Hi everybody,
I think it`s definitely not too late to wish you all a Happy New Year 2026.
I am currently on a plane back to Vinhedo, São Paulo, from Recife, Pernambuco, where I spent a wonderful week of holidays together with my wife and son over year`s end and from where I worked online all last week.
Yes – it`s true, that life can be sweet …
Recife has become my second home since our wedding there 22 years ago and the purchase of a small but lovely apartment near Candeias Beach about 18 years ago, when we were still living in Mexico.
Since arriving in Brazil in 1996, I’ve had a great passion for the Brazilian Northeast, where the sun shines almost all year round and it’s practically never colder than 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit). And, of course, because of the incredibly beautiful beaches.
The reason for this post is very special. Last night, I posted on my company KFH Services’ LinkedIn page about an episode from 1986, when I graduated in Chemical Engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and began my professional career, back then still in Germany.
In my post, I expressed my skepticism about Trump’s obsession with the massive exploitation of Venezuela’s oil reserves. I also mentioned PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company.
Almost immediately after the publication of my post, biased and dialectical comments followed from PDVSA representatives, which I initially tried to politely evade. However, since they remained persistent, I gave a stronger reply and declared the discussion over.
I found it truly impressive how closely these people and their organizations monitor the comments of others. The arrogance and hyprocrasy of their biased comments also deeply impressed me. Apparently, these people think we’re all idiots.
But what impressed me even far more was that LinkedIn deleted my post this morning, after it had already been seen by around 1,000 readers. They removed not only the post from KFH Services’ company page, but also the re-shared version on my personal Linkedin page.
These people are doing a truly outstanding job. LinkedIn, of course, didn’t give any explanations to me.
I assume this wasn’t just a decision by LinkedIn. Apparently, Mr. Trump and/or someone from his team or his agencies also disliked my post.
When I wrote the post, I just wanted to share my experiences as a young German engineer 40 years ago, working on processing Venezuelan heavy oil and oil sands, with my followers and the public.
I had no idea what kind of attention—and whose attention!—I would attract.
Perhaps I was simply too naive. But I can’t help it; I always try to think positively. Even now! All this makes finally also part of my lifelong learning process…
I have no idea if or how this blog post will actually reach you, but I’m sharing the text of my post from yesterday here with you:
“Trump’s wishful thinking about Venezuela’s immense crude oil reserves makes me chuckle over an episode from my own early professional life.
As a recent graduate in chemical engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), specializing in the chemistry and technology of gas, oil, and coal, as well as combustion technology, I accepted an invitation from the then VEBA Oel AG (now E.On) to join the Ruhroel refinery in Gelsenkirchen-Scholven in January 1985 and began my career there as a technical trainee in the process development department.
At that time, VEBA OEL AG had just acquired extensive extraction rights for heavy oils and oil sands from Lake Orinoco through a share swap with PDVSA. The contract with PDVSA stipulated the construction of a large-scale plant for heavy oil hydrogenation using the Fischer-Tropsch process, incorporating German know-how to be provided by VEBA OEL AG.
Incidentally, SASOL still produces gasoline from coal on an industrial scale in South Africa today, using this old German process.
Against this backdrop, we operated pilot plants for the smoldering, hydrogenation, and gasification of heavy oils and oil sands on an industrial scale in Scholven at that time.
I myself was the plant manager responsible for the smoldering pilot plant and worked very closely with my colleagues at the hydrogenation and gasification pilot plants on a day-to-day basis.
The irony of the whole thing, however, was that VEBA OEL AG actually no longer possessed any of its own former know-how regarding any of these processes.
Our only source was a vast amount of re-filmed documents from US archives about the large-scale plants with which the Hitler regime had produced gasoline from German lignite during the Second World War.
But in the end, this was truly a completely unrealistic undertaking, akin to a futile endeavor.
Anyhow with the outbreak of the Second Iran-Iraq War in 1986 and the immediate, drastic drop in the price of crude oil on the world market, coupled with the sudden resignation of VEBA OEL AG CEO Rudolf Christian von Bennigsen-Foerder for health reasons, the joint project was quickly discontinued and the cooperation agreement between VEBA OEL AG and PDVSA was terminated.
In my opinion, Mr. Trump will also experience a rude awakening with Venezuelan oil. Whether he will escape unscathed remains to be seen.”
In my office during 1986 (not at VEBA AG, but shortly later, after my leave from there, at HENKEL KGaA in Düsseldorf, where I continued my career)
Incidentally, during my studies at KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Engineering), I read “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, a novel written in 1931 and published in 1932. Set largely in a futuristic World State whose citizens are genetically modified for a social hierarchy based on intelligence, the novel anticipates major scientific advances in reproductive technology, sleep learning, psychological manipulation, and classical conditioning, which combine to create a dystopian society challenged by the story’s protagonist. (Wikipedia)
Given the great analogies in this sense, it seemed only logical to publish this blog post under the title “Welcome to the Brave New World 2026”.
In my youth and as a young man, I was incredibly fortunate to live in a peaceful world. The wars of that time took place far away from what we considered the free, Western world. The USA was synonymous with peace, democracy, and culture. At least we Germans, in particular, understood it that way.
But since then, much has changed dramatically. Lately, I’ve been seriously wondering what the difference is today between countries like the USA, China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela (!) and others when it comes to democracy, freedom of expression, freedom of thought, constant surveillance and intimidation.
And today, another very negative fact became painfully clear to me: We are all—whether we like it or not—completely dependent on unethical companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Meta, which have willingly offered themselves up as tools and helpers of the US government.
But – no pain, no fun! No need to whine and cry. And we shouldn’t forget: diamonds are formed under pressure!
Let’s strengthen our backbone with this still beautiful song by Joan Baez:
Take care! See you the next time here again, if they don`t delete this blog resp. my blog posts in Linkedin …
Klaus
