Rheinmetall Sponsors German Football Club
Germany’s largest weapons manufacturer, Rheinmetall, announced a three-year sponsorship deal with German football club Borussia Dortmund (bvb) on Wednesday. This is the first time a German defense company has sponsored a football team.
Rheinmetall’s logo will appear at the team’s marketing events, press conferences and on stadium billboards, but not on the players’ jerseys or training gear.
Controversial: Rheinmetall armed Germany during both world wars and helped produce tanks under Adolf Hitler. It is still a leader in automotive and arms development, currently Europe’s fifth-largest weapons manufacturer.
“Rheinmetall sponsoring a football club is indeed unusual,” German Economy Minister and Deputy Chancellor Robert Habeck said, but he added that it reflected Europe’s current circumstances and attitude toward its defense industry.
We are in permanent contact with companies such as Rheinmetall, [encouraging them] to produce more munitions to support Ukraine. Unfortunately, we have to accept that we are living in a different, more threatening world.
—Robert Habeck
Rheinmetall’s board chairman, Armin Papperger, announced his company was now a “Champion Partner” of bvb and said the two are “well matched due to their ambitions, attitude and heritage.”
Security and defense are elementary pillars of our democracy, so we think it’s the right decision to see how we can protect these pillars. Especially today, as we experience every day how freedom must be defended in Europe, we have to deal with this new reality. We’re looking forward to the partnership with Rheinmetall and are open to discussions.
—Hans-Joachim Watzke, chief executive of bvb
Rearming: Rheinmetall’s popularization demonstrates a sentiment that is increasingly becoming common, not just in Germany but throughout Europe: the need to arm.
Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has warned that Rheinmetall’s development will affect not only Germany and Europe but the whole world. Read his article “Rising From the Underground: Rheinmetall.”
