (mainly automotive). Gone are the days when Rheinmetall, following the two world wars of the 20th century, had for a time to reinvent itself by producing typewriters, calculators and tractors!
Rheinmetall (” Rhenish metal”) now has only the name left that is Rhenish. The Röchling family, which held 42% of the shares (€570 million), sold them in 2004, entrusting Goldman-Sachs and BNP Paribas with finding buyers [75 institutional investors, including Black Rock, The Vanguard Group, Bank of America, FMR LLC, and Norges Bank Investment Management], thus putting an end to 48 years of typically Rhenish “patient capitalis”” and bringing the group into the world of dividend hunters, the “impatient capitalism” of stock-market financiers.
In this increasingly warlike European context, with Germany as the operational front-runner, it seemed appropriate to us to draw up a portrait of the group since its creation, from different angles, which we will present in ten parts over the coming days. We begin today with the history of the group since its founding in 1889.
Enjoy the read and let your anger turn into productive energy!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I – History of the group. 5
II – Group Structure. 13
III- Rheinmetall’s Financial and Strategic Balance Sheet (March 2026) 15
IV – Rheinmetall’s Main Customers 18
V- Rheinmetall’s Role in the ReArm Europe/Readiness 2030 Framework. 22
VI – All Rheinmetall production sites 26
VII-Rheinmetall’s offensive products: a small catalog of tools of death. 35
VIII- Rheinmetall and Israel: A Relationship of “Co-opetition”. 40
IX- Mobilisations against Rheinmetall 45
X – Bonus : insights into some of the octopus’s blind spots.55
Dewey Classification : 303.6-327.4-330.9-333.7-335.4-338.476-338.476234-338.74-341.23-341.37-341.6-355.02-355.033-355.45-361.2-940.53-943-956.94
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