What this file is
This is the method note for the Germany Money tab — how Nation Runner scores “who is most likely to take the meeting.” It restates the desk’s own copy. It is not a bribery map, not a charge sheet, and not a full forensic audit.
The desk says so on the tab:
This is not a bribery map. Bribery is a crime; almost none of this is. These are the legal pipes: Grosspenden over €35k (Bundestag notices), the federal lobby register (2024 spend bands), revolving-door jobs, and the associations that already have the appointment. Access is not a verdict. Amounts are disclosed totals from public notices and LobbyControl / DonationWatch / Finanzwende tallies through early September 2026 — not a full forensic audit.
The footer freeze is the same snapshot: public reporting through 10 Sep 2026.
The four pipes
Grosspenden. Large party gifts that trigger a Bundestag notice (the desk uses the over-€35k threshold). Cycle sums on the tab are labelled “Grosspenden since Jan 2025” for the Union and SPD; the Greens row is “2026 disclosed so far.” Examples already on the desk: CDU €8.0m this cycle; CSU ~€1.2m+; SPD €2.5m; Greens €0.60m. Named cheques on those cards include Stephan Schambach, Deutsche Vermögensberatung, Bitpanda, Verein Wirtschaft für Demokratie, the Philip Harting Familienstiftung, Bayerische Metall- und Elektro-Industrie, Sixt, and Campact e.V. Those names and amounts are the desk’s disclosed-gift table, not a new investigation.
Lobby register. 2024 spend bands from the federal register, ranked on the tab as “shops.” The desk already lists, among others: GDV insurers €15.3m; vzbv consumer centres €12.7m; VDA cars €9.9m; BDEW energy & water €9.3m; VCI chemicals €9.2m; VKU municipal companies €8.2m; BDI €7.8m; Wirtschaftsrat der CDU €5.3m; Bankenverband €5.1m; vfa pharma €5.1m; Bitkom €5.0m; Bauernverband €4.9m. The landscape tease uses the same GDV figure: insurers spent €15.3m last year just to be in the room.
Revolving doors. The Drehtür block is named people walking from a shop into a ministry (or the other way). The desk’s current cards: Friedrich Merz (BlackRock Germany supervisory chair → CDU leader, then Chancellor); Katherina Reiche (VKU, then E.ON’s Westenergie → Economy & Energy); Karsten Wildberger (Ceconomy / MediaMarkt-Saturn, Wirtschaftsrat VP → Digital & state modernisation, “no cooling-off”); Boris Pistorius (Lower Saxony interior → Defence, kept across governments); Carsten Linnemann (CDU general secretary / Mittelstand politician → Health, July 2026). Notes on those cards are editorial readings of public jobs, not a court.
Access scales. Pick a lobby sector (finance, cars, energy, unions, campaigns, farms, defence, tech, patrons). Each Bundestag-scale party gets 0–10. Zero: they ignore the call. Ten: they pick up first. The number is an editorial judgement from the pipes above — donations, register spend, revolving doors — not a scientific index and not a bribery score. Parties are ranked for that sector; the loudest ear on a party card is just the sector with the highest of those 0–10s.
What the score is not
The Money tab does not say a minister was bought. It does not treat union structure, NGO email lists, or a Stiftungsabend as the same object. SPD copy on the desk is explicit that the real money is often older than a Grosspende (DGB / IG Metall / ver.di). Green copy is explicit that Campact is the ATM once you are out of government. FDP copy is explicit that a party can be out of the Bundestag and still in the rolodex.
King (the growth-king / work-war barometer) is a different instrument: six axes, causal chains, an editorial gauge. Do not flatten King into Money.
Where to click the receipts
- Bundestag donation notices: https://www.bundestag.de/parlament/praesidium/parteienfinanzierung/fundstellen50000 - Federal lobby register: https://www.lobbyregister.bundestag.de/ - DonationWatch (Germany): https://donation.watch/en/germany - LobbyControl: https://www.lobbycontrol.de/
The live table and the scales sit on the Germany desk Money section. This case is the citeable method. If a figure here drifts from the tab, the tab wins — it is the snapshot, this file is the explainer.