Lindner’s new job
What kind of company is Autoland?
The ex-finance minister is going into the auto industry. That’s no surprise. But he is drawn to Autoland AG. What’s behind it and what tasks he has there
Do you live in East Germany and have you recently looked for a car? Then you probably know the name Autoland. “Car what?”, almost everyone else asked themselves when they heard this news: Christian Lindner, who was Federal Minister of Finance until a year ago, is joining the major car dealer. The company achieved a real coup by signing Lindner. From January 1, 2026, Lindner will be deputy head of “Germany’s largest car discounter,” as the company calls itself. Lindner will take care of marketing, sales and digitalization there in the future.
Lindner’s commitment is “part of Autoland’s growth strategy,” according to a company press release. So far, this strategy is working: Autoland’s sales in 2024 were almost 890 million euros – and have therefore grown by 20 percent compared to the previous year. This year Autoland wants to break the billion in sales and sell almost 60,000 vehicles. The branches have vehicles from 30 brands, new and used, including year-old cars.
Autoland employs around 1,500 people and operates 32 branches, so far almost exclusively in the east of the republic. While there is a close-knit branch network across the eastern German states, there are almost no Autoland stores in the west. Lindner will now help to further roll out the business throughout Germany.
This is how Autoland became big
The beginnings were small: in 1978, the trained police officer Wilfried Wilhelm Anclam, also known as WWA in industry circles and chairman of the board of today’s Autoland AG, founded a one-man business in Hanover – literally in a garage. He was just 21 years old then. His starting capital: a blue VW Beetle, which he bought for a “few hundred marks” and resold for a little profit. This is what the founder says in retrospect in an interview on the Autoland website. Little by little he was able to buy two or three beetles, “make them pretty” and sell them on. This is how the whole thing developed. Obviously, this was a business model that was as simple as it was viable.
Anclam, who preferred to be an entrepreneur, said goodbye to the police – and after reunification he recognized the potential that lay dormant in the new federal states: to sell VWs or Opels to East Germans who were tired of Trabbi. He saw countless opportunities and the spirit of optimism was incredibly appealing to him, said Anclam. Unlike many other West Germans who followed the call of the gold rush, Anclam did not fall flat on his face. He bought property in the east and opened branch after branch. The headquarters of Autoland AG are now located in Sandersdorf-Brehna in Saxony-Anhalt, around 40 kilometers from Leipzig. The company headquarters is in Berlin.
The company is supposed to go to the West
In 2018, Anclam, now 68, converted the company into a public company. He still owns it to this day. Anclam’s next goals, with Christian Lindner as deputy, are clear: conquer the West, make Autoland Germany’s “strongest automobile trading company”. By 2035 there will be 120 branches throughout Germany. He wants to take Autoland public. Maybe that’s why he brought ex-minister Lindner on board.
Lindner himself says he wants to work where the heart of the German economy beats. “The fact that it’s the car industry won’t surprise anyone who knows my personal passions,” says declared Porsche fan Lindner.
In photos taken together, the new board colleagues appear in high spirits in a car dealership setting, shaking hands and smiling friendly into the camera. “Pay 0% down. Flexible financing. New cars up to 30% cheaper” promise signs.
