German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall named Sigmar Gabriel, a former German vice chancellor and foreign minister, as a nominee for the company’s supervisory board on Thursday.
Shareholders in Rheinmetall, Germany’s largest armaments firm, will be asked to sign off on Gabriel’s appointment at the company’s general meeting in May, company sources said, adding that they expected Gabriel to be approved.
Gabriel, a former leader of Germany’s centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) who retired from politics in 2019, is to be joined on the Rheinmetall supervisory board by Sabina Jeschke, the former chief technology officer at the state-owned Germany railway Deutsche Bahn.
“My membership of Rheinmetall’s supervisory board should be seen as a contribution to dealing proactively with the need for a strong and capable defence industry in Germany and Europe,” Gabriel said in a statement. “Our children and grandchildren will only be able to grow up in a peaceful Europe if the return of war as a political tool is not successful.”
Military strength is an essential prerequisite for peace, Gabriel said.
The German armed forces “must be made fit again for defence – and therefore fit for war – and the European pillar of NATO must become capable of deterrence again,” he said.
That requires “a strong national and European champion like Rheinmetall,” Gabriel said.
Gabriel has sat on the supervisory boards of Deutsche Bank and Siemens Energy since 2020, and also earlier this year resigned his seat on the board of thyssenkrupp Steel amid internal disputes about the future of the steelmaker.
Rheinmetall, which employs around 30,000 people, produces tanks, military trucks, anti-aircraft guns, artillery, drones and ammunition.
The Dusseldorf-based Rheinmetall has grown rapidly since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Orders for military equipment and munitions have exploded, and the company’s share prices have increased almost six-fold.
The logo of the German arms manufacturers company Rheinmetall can be seen on a Bundeswehr vehicle at the NATO exercise Quadriga 2024. Kay Nietfeld/dpa
