"Shaping Tomorrow" starts with the question of responsibility

Interdependencies shape our world. Political orders are being called into question. International rules are losing their binding force. Short-term interests are crowding out long-term thinking. "Shaping Tomorrow" starts with the question of responsibility – and with the recognition that it cannot be delegated.

Who takes responsibility for future-readiness and stability, for progress and social cohesion? When political systems reach their limits? When global power dynamics shift and new economic and technological centers emerge?

Family-owned businesses cannot sidestep this question. Precisely because they think long-term, act across generations, and are deeply rooted in society, they carry more responsibility today than ever before.

Progress does not happen in isolation. It emerges from the interplay of many actors. I see this world as a mosaic: only when many individual pieces come together does a picture with meaning and impact take shape. MANN+HUMMEL is one piece of that mosaic – a single tile that uses people and technology to build a bridge, enabling others to make a difference.

Filtration is not an end in itself. It is a contribution to something larger. We separate the useful from the harmful, supporting cleaner mobility, cleaner air, cleaner water, and cleaner industry. Our focus is on solutions that create real impact, developed together with our employees, customers, and partners around the world.

That is a core part of our responsibility: staying oriented toward today's and tomorrow's challenges while accounting for regional, cultural, and economic differences. Technology is a lever for tangible progress – one that only gains its full meaning where it serves people.

For more than 85 years, MANN+HUMMEL has stood for this understanding of responsibility. This family-owned company has grown through political upheavals, economic crises, and profound technological change – because it acted with an entrepreneurial spirit. Because people stepped up, made decisions, and acted with courage even in uncertain times.

Our founders laid the foundation we still stand on today, guided by curiosity, excellence, passion, and a deeply humanistic sense of purpose. People have always been at the center of everything we do. That conviction carries us through times of change and gives our actions both direction and a sense of scale.

Our values – Focus, Innovation, Leadership, Trust, Empowerment, and Results, or FILTER – form the steady compass for everything we do. In a global organization with diverse cultures, they provide orientation, clarity, and strengthen our ability to execute with consistency.

Filtration will remain indispensable in the future. Whether in buildings and pharmaceutical applications, cleaner water, or sustainable mobility and industry, demand is growing while resources become scarcer. We play our part by separating the useful from the harmful.

The future takes shape where responsibility is assumed with foresight, even under uncertain conditions. Thinking long-term does not mean standing still. Being future-ready is not simply about continuing what already exists. It takes the courage to change and to move with speed, to make decisions even in the face of uncertainty. And it takes a willingness to take risks and take people with you on that journey. By combining focus, execution strength, customer proximity, and a readiness to learn, we connect our strategic ambitions with operational agility.

What will matter most is the ability to embrace opposing forces and turn them into something productive: continuity and change, individual and collective responsibility, care and speed, stability and renewal, heritage and future.

Eighty-five years of company history are not, to us, proof of permanence. They are a mandate for the future. Those who have been able to make an impact over such a long period of time want to keep contributing tomorrow – for our society and for people.

When we achieve that balance, the many individual mosaic pieces come together to form a powerful image of MANN+HUMMEL. An image that makes visible how we create solutions while contributing to a cleaner, more livable world.

For us, "Shaping Tomorrow" means taking responsibility, together. With full awareness of our role in the larger picture. Across every region of this world. With foresight, courage, and speed. Building trust. Especially when responsibility becomes uncomfortable.

Ludwigsburg, May 2026

Thomas Fischer – Non-Executive Chairman