Under German law, all companies employing over 500 people must adhere to "Mitbestimmung", which means co-determination laws.

In other words, by law, representatives of the workers must make up a certain amount of any given corporate executive board in Germany.

This forces corporate boards, at least to some degree, to make decisions that benefit the long term stability of the company (because the workers would like to keep their jobs), instead of a single owner getting all the say, and being able to redistribute that company's wealth to their personal bank account.

That they are capitalists and I am puzzled as to what criteria they use to define themselves as capitalists.
I say that in order for one to be a member of the capitalist class one must be in a position to influence the value of currency.

Anyone who has a financial stake in a business or corporation as an investor.  

Another interpretation would be someone who advocates a financial system based on capital (money) investment.

It has nothing to do with democracy or any political form of government.

Well Germany is a capitalist society.  It is where major businesses are owned by private enterprise without government regulations.  

However like majority of Europe, health and retirement care is provided by Government as a citizen's right.

and Charlie you failed to make that distinction in your OP.

I am not a member of the "capitialist class", but I am a capitalist, both in ideology and in practice. In my business I make my living by utilizing capital rather than the sweat off my brow. I utilize both my own capital and the capital of others, I have sat on many a board of directors of public companies and have been as high as a CFO of a publicly traded company, so yes I am a capitalist, but no I am not a member of the capitalist class.

First off, most people who claim to be capitalists, communists, liberals, conservatives or much of anything else don't have much of an understanding of what they actually claim to be or the implications thereby. Furthermore, definitions of these things are subject to interpretations that are often far from objectively knowable.

Nevertheless, most people who call themselves "capitalists" are persons who believe they support certain ideas they believe to be "capitalism." They need not even be wealthy at all, much less in a position to influence the currency. For them, their definition of capitalist is based upon whether or not they believe certain ideas that they believe are intrinsic to what they call capitalism. That is the philosophy.

However, as members of a so-called "capitalist class" I would likely include heads of the Federal Reserve banks, the Federal Reserve, the major stock exchanges, people who hold a substantial amount of wealth in stocks, etc. So in practice, there are relatively few members of the so-called "capitalist class."

My guess is 500K max worldwide that would meet my simple criteria.

I would guess, here in the United States, if you wanted to put a number on who is actually ruling the country, I would say fewer than 20,000 people.

Yes there is a difference and by your own admission you are not a member of the capitalist class. The capitalist class is the top 1% of the planets citizens by some estimates. I think that number should be one tenth of one percent of the worlds population. In my op I gave a simple definition of the power held by members of the capitalist class and I purposely left out the definition of a "capitalist". People have little choice as to what class they find themselves in. About half of the worlds population are members of the middle/working class. If the world is a fucked up place it is the fault of the "capitalist" middle class.

20k seems about right for the US. Thats not counting lackeys and minions though.

Germany has the highest percentage of small business. The vast majority of German productions is by companies just under 500 employees.