The 25th anniversary of Deutsche Börse Group’s IPO prompts, first and foremost, an occasion for me to make a confession: although I am a notorious optimist by nature – and therefore, one might think, ideally suited to join the market’s daily wager on hope – I have bought exactly one share in my life. It is not publicly traded. It is the stadium share of my football club, 1. FC Union Berlin. 

I can therefore speak about the stock exchange without personal experience, positive or negative. I acknowledge it as the place where the profit principle of capitalism reaches its purest form: where money is made from money. Marx once observed that, unlike production, this business creates no real surplus value but a fictitious one. That surplus may be fictitious in theory, yet it becomes strikingly tangible in the portfolios of certain presidential families when a single statement from a head of state sends markets soaring – or plunging. And when a bubble bursts, the consequences are rarely confined to a single company. Entire economies, even entire states, can be swept up in the fallout.  

That Deutsche Börse Group has avoided such a major crash in its 25 years – unlike markets in other countries and at other times – is something its actors may rightly count on the credit side of the ledger.  
Individual failures, of course, have never been excluded. On that score, Karl Marx himself reportedly gained some experience. 

Although I find that daily stock market reports in public broadcasting – if I am not mistaken, alongside the weather and the news the only true constants in programming – attach perhaps too much significance to the rise and fall of prices, I nevertheless recognise the stock exchange’s contribution to financing investment and overseeing corporate development. Whether we truly need short-selling and ever more complex financial constructs for that purpose is, however, open to question. That concern deepens my scepticism about entrusting retirement provision increasingly to the fluctuations of the market. 

Anniversaries are traditionally occasions for wishing many happy years ahead. Deutsche Börse Group will undoubtedly be with us for many more years. Whether they will be happy ones may well depend on whether the value of companies and investments is measured not only by financial returns, but also by what they contribute to preserving the conditions for human life on this planet and to fostering social cohesion.  In the future, these considerations may shape the foundations of capital more profoundly than many care to admit today. In that spirit, my best wishes – and may you continue to master both bulls and bears. 

Dr. Gregor Gysi is a member of the German Bundestag and serves as its presiding senior member (Alterspräsident) in the 21st legislative period.