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The Oetker family is upgrading
While the German armed forces are deployed to Syria to fight ISIS and the world fears terrorist attacks at Christmas markets, Germany's wealthy are investing in arms companies. Recently, several shareholders of Dr. August Oetker KG participated in the acquisition of ESG Elektroniksystem- und Logistik GmbH, whose business activities include German fighter jets. The arms industry is sometimes a difficult investment field. Although the market is likely secure, not least due to numerous arms exports and deployments of the German armed forces, this supposedly security-oriented business is also tainted by bloodshed.
Igniting the media flame with light art
During the quiet Advent season, PixelHELPER set itself the goal of drawing attention to this investment by the Oetker family. To ensure that this less-than-peaceful news didn't get lost in the pre-Christmas hustle and bustle while shopping for Christmas cookie ingredients, Bienkowski launched various protest actions. For example, the light artist projected a Dr. Oetker logo in the shape of a tank, along with the caption "Cannon Fodder," onto the Dr. Oetker company building in Bielefeld. It may have just been another small light in the Bielefeld night sky, illuminating the festively decorated streets, but the real aim was to generate media attention. And with precisely this in mind, Bienkowski, together with Jörg Sprave, tested a homemade pudding cannon on the popular Slingshot YouTube channel.
War as a private matter
And what reactions did all this trigger? At least there was an official statement from the Bielefeld-based company. "The investment is a purely private matter between two family members and has nothing to do with the Dr. Oetker company," according to a newspaper report in the Neue Westfälische Zeitung. And so Bienkowski launched another attack against the Oetker family, aiming to appeal to their conscience. The question of whether it is appropriate for the owners of Dr. Oetker to be involved in the arms trade was posed this time in a saccharine and utterly tasteless manner by the Berlin Boys' Choir.
Can morality be colder than your own frozen pizza?
Rolf Zuckowski's baking hit "In der Weihnachtsbäckerei" (In the Christmas Bakery) was transformed into the socially critical "In der Waffenbäckerei" (In the Weapons Bakery). In it, the children ask the Oetker family: "Where has morality gone?" The campaign hit is presented together with the Berlin hip-hop artist Vokalmatador. But the performance has more to offer than just vocals and content; the staging is also spot-on. Pig masks are worn in front of a 1,45-meter-long wooden crate. This tasteless backdrop is sure to dampen Richard Oetker's enthusiasm for the arms business. After all, he was kidnapped and held captive in such a crate at the end of 1976. His kidnapper wore a pig mask. Is the campaign tasteless? Certainly. But how many ready-made baking mixes does it take to forget one's own past and invest in arms deals whose products almost led to one's own death nearly 40 years ago?
To demand an immediate halt to tank exports to Saudi Arabia, PixelHELPER, in collaboration with the campaign "Outcry – Stop the arms trade", projected the words "Thanks no Tanks to Saudi Arabia" onto the German Federal Chancellery and the Saudi Arabian Embassy.
To this day, the Saudis remain among the most important customers of German arms companies. In the first half of 2015, arms exports to Saudi Arabia worth almost 180 million euros were approved – only with Great Britain and Israel were there more extensive deals.
Germany is the European champion of arms exports. Globally, it ranks third behind the USA and Russia. With the approval of the German government, German weapons and military equipment are also supplied to dictatorships and authoritarian regimes like Saudi Arabia. This cannot continue. We want to put an end to this business of death.