From a tiny village to €44.8M in taxes: why I owe it to public education

This is me in the mid-90s: a small room, a used PC, stacks of floppy disks and books. No startup hub. No accelerator. No VC dinners. Just curiosity. And a public education that opened the door.

I grew up in a 200-person village in Northern Bavaria. We had soccer, beer and forest. The church had been the tallest building for 750 years. Local industry was in decline. My mom worked in a kindergarten. My dad was an electrician and unemployed for much of my youth. We didn’t have connections, capital, or a family business to inherit.

What we did have was powerful: Germany’s public school and university system: free, accessible, excellent.

It gave me the chance to study physics. To earn a PhD. And in 2008, to co-found NanoTemper.

Since then, with an amazing team and customers around the world, we’ve built a company that:

• €364M in revenue

• 200+ jobs

• €44.8M in taxes paid

Whatever the state invested in me, I paid it back. More than 10x. And I’m proud of that. Proud to be part of a system that believes in opportunity, not privilege.

Why I’m happy to pay taxes in Germany Taxes aren’t a penalty for success. They’re the price of belonging to a society that gave me a shot. Public education turned a kid from a tiny village into a physicist and founder. That return on investment is real. For me, for our team, and for the next generation who will build what comes next.

When we fund education well, we don’t just create graduates. We create companies, careers and communities. We create resilience. We make it more likely that another 16-year-old, somewhere in a small town, can dream big and actually make it happen.

Innovation needs inclusion If we want more startups, more deep tech, more scientific breakthroughs, we need wider access, not narrower gates. Talent is evenly distributed. Opportunity isn’t. The fastest way to fix that gap is to keep public education free, accessible and excellent, and to support kids who don’t start with advantages.

I’ve seen it up close: the most powerful fuel for innovation is not just money, it’s mobility. The feeling that your effort can move you forward. That’s what public schools and universities gave me.

A thank-you and a commitment I’m grateful for the teachers and professors who pushed me. For the labs that were open late. For the exams that were hard. For a system that didn’t ask for my parents’ bank statements before it let me learn.

Paying taxes is my way of saying thank you and of investing in the next Philipp, or Fatima, or Lukas, or Mei who will build something better.

If our contribution makes their path a little easier, it’s worth every cent.

Your turn What gave you your shot? Who opened a door for you? I’d love to hear your story.