(c) manager magazin 2025, Dietmar Palan
An analysis of customs and import data shows that the Ottobock Group supplies Russian partners to a considerable extent. Patriarch Hans Georg Näder prefers to talk about his commitment to Ukraine.
Hans Georg Näder (63) attaches great importance to being seen by the public as being on the side of the good guys. After the Russian army invaded Ukraine, the majority owner of prosthesis manufacturer Ottobock had local aid workers trained in the assembly and use of walking and gripping aids at the company headquarters in Duderstadt. Supported by Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (61; SPD), he shipped containers to Lviv and has been supplying wounded people with prostheses ever since.
Näder likes to talk about this commitment and proudly reports on the company’s own homepage. Näder makes much less of a fuss about the fact that he is also doing good business with the Russian attackers. What is delivered to Russia from Ottobock locations can only be gathered from import and customs databases, which are also used by US authorities to search for sanction-relevant flows of goods.
The data points to lively trade relations between Näder and his Russian business partners. Between the beginning of January 2023 and the end of July last year, the Ottobock Group shipped equipment with a declared value of around 76 million euros to Russia. The company achieved a total turnover of 1.6 billion euros in 2024. It does not wish to comment on the figures.
The actual turnover generated with Russian customers is likely to have been even higher, as only the material values are listed in the databases, at least in part. Possible additional income, for example from services such as the assembly or fitting of artificial limbs, does not appear in the customs statistics.
Since Näder bought back the 20 percent stake held by Swedish private equity firm EQT last spring, he no longer has to fear any internal opposition. After the start of the war, the investment company controlled by the Wallenberg family had urged its portfolio companies to reduce their Russian business to as little as possible. However, EQT’s German representative Marcus Brennecke (63) did not get through to Näder with his request.
The Russian business is conducted via two Moscow-based trading companies of the Näder Group. They supply prostheses, spare parts and other aids to the social security systems of the individual provinces. The fact that Ottobock only supplies civilians in Russia, as Näder’s daughter Georgia (27) claimed in an interview with “Die Zeit”, seems at least questionable in view of the flow of goods recorded in the databases.
Ottobock not only maintains supply relationships that in some cases are ten years old or more. Some others were only established after the Russian invasion; and, according to the data, also with regions in which more soldiers were recently recruited for Putin’s campaign. Supplies from Ottobock could even have ended up with an institution that is clearly part of the army, such as the Moscow Military Court or the state-owned company Rostelcom, which has been sanctioned by the USA.
In any case, the import data points to batches that could have been handled via the Russian trading company Taskom Division Equipment Tranig LLC and its Chinese subsidiary. Ottobock denies any direct or indirect business relationship with military organizations and sanctioned companies.
Näder sees himself on the side of the good guys in any case. He told “Die Zeit”: “Even if this happened via detours that we cannot control: These are humanitarian goods, not cannons.” But goods that are only needed after the cannons have been used.