Berlin 09/05/2022 – It is a special evening for the company AUTOFLUG and its two representatives – Andreas Sedlmayr, Partner and grandson of the founder, and Martin Kroell, Managing Partner at AUTOFLUG – who have traveled to Berlin to personally accept the award at the parliamentary evening of the MIT. The Deutscher Mittelstandspreis of the MIT is being given in the “Company” category and both representatives are clearly very pleased to be receiving the award as an acknowledgement of the company’s performance.
In the laudatory speech, it soon becomes clear that this is not just about current performance, but the many aspects that distinguish the company. Its more than 100-year history is addressed, as is the courage and dedication shown in AUTOFLUG’s relaunch after the war years. It was a conscious decision to choose a company from the defense industry, in order to emphasize the industry’s relevance, especially at the current time. Every pilot in the Luftwaffe knows and appreciates AUTOFLUG for its variety of products, which always pursue one aim: making operations safer. “I hereby award you this prize for your life’s work, for your contribution to Germany’s industrial history and to the social market economy.” With these words, the chairwoman of this year’s jury, Mrs Jana Schimke MdB (Member of the Bundestag), brings her laudatory speech to a fitting end. In the following interview with Mrs Gitta Connemann MdB, the representatives of AUTOFLUG once again have an opportunity to speak. In response to the somewhat overstated question of why the company still continues to develop and produce in Germany, Sedlmayr gives a prompt and sincere answer: “This is my country, to which I owe an immense amount, and we are happy to give something back.” But criticism is also raised. They ask for useful support from politicians in one or two areas, above all for more freedom, especially through a reduction of bureaucracy. This appeal from Martin Kroell was immediately underlined with applause from the auditorium. For both of them, it was important to emphasize that they were only accepting the award on behalf of the company’s employees and also on behalf of the security and defense industry in Germany.
