(I mentioned it twice, but I think I got away with it.)
Yes, Fools, it's finally here. Motley Fool Germany. The Eagle has landed and it's looking very good indeed: www.fool.de.
There are some things which are universal and if you're reading this, there's a fair chance you believe Foolishness is one of those things. Now, Foolishness has come to Germany and believe me if you thought you had it bad, you have no idea of the variety of awful financial products which are sold to ordinary German people.
Let's put it another way: insurance is big in Germany, where people have a tendency to trust authority and believe what they are told by their banks. Ouch! If that makes you mutter to yourself: "My, that sounds like a ding dong recipe for all kinds of underperforming, overcharging financial products to be foisted on a gullible public" you'd be absolutely right. That's exactly what happens and, as elsewhere, people don't really believe they can do it themselves. The Fool is here to change all that, all round the world and today we've taken a major next step with the opening of Fool Germany.
As you can imagine, though, it's no good some wide boy like me steaming in and telling the Deutsche financial companies to clean up their act and by the way why haven't all you dim Germans realised that someone's been pulling a fast one all these years? It really wouldn't work. Which is where our German Fools come in: Winfried Rauter (TMF Berlin), who has masterminded the whole operation and done a fantastic job, Erhard Krasny (TMF Donau), whose clear and very Foolish writing you'll find throughout the site (if you speak German, of course), Carsten Jost (TMF Hippe), who has been manning the German message board at the US Fool for many months now and Joerg Liermann (TMF Zahl), who has produced some excellent backtesting on mechanical strategies on the German Dax index.
None of these four are journalists or financial professionals in any way. They are out and out Fools and the nucleus of a much larger team to come. Most crucial of all, they are German and will be writing and building the Fool for Germans. They can explain to you why the Fool Germany has a section on bonds, what the dual pun is behind the title 'Eulenspiegelei' for the German equivalent of the Bribble, the precise socio-cultural significance of Professor Boemmel and why you should consider having a Vermoegenswirksameleistung (not as painful as it sounds). In short, they have relevant, Foolish things to say in their own language, for their own people and in so doing they make jokes and draw analogies which after five minutes explanation to you or me only elicit a semi-baffled 'Ah I see...' And that's just the way it should be.
There's no-one else in Germany saying these things, no-one else ready to offer such penetrating analysis of German stocks, no-one else prepared to throw some Foolish light on the ins and outs of the Neuer Markt, the German 'New Market'. Sometimes it does take a Fool to point out the truth and we're lucky to have found such extraordinary German Fools to do so.
If you speak German, come and join us in this first step on our European journey over at www.fool.de. If you don't, then still come and have a look at the German site, where you can marvel at the phenomenal power of the Internet to unite across borders, languages and cultures and wonder at the positive, life-changing impact it can have on the lives of ordinary people. And even if you don't speak German, English-language discussion of interesting German companies is welcomed over at the message boards. If you need help finding where to post your message, here's the German equivalent of Ask a Foolish Question:
