Photo Gallery Fat Retirement
In this photo gallery, SPIEGEL examines pensions for the heads of some of Germany's leading blue-chip companies. The estimates provided include all pension payments that each manager can expect to receive if he reaches the average age of life expectancy. By comparison, the average amount a person who has paid the highest possible contribution into the state pension plan over 40 years can expect to receive back is 350,000 ($458,999).
Pictured here is Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche. The cash value of the pension agreed for Zetsche is 39.6 million euros.
Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn is set to receive a pension of 22.8 million euros.
Horst Neumann, a member of the board at Volkswagen in charge of human resources, is set to receive 18.2 million euros.
Wolfgang Reitzle, the departing CEO of German industrial gases group Linde, is to be given a pension of 16.8 million euros.
Johannes Teyssen, the CEO of German energy utility company E.on, has been promised a pension worth 16.4 million.
Dieter Pötsch, the member of the board at VW responsible for finances, is to obtain a pension worth 14.8 million euros.
Finally, as of Sept. 30, 2012, Siemens CEO Peter Löscher was set to receive 14.7 million euros.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has even weighed in on the debate over fat pensions for executives. "Exorbitance is unacceptable in a free and social society," she recently stated.
