DWS Invest German Equities NC |



by Natalia Wolfstetter

Christoph Ohme is no longer a portfolio manager on DWS Deutschland and sibling DWS Invest German Equities following his departure from the firm at the end of 2023. Ohme was a deputy manager of the German equity strategy alongside lead manager Marcus Poppe and other deputy managers Hansjörg Pack, Sabrina Reeh, and Andreas Wendelken. He originally joined DWS in 2005 and has moved to Oddo BHF Asset Management to assume his new role of head of German equities. At the same time, the team lost Daniel Hann, who had been with DWS since 2011 and the German equity team since 2017. While these departures represent a considerable loss of experience, with a team of seven, DWS’ German equity strategies remain adequately resourced. Given the continued presence of experienced fellow managers, DWS Deutschland and DWS Invest German Equities maintain an Average People Pillar rating. |
The strategy remains adequately resourced, but the team running this strategy underwent several key changes since 2023, which warrants a cautious stance, resulting in People and Process Pillar ratings of Average. Marcus Poppe has taken the reins of DWS Deutschland and sibling DWS Invest German Equities from long-standing manager Tim Albrecht in March 2023. Poppe has been with DWS since 2010, initially as an analyst covering German equities, followed by portfolio manager roles for DWS (ESG) Smart Industrials Technologies and DWS Global Value. In 2016, he was appointed deputy manager for DWS Top Dividende. Since March 2023, he has relinquished most of these responsibilities to focus on this strategy. In the wake of these changes, two other long-standing team members left the firm since 2023, including former deputy managers Christoph Ohme and Hansjörg Pack. The team was strengthened with two additions, and it can draw on DWS’ Europe equity platform, but the overall loss of experience is significant, and resources are not as abundant as before. While the changes are unsettling, they have the potential to invigorate the team over the long term. However, it now needs to regain stability, and workload bears monitoring. Poppe is also a co-head of DWS’ European equity team alongside small- and mid-cap specialist Philipp Schweneke, who assumed responsibility for DWS Aktien Strategie Deutschland, the team’s other flagship fund next to DWS Deutschland, from former lead manager Pack in February 2025. Schweneke continues leading the firm’s European small-cap team and managing dedicated European small-cap strategies. These responsibilities involve additional demands on the managers’ time. To alleviate the workload, all team members decide together on positioning in the DAX 40 names, with decisions taken by majority vote. Given the team revamp, we believe that Poppe’s decision to implement the strategy's very distinct style in a more measured way is sensible. Previous manager Albrecht used to follow a bold and often contrarian style, where he dialed risk up and down according to top-down considerations, and actively managed equity exposure within a range of 90% to 130%. Poppe plans to put more emphasis on stock-picking and improving the strategy's downside resilience. Using leverage, however, remains part of the approach, though Poppe does not expect it to go above 120% under his watch. Market exposure reached 110% in 2024. More downside resilience would be beneficial, given that the process comes with high potential risk, as also reflected in risk measures such as standard deviation, downside capture, or maximum drawdown, which have typically been higher than peers and its CDAX benchmark under the previous manager’s tenure. His successor’s more measured approach is reflected in the strategy’s risk metrics since 2023, but it continued to face headwinds from its exposure to mid-caps and small caps, limitations imposed by index concentration, and environmental, social, and governance-related constraints. |
Morningstar Pillars | |
People | Average |
Parent | Average |
Process | Average |
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