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1Conflicts of Interest and Their Management2In the reporting year, no conflicts of interest were reported or otherwise apparent which 3would have to be reported to the General Meeting.4Annual Financial Statements, Consolidated Financial Statements, 5Integrated Non-Financial Group Statement and Dependency Report6KPMG has audited the Annual Financial Statements and the Consolidated Financial 7Statements, including the Accounting and the Summarised Management Report for the 8Annual and Consolidated Financial Statements for the 2023 financial year and the 9Dependency Report and in each case, issued an unqualified audit opinion on 8 March 2024. 10The Auditor’s Reports were signed by the auditors Mr Markus Fox and Ms Makhbuba Adilova. 11Mr Fox was the Auditor responsible for the engagement. 12Furthermore, KPMG performed a review to obtain a limited assurance in the context of the 13integrated non-financial group statement in the Summarized Management Report and issued 14an unqualified opinion. For the Compensation Report KPMG issued a separate unqualified 15opinion.16The Audit and Risk Committee examined the documents for the Annual Financial Statements 17and Consolidated Financial Statements for 2023 as well as the Summarised Management 18Report including the integrated non-financial group statement and the Dependency Report at 19its meeting on 11 March 2024. The representatives of KPMG provided the final report on the 20audit results. The Chairperson of the Audit and Risk Committee reported on this at the 21meeting of the Supervisory Board on 11 March 2024. Based on the recommendation of the 22Audit and Risk Committee and after inspecting the Annual and Consolidated Financial 23Statements and the Summarised Management Report including the integrated non-financial 24group statement, the Supervisory Board agreed to the results of the audits following an 25extensive discussion at the Supervisory Board and with representatives of KPMG. The 26Supervisory Board determined that, also based on the final results of its inspections, there 27were no objections to be raised.28On 11 March 2024, the Supervisory Board approved the Annual Financial Statements and 29Consolidated Financial Statements presented by the Executive Board. The Supervisory Board 30concurred with the Executive Board’s proposal for the appropriation of distributable profit.31DB Beteiligungs-Holding GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bank AG, holds a 3279.49% stake in DWS KGaA. As there is no control and/or profit and loss-pooling agreement 33between these two companies, the Executive Board prepared a report on the company’s 34relations with affiliates (Dependency Report) for the period from 1 January 2023 to 3531 December 2023, in accordance with Section 312 of the German Stock Corporation Act 36(AktG). The Dependency Report was audited by KPMG, the statutory auditor appointed by the 37company. The statutory auditor did not raise any objections and issued the following 38statement in accordance with Section 313 of the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG): 39“According to the results of our audit there are no objections to be made pursuant to Section 40313 (4) of the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG) against the report of the Executive Board 41on relations with affiliated companies. We hereby issue the following unqualified audit 42certification in accordance with Section 313 (3) of the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG) 43on the report of the Executive Board on relations of DWS Group GmbH & Co. KGaA, Frankfurt 44am Main, with affiliated companies for the financial year 2023: To DWS Group GmbH & Co. 45KGaA, Frankfurt am Main: Based on our dutiful audit and assessment, we confirm that 1) the 46statements actually made in the report are correct, 2) the company’s consideration for the 47legal transactions mentioned in the report was not unduly high, 3) the measures mentioned in 48the report do not speak in favour of an assessment that differs from that of the Executive 49Board.” The Dependency Report and the Audit Report of the auditor were made available to 50the Audit and Risk Committee and the Supervisory Board which reviewed the reports and did 51not raise any objections. Likewise, the Supervisory Board did not raise any objections against 52the declarations of the Executive Board concerning the relations with affiliates.53Personnel Developments54There were changes in the Supervisory Board composition in 2023.55As proposed by the Supervisory Board, the shareholder representatives Prof Dr Christina E. 56Bannier and Kazuhide Toda were elected to the DWS Supervisory Board at the Annual 57General Meeting on 15 June 2023 for the first time. They replaced the previous shareholder 58representatives of the Supervisory Board, Annabelle Bexiga and Minoru Kimura, who both 59resigned on the same date. In addition, the election of employee representatives to the 60Supervisory Board was held on 21 June 2023. As a result, Christine Metzler was elected as a 61new member to the Supervisory Board. She replaced the previous member Said Zanjani. The 62membership of all other members of the Supervisory Board was confirmed through the 63elections. The personnel changes on the Supervisory Board also resulted in a reorganization 64of the committees. 65In addition, the DWS Supervisory Board decided to propose Oliver Behrens for election to the 66DWS Supervisory Board at the Annual General Meeting on 6 June 2024. It is intended that the 67Supervisory Board will elect him as its Chairman. He will succeed me, Karl von Rohr, as I 68informed the company in April 2023 of my intention to resign as Chairman of the Supervisory 69         70To our 71Shareholders72Summarised 73Management Report74Consolidated 75Financial Statements76Compensation 77Report78Corporate Govern-79ance Statement80Supplementary 81Information DWS 2023 Annual Report82 83Report of the Supervisory Board84XI85The secret object #2 is a "phone".