Abstract The American model of shareholder capitalism has been prominent around the world in the last four decades. This model suggests catering to the interests of shareholders and ignoring everything else. While being a profitable model of shareholders, it proved to have significant flaws, which were illustrated during the last two economic crises. German stockholder capitalism model presents itself as an alternative that benefits not only shareholders but also employees and the communities around them. Introduction Stakeholder and shareholder capitalism models are two very widespread business strategies popular in different areas around the world. Shareholder capitalism is the predominant model in the USA, while stakeholder capitalism is more common in Europe (Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark) and certain countries in Asia, like Japan (Brandt & Konstantinos, 2016). As the titles suggest, each model focuses on the interest of a certain group within the corporation. In the shareholder capitalism model, shareholder interests are the main concern, while in stakeholder model shareholder interest is on equal ground with concerns and interests of other stakeholders, such as the community, the employees, the suppliers, etc. Although shareholder capitalism model received a great boost in popularity due to the USA’s victory over communism in the 1980s, and increasing economic output and prosperity, those days are long gone (Pearlstein, 2014). Nowadays, the effectiveness and even morality of the approach is put under question after two spectacular financial crises and numerous scandals revolving around outrageous wages of top-tier company managers, while the rest remain in decline. In this paper, we will outline the functioning and staple traits of both systems, and explore the relationship between the employees and employers in German stakeholder capitalism and in American Shareholder capitalism. American Shareholder Capitalism Shareholder capitalism could be best described by professor Milton Friedman, who stated its founding postulate: “The principal objective of a business enterprise is to generate economic returns to its owners. If the CEO and the directors are not focused on shareholder value, it may be less likely the corporation will realize that value” (Coates, 2014, p. 54). Thus, the model is geared at maximizing profit at any cost. Any considerations towards anyone else be that the employees, the community, or even the country, are not regulated by law in any feasible way. In the American shareholder capitalism model, the corporations are owned by a small group of shareholders. They have the power to elect CEOs, directors, and other high-ranking officials. Although it is not explicitly stated, the primary duties of these high-ranking corporate officials are to ensure that the shareholders receive their profits through any means necessary. Otherwise, they would lose their jobs. All modern American corporate governance is based on the concept of shareholder primacy. Most American corporations have a one-tier governance structure. This means that the directorial board has complete control over the company’s function, its financial strategy, and the general direction of development. The US Federal L