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Does thyssenkrupp support Israel?

thyssenkrupp AG

Statement on recordupdated 2026-09-25

thyssenkrupp has publicly expressed support for Israel, but we found no record of donations or aid. Every claim below links to its source.

Filed under: Tech companies · Companies that support Israel

Background

Which thyssenkrupp is a live question, and three separations matter. First, the marine business: everything recorded here down to 2025 was done by thyssenkrupp Marine Systems as a wholly owned division of thyssenkrupp AG, announced on thyssenkrupp's own newsroom. On 20 October 2025 that business was spun off and listed in Frankfurt as TKMS AG & Co. KGaA — thyssenkrupp shareholders received one TKMS share for every twenty they held, and thyssenkrupp AG remained the majority shareholder with 51%. Acts after that date, such as the INS Drakon handover and the BlueWhale delivery to the German Navy, are TKMS's, with thyssenkrupp as its majority owner. Second, the lifts: thyssenkrupp sold its elevator business to a consortium of Advent International, Cinven and the RAG-Stiftung; the company's own announcement of 27 February 2020 gives the purchase price as €17.2 billion, of which thyssenkrupp reinvested €1.25 billion for a minority stake, and Cinven records the sale as completed on 31 July 2020. That business is now TK Elevator, and its Israeli arm — registered in 2003 as Thyssenkrupp Elevators Israel and today TK Elevator Israel — has belonged to TK Elevator, not to thyssenkrupp AG, since that date; anything it has done since is not this company's record. Third, the early submarines: the first three Dolphins, commissioned in 1999 and 2000, were built by HDW before ThyssenKrupp bought the yard in 2005, and Germany donated two of them and split the cost of the third after the 1991 Gulf War — a decision of the German state, not a company gift. thyssenkrupp AG itself has no parent company; its largest shareholder is the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, a shareholder and not an owner of the group. The submarine sales also sit inside Israel's long-running “Case 3000” affair, in which associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and thyssenkrupp's Israeli agent Michael Ganor are suspected of bribery around the procurement; German prosecutors closed their own case in January 2021 citing insufficient suspicion against specific domestic persons, while Israeli proceedings and a state commission of inquiry continued. No finding against thyssenkrupp AG itself has been recorded. The company is listed by the advocacy research centre Who Profits and appears on AFSC Investigate's BDS divestment shortlist, and in June 2025 Norway's largest pension fund, KLP, excluded it — alongside the American group Oshkosh — over sales to the Israeli military; KLP said thyssenkrupp disclosed to it a long-term relationship with the Israeli military. Those are third parties' judgements, recorded here as such.

thyssenkrupp press release — planned date for the TKMS stock market listing, the 20:1 allotment ratio and the 51% stake (via Wayback Machine; the live page now serves thyssenkrupp's error page) TKMS — Frankfurt Stock Exchange listing Cinven — completion of the thyssenkrupp Elevator acquisition, 31 July 2020 thyssenkrupp press release, 27 February 2020 — sale of the Elevator Technology business for €17.2 billion (via TK Elevator's news archive) TK Elevator — its own list of local companies, including TK Elevator Israel Nuclear Threat Initiative — Israel Submarine Capabilities Corruption Tracker — Case 3000, the Submarine Affair Business & Human Rights Resource Centre — KLP exclusion, June 2025 AFSC Investigate — thyssenkrupp AG

Timeline of documented records

20062009201220152018202120242006-07 — Government contract: Israeli Ministry of Defense / Israeli NavyGovernment contract2006-072012-03 — Government contract: Israeli Ministry of Defense / Israeli NavyGovernment contract2012-032015-05 — Government contract: Israeli Ministry of Defense / Israeli NavyGovernment contract2015-052019-11 — Partnership: Impact Labs / Metal Point joint venture, Tel AvivPartnership2019-112021-07 — Partnership: Industrial Cooperation Authority, Israeli Ministry of Economy and IndustryPartnership2021-072022-01 — Government contract: Israeli Ministry of Defense / Israeli NavyGovernment contract2022-012022-01 — Public statementPublic statement2022-012022-12 — Investment / program: Vsense Technologies (Israel)Investment / program2022-122023-05 — Partnership: ELTA Systems, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace IndustriesPartnership2023-05

Documented records

TypeDateAmountRecipientSources
Government contract2006-07-06$1,270,000,000Israeli Ministry of Defense / Israeli Navy
On 6 July 2006 Israel signed a contract with Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) of Kiel — acquired by ThyssenKrupp in 2005 and made the core of thyssenkrupp Marine Systems — and with the German government, for two Dolphin-class submarines with air-independent propulsion. Al Jazeera, reporting the German defence ministry's confirmation, put the price at about $1.27 billion with Berlin covering up to one third of it; the Nuclear Threat Initiative records the same one-third German share on a figure of $1.17 billion. The boats were commissioned as INS Tanin in September 2014 and INS Rahav in 2016. This is a sale to a state that paid for it, and the subsidy came from the German treasury, not from thyssenkrupp.
Government contract2015-05-11$480,000,000Israeli Ministry of Defense / Israeli Navy
Israel's Ministry of Defense ordered four Sa'ar 6 missile corvettes on 11 May 2015 for €430 million ($480 million), with the German government paying €115 million of the cost. thyssenkrupp Marine Systems was general contractor and built the ships in a joint venture with German Naval Yards Kiel, a separate Kiel shipyard; radar and weapon systems were fitted after the ships reached Israel. Reuters reported that thyssenkrupp also committed to buy NIS 700 million ($181 million) of Israeli goods under the contract. TKMS handed over INS Magen on 11 November 2020, INS Oz in May 2021, and INS Atzmaut and INS Nitzachon on 27 July 2021, completing the order. The figures here are the contemporaneous ones: Reuters, reporting Israel's Defence Ministry on the day, gave €430 million ($480 million) with a German contribution of €115 million. Defense News, reconstructing the Israeli National Security Council's published timeline in January 2017, values the deal differently — an estimated €500 million (US $539.51 million) contract and a €175 million subsidy that Israel extracted from Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2014, describing Israel as having squeezed 27.5 percent off the price. Nothing read here reconciles the two accounts, so this row keeps the 2015 Reuters figures. A paid naval contract, not aid.
Government contract2022-01-20$3,400,000,000Israeli Ministry of Defense / Israeli Navy
thyssenkrupp Marine Systems and Israel's Ministry of Defense reached agreement on 20 January 2022 on “the framework conditions for the purchase” of three Dakar-class submarines, in the company's own words; the Times of Israel reported the deal inked that day at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv by Ministry director-general Amir Eshel and TKMS chief executive Rolf Wirtz, and the release adds that TKMS had still to hold talks with its suppliers before the contract took effect. The programme is worth about €3 billion ($3.4 billion) and covers a submarine class designed specifically for the Israeli Navy, a training simulator built in Israel, logistics support and spare parts, with the first boat due within about nine years. The German government funds part of it through a grant under an intergovernmental agreement signed in 2017; Army Recognition puts Berlin's expected share at about €540 million. A parallel reciprocal-procurement and industrial-cooperation contract commits thyssenkrupp to more than €850 million of purchases from Israeli industry, including Israeli defence firms, over twenty years. A sale to a paying customer, not a donation.
Government contract2012-03—Israeli Ministry of Defense / Israeli Navy
Israel ordered a sixth Dolphin-class submarine from ThyssenKrupp in March 2012 — the third boat of the air-independent-propulsion batch. Construction began at Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Kiel, by then part of thyssenkrupp Marine Systems. Israel changed the configuration during the build, so the boat received a longer hull, a much larger sail and new internal spaces; it was relaunched in August 2023 and named INS Drakon at a Kiel ceremony on 12 November 2024, the same event at which production of the first Dakar-class boat began. Reported prices for this submarine differ widely between sources and are not settled, so no figure is stated here. Israel took formal delivery at the Kiel yard in 2026 and the boat left for Israel in early September 2026 — by which time the yard belonged to TKMS, the marine business thyssenkrupp spun off and listed in October 2025 while keeping 51%.
Public statement2022-01-20——
thyssenkrupp's own newsroom has gone further than announcing sales. Handing over the corvette INS Magen on 11 November 2020, thyssenkrupp Marine Systems chief executive Rolf Wirtz said: “We are very proud to be contributing to Israel's security.” Announcing the Dakar submarine agreement on 20 January 2022, the release carried a single continuous quotation from Wirtz: the company was “honoured and proud to continue the long cooperation – spanning decades – with the Israeli Ministry of Defence and the Israeli Navy”, and, later in the same quotation, “this agreement demonstrates the deep commitment of thyssenkrupp Marine Systems to guarantee Israel's long-term security”. Both sentences are the marine division's chief executive speaking, not a company narration with a quote added, and thyssenkrupp AG published them while that division was wholly owned by it. They accompany paid contracts: no donation, humanitarian aid or charitable giving to Israeli causes was found in this pass.
Partnership2019-11—Impact Labs / Metal Point joint venture, Tel Aviv
thyssenkrupp's marine division and the Israeli innovation house Impact Labs set up Metal Point, a metal 3D-printing innovation and production centre at the Impact Labs complex in Tel Aviv, inaugurated in late November 2019 with an investment reported as several million euros by thyssenkrupp. The centre makes custom metal parts for Israeli manufacturers and was backed by Israel's Ministry of Economy, the Israeli Institute of Metals at the Technion and the Manufacturers Association of Israel. Alexander Orellano, then a member of the thyssenkrupp Marine Systems board, called it “a significant example of ThyssenKrupp's commitment to the long-term relationship with Israel”. A commercial joint venture, not a grant.
Partnership2021-07-20€300,000,000Industrial Cooperation Authority, Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry
On 20 July 2021 thyssenkrupp reached an arrangement with the Industrial Cooperation Authority at Israel's Ministry of Economy committing it to more than €300 million of reciprocal procurement in Israel: Israeli companies joining thyssenkrupp projects around the world, joint projects transferring maritime technology to Israel, training Israeli engineers with long-term employment commitments, and direct buying from Israeli metal, plastics and technology suppliers. Calcalist reported that the arrangement settled a dispute over earlier sales — submarines and patrol boats worth about €1.4 billion had carried an offset obligation of roughly €612 million, of which thyssenkrupp had completed about €329 million. Who Profits, an advocacy research centre, records the same July 2021 agreement at more than $323.7 million. Buying from Israeli suppliers is trade, not aid.
Investment / program2022-12—Vsense Technologies (Israel)
ATLAS ELEKTRONIK, the naval-electronics company of thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, signed an agreement to invest several million euros in the Israeli firm Vsense Technologies, a supplier and integrator of communication and surveillance systems. Atlas undertook to buy equipment for Vsense and to transfer training and know-how so that it could produce, maintain, inspect and repair equipment installed on Israeli Navy submarines and qualify as an approved Israeli Ministry of Defense supplier. The project sits inside thyssenkrupp's industrial-cooperation plan approved by Israel's Industrial Cooperation Authority in July 2021. Idoh Ophir, managing director of thyssenkrupp Marine Systems Israel, called it “another example of broad cooperation between Thyssenkrupp and Israeli companies”. A commercial investment by a subsidiary, reported by a single outlet.
One source
Partnership2023-05-10—ELTA Systems, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries
At the Undersea Defence Technology exhibition in Rostock on 10 May 2023, ATLAS ELEKTRONIK — described in the announcement as “a company of thyssenkrupp Marine Systems” — and ELTA, the electronics subsidiary of state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, unveiled a joint development that integrates Atlas's towed passive sonar array into IAI's BlueWhale uncrewed submarine for anti-submarine warfare. Atlas chief executive Michael Ozegowski described a long-standing partnership with the Israeli naval industry spanning decades. The first BlueWhale was handed to the German Navy at Eckernförde on 25 February 2026, by which time Atlas belonged to TKMS, the spun-off marine business in which thyssenkrupp holds 51%. The paying customer here is the German Navy; the Israeli side is the development partner and vendor.

Frequently asked questions

Did thyssenkrupp donate money to Israel or Israeli causes?

We have no records of donations. What is on record is a public statement of support — see this page for the wording and its source.

Where does this information come from?

Every record on this page links to its source — news reports, official company statements, tax filings, or government records. 28 distinct sources are cited for thyssenkrupp. Our methodology page explains the full verification process.

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2026-09-25

Companies with documented support