Comment: The investment conference was chaotic – a good thing!

The Germans are punctual, well organized and always conscientious: everything that investors need, said Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the opening of the investor conference on Tuesday, who otherwise likes to accuse the people of a lack of motivation. For the first time, the federal government invited around 200 international investors to promote the location.

However, the opposite proved to be the case at the conference doors: accreditation and security checks were so overcrowded that a number of donors didn't even make it to Merz's speech. The big commercial for location D got off to a bad start.

Otherwise, the day had little to do with the virtues mentioned by the Chancellor. The four floors of the ESMT University on Berlin's Museum Island resembled a termite mound. Everywhere you could see investors and entrepreneurs wandering around looking for space and people to talk to for the next bilateral exchange.

And once they had made it, some things were missing, such as a list of specific projects that they could invest in right away.