The Unexpected Success of Postwar Germany

At the end of WWII, Germany was a wasteland: millions of young men had been killed in battle, civilians had been killed in bombing raids, the physical infrastructure - factories, water pipes, electrical and telephone wiring - was largely destroyed, and the nation’s economy was a disaster.

Hitler and his Nazi government had inflicted incalculable damage on the German people during the twelve years of their horrific dictatorship.

Many observers predicted that Germany would sink permanently into the ranks of the “third world” countries.

Konrad Adenauer became federal chancellor - Bundeskanzler - in 1949, and led the heroic efforts by millions of Germans to rescue central Europe from collapse. He was greatly aided by Ludwig Erhard, whom he appointed Bundeswirtschaftsminister: Minister of Economics.

The amazing recovery has become a standard example in textbooks about economics. Adenauer and Erhard, having persuaded the western Allies - England, France, and the United States - to return sovereignty to the Germans, set out a policy of reducing taxes and deregulating markets.

The Nazi policy of “national socialism” had dictated that the government should control the prices of everything from bread to shoelaces. Postwar freedom now meant that individual store owners could set their own prices, and customers were free to bargain.

The Encyclopedia Britannica describes the energizing effect of lower taxes and deregulated markets:

The West German currency reform that produced the western deutsche mark was a courageous act. It exchanged one deutsche mark for 10 obsolete reichsmarks; later the rate was slightly reduced. In one respect, the result was similar to that of Weimar’s hyperinflation; paper savings were suddenly devalued. This time, however, there was a limit to any losses. What was more, quite small quantities of the new currency would actually buy goods. When Ludwig Erhard, the economic director who had undertaken the reform, also dismantled price and other controls, the scene was set for the so-called Wirtschaftswunder, the German “economic miracle,” fueled by freedom and competition and the energy they released.

When Adenauer retired from the office in 1963, Erhard became chancellor and remained until 1966.

From 1949 to 1966, the two of them laid the foundations of economic prosperity, not only for Germany, but for central Europe generally, which has lasted for several decades. Much of what still exists in terms of a manufacturing base is running on the momentum of those years.

Economists see the resurrection of the German economy as paradigmatic for growth. David R. Henderson writes:

What caused the so-­called miracle? The two main factors were currency reform and the elimination of price controls, both of which happened over a period of weeks in 1948. A further factor was the reduction of marginal tax rates later in 1948 and in 1949.

Germany defied the expectations of the postwar world. When many economists thought that Germany would be relegated to a “third world” status, it instead became one of the most powerful economies, not only in Europe, but in the world.

Stunde Null - Rebuilding from Nothing

The end of the WWII is a major turning-point in the history of Germany. The end of the war meant the end of twelve years of Nazi oppression. The nation was largely destroyed, but it also had its first chance in a dozen years for constructive activity.

The devastation was immense: millions of Jewish Germans had been mercilessly murdered in concentration camps, joined by other victims like Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and anyone who expressed political opposition to the Nazis.

Millions more had died when German cities were destroyed by bombs dropped from aircraft, and millions of young men had died on the battlefields. The German population was decimated.

Physically, the nation’s infrastructure was in shambles. Roads, electrical and telephone wires, and the pipes bringing water to houses were often non-functional. Buildings of all types had been destroyed.

The nation’s economy had also been gravely damaged by Hitler’s policies. The Nazis had controlled the prices of nearly anything that could be bought or sold, and taxed the people harshly.

Many observers assumed that Germany would permanently become a “third world” country, an ongoing economic disaster. As David R. Henderson writes,

After World War II the German economy lay in shambles. The war, along with Hitler’s scorched-­earth policy, had destroyed 20 percent of all housing. Food production per capita in 1947 was only 51 percent of its level in 1938, and the official food ration set by the occupying powers varied between 1,040 and 1,550 calories per day. Industrial output in 1947 was only one-­third its 1938 level. Moreover, a large percentage of Germany’s working-­age men were dead. At the time, observers thought that West Germany would have to be the biggest client of the U.S. welfare state; yet, twenty years later its economy was envied by most of the world. And less than ten years after the war people already were talking about the German economic miracle.

How did Germany rise from such devastation? Other nations have remained in the category of “developing world” without actually developing.

There are many complex aspects to Germany’s Wirtschaftswunder - its ‘economic miracle’ - including the cultural attitudes and ethics of central Europe. Self-discipline, focus, farsightedness, and societal emphases on education all played a part.

Additionally, the policies implemented by West Germany’s first chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, and his appointee, Ludwig Erhard, opened the door to economic growth. Simply put, they reduced taxes and reduced regulation.

Individuals were free to discuss the prices they wanted to pay. The give-and-take of talking about prices with local merchants revitalized the markets.

Lower taxes meant that opportunities arose for individuals to start their own small businesses and shops. Larger businesses could sell more because smaller businesses were thriving.

To understand why the Wirtschaftswunder was regarded as something like a miracle, we need to remember that Germany was rising from near-total destruction: millions of its people dead, its physical infrastructure demolished, and its economy shattered by years of Nazi socialist policies.

The time immediately after the war’s end, and immediately before the economic recovery, was called Stunde Null - the ‘zero hour’ - because it was almost as if history were starting over again. Germany had to rebuild itself from almost nothing.

Today, more than half a century later, economists still study the years of the Wirtschaftswunder - roughly 1949 to 1966 - as a landmark era of growth in world history. The Germans built one of the world’s most powerful economies from piles of rubble.

Merkel: a Rational Scientist in an Irrational World

Since Angela Merkel became Chancellor of Germany in November 2005, several situations have confronted her and shaped her chancellorship: the Eurozone economic problems centering on but not limited to Greece; Putin’s aggressive foreign policy; and Islamic terrorism.

Merkel’s style arises from her intense study of physics and chemistry: she earned her doctorate in 1986. She did not study political science or law, and so comes to government from a rational point of view rather than a professional one.

Being in the center of major geopolitical questions, Merkel has regularly appeared at or near the top of the list, created by Forbes magazine, of the world’s most powerful women. She was at the very top of the list in 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006. In 2010, she was in fourth place.

Even on the list of the most powerful people - women and men - in the world, Merkel has made impressive appearances. In 2015 and 2012, she was ranked second, behind Vladimir Putin in first place. In 2014 and 2011, she was fourth. In 2013, she was fifth. In 2010, she was sixth.

Merkel entered politics full-time when she was elected, in 1990, as a representative in Germany’s Bundestag, similar to the U.S. House of Representatives. She is and was a member of the CDU political party.

Her election came shortly after the GDR, as East Germany was officially known, dissolved, and shortly after East and West Germany reunited, freeing the millions of Germans who’d lived under the socialist dictatorship in the east.

One factor which shaped Merkel’s worldview is her experience of the GDR, of living under Soviet socialist oppression, of throwing off that oppression, of gaining freedom, and of reuniting Germany.

Vladimir Putin symbolizes that Soviet oppression, and is perhaps a ghost of it. He has been a constant factor in global dynamics ever since Merkel became chancellor. Stefan Kornelius writes:

Putin had been president for five years when she became Chancellor. Later he swapped roles and spent some time as Prime Minister before returning as head of state in 2012. Ever since Merkel became Chairman of the CDU, Putin has been the leader of Russia. Not only that, they are almost the same age - Putin is two years older than her - and have followed similar paths in life, almost as if they were mirror images. Putin spent five years in Dresden, where he witnessed the collapse of the GDR and the Warsaw Pact and became fluent in German. Merkel grew up in the Soviet garrison town of Templin, showed her gift for languages by learning Russian, and like Putin experienced the fall of the Wall at first hand. While Merkel had always glorified the West, and demonstrated her love of freedom by following Western politics, 1989, the great year of change, certainly didn’t transform Putin into an ardent democrat. Whenever Merkel and Putin meet, two world views collide. For Merkel, the fall of the Berlin Wall was a liberating experience, whereas for Putin, a lieutenant colonel in the KGB, it was a deeply traumatic event. He sees the collapse of the Soviet Union as a historic defeat.

Dealing with Putin requires mental toughness, and Merkel has it. It is perhaps no coincidence that the only other woman to deal effectively with Putin also appeared frequently on the Forbes list of the world’s most influential women: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Another question which required both Merkel’s toughness and her ability for scientific analysis was the international financing of the eurozone. Fiscal discipline means enduring some hardships in order to avoid worse hardships. French leader Sarkozy worked with Merkel, but did not last in his office as long as she in hers.

Saying ‘no’ to additional debt is not always popular, but in the long run has proven to be the only path which offers even a slim chance for the survival of the regional and continental economy. Historians Alan Crawford and Tony Czuczka write:

For Merkel, whose position as Europe’s principal decision maker was cemented six months later when she lost her ally Sarkozy in France’s presidential election, the moment of truth for the euro area was the latest incarnation of financial crisis that had rocked her chancellorship almost since the beginning. Merkel was just 18 months into office when she was confronted with the worst global financial meltdown in living memory. She set about resolving each stage of crisis for which there was no playbook – in the banks, the economy, and as a result of euro countries’ debt loads – and she learned along the way. Catapulted to the forefront of European policy making during the euro trauma, it came to define Merkel’s chancellorship even as she struggled for a solution. Some leaders, like Papandreou and Berlusconi, collapse and fall victim to crisis; others like Merkel flourish. Lambasted for delaying, for backtracking, and for refusing to commit more resources to the crisis fight, Merkel showed at Cannes that she can suddenly be decisive, brutally so.

Merkel has been nimble enough to adjust her strategies as needed. Trying to cajole Greece into controlling its profligate spending, in 2010 she at first floated the idea of nudging Greece out of the eurozone; by late 2012, she was working on ways to keep Greece in the eurozone, but using the leverage to persuade it to rein in its extravagant spending and massive debt.

The big question mark looming on the horizon of Merkel’s chancellorship is how Europe will protect itself from Islamic terrorism, and how it can handle the flood of Syrian refugees - many of whom are neither Syrian nor refugees. It is far too early in history to know the outcome of this situation, for good or for ill.

Given her expertise in physics and chemistry, Merkel’s view of both economics and geo-strategic negotiating is a highly rational one. So far, it has been successful.

Angela Merkel: Overcoming Obstacles

Angela Kasner, now better known as Angela Merkel, developed a love for freedom because of her experiences growing up in East Germany: because she knows what it’s like to have little or no freedom.

Growing up the Soviet-sponsored socialist dictatorship, Angela Kasner faced the extra difficulties of being a Jesus follower under an explicitly atheistic government.

People of faith faced a complex and changing situation in East Germany. At times, the persecution was severe and direct: those who spoke about Jesus or read the New Testament were harassed and jailed.

At other times, the government attempted to present itself as tolerant. Jesus followers were allowed to gather for discussion, prayer, worship, and sermons. But they paid a price even during the lenient phases: they were held to menial places of employment, lower wages, and usually denied a chance to study at the university.

Even at the best of times, Jesus followers were subjected to constant surveillance by the Stasi, the East German secret police. Stasi is short for Staatssicherheit, meaning ‘state security.’ The full official name of the spy agency was Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, abbreviated MfS.

Angela’s father was a pastor, and was allowed to speak to groups during the lenient phases. But he was always subject to the pressure of the government, which proclaimed atheism as the official belief of the nation. Historian Stefan Kornelius writes:

Young Angela Kasner’s world was quite straightforward. It consisted of her mother, father, brother and sister, the Waldhof and its various businesses, and the road outside. Sometimes Angela crossed the road to go to the nearby shop and wait for her father, who was usually out and about. “I didn’t venture any farther,” she said. As a little girl she didn’t go to a creche or kindergarten, and was afraid of horses – these are Angela Merkel’s earliest memories. The Waldhof, a complex of residential and farm buildings, storehouses and workshops, was like an island in the idyllic little town of Templin. In 1957 her father, Horst Kasner, was asked to set up a college for Church administration, later known as the Pastoral College, and act as its head teacher. Curates and pastors would visit the Waldhof for several weeks to train or attend seminars on preaching. The Waldhof was an important institution for the Protestant Church in the State of Berlin-Brandenburg – it could be claimed that every pastor in the Church at the time would have been taught by Horst Kasner at some point in his life.

Angela decided that she would work against the official policies of the government, but quietly. She was determined that her personal faith would not prevent her from studying at the university.

She had declined to take part in the Jugendweihe - the communist party’s official ‘coming of age’ ceremony for young people - and instead sought the rite of confirmation among her fellow believers. At school, although she was not a vocal revolutionary, she did make comments which could be interpreted as being critical of the government; the university initially denied her admission for this reason.

Using her personal networks and those of her father, using her determination, and using her skills at negotiating and persuading, she managed to gain admission to the University of Leipzig in 1973.

At the Universität Leipzig, Angela Merkel (she had married by this time) became fluent in the Russian language, but her major fields of study were chemistry and physics. She earned her doctorate in these fields.

Her desire for freedom manifested itself in her desire to travel. Citizens of the Soviet-dominated ‘satellite’ countries were allowed to journey only to a small and specific set of destinations, and then only under close supervision and under certain conditions.

Even under those conditions, however, Angela Merkel wanted to see as much of the world as she could. Historians Alan Crawford and Tony Czuczka write:

As a young woman, Angela Kasner would set out from East Berlin each summer on a pilgrimage to the furthermost reaches of where it was permitted to go. While others left to tend the fruit trees and berry bushes of their countryside dachas, Angela traveled south through Dresden, where the wartime remains of the Baroque Frauenkirche were visible from the railway station, on to the faded capital of the Czechoslovak Republic, where the Prague Spring had long since reverted to winter. From there, she went to Bratislava on the Danube river, which formed the border with Austria and the unattainable West, then on to Budapest, where she occasionally mingled with the few Western visitors who visited; some told her the city’s parliament building and river setting reminded them of far-off London.

Sometimes, those who have always had much liberty love it the least, because they haven’t experienced life without it.

And sometimes, those who’ve had the least liberty love it the most.

Having inherited both faith and courage from her parents, Angela Merkel gained admission to the university when circumstances suggested that she’d spend her life doing menial labor; she travelled as far as possible, stretching the narrow confines which the socialist dictatorship sought to impose upon her.

At that time, she was a scientist, spending her days with chemistry and physics. She did not like the harsh rule of communists, but was also not a revolutionary, and did not plan the end of Soviet-style socialism.

She did not know, and nobody else knew, that within a few years, the oppressive government would topple, and that she would eventually become the leader of a new and free Germany.

Restarting Germany: Adenauer Discovers the Link Between Liberty and Prosperity

When we read that Konrad Adenauer was the first chancellor of modern Germany, like reading that George Washington was the first president of the United States, the honor may overshadow the difficulty of such a task.

Both leaders oversaw a nation damaged by war and viewed suspiciously by other countries.

Adenauer became chancellor in 1949. Germany’s major cities were still largely piles of rubble. The workforce was undersized because so many people had died during the war.

Not only did Germany have to rebuild its infrastructure, but it had to persuade the victorious Allies to let it do so. The western Allies - England, France, and the United States - had merged their three portions of Germany together to form West Germany.

The Soviet occupational zone, East Germany, had no chance to experience any type of political or economic liberty. It was under the harsh domination of the socialist occupational forces.

The western Allies had, in early 1949, all the power in West Germany. The German government could do nothing without the permission of the “high commissioners” who represented the Allied governments.

Adenauer had first to create a plan to rebuild Germany and to jumpstart its economy. Then he had to persuade the Allies to let him act on those plans: not an easy task.

The most probable outcome was the Adenauer would fail to develop successful plans, and would not be allowed by the Allies to act on them anyway. Germany would probably become a “third-world” nation: a historic failure.

Nobody expected much from Adenauer, or from Germany. As historian Hans-Peter Schwarz writes,

Contemporaries and historians have generally agreed that the first four years of Adenauer’s chancellorship were the most important of his time in government. Phrases such as ‘laying the foundations,’ ‘setting the course,’ and ‘founding years of the republic’ have frequently been used to describe these early years. Though at the time it was generally recognized that the situation facing him was complex and fraught with difficulties, this fact is often forgotten in retrospect. Adenauer’s fourteen-year chancellorship remains a source of considerable fascination, also for historians. One consequence has been a tendency to exaggerate Adenauer’s prospects for success in 1949 and to underestimate the problems he faced. In fact, in autumn 1949 failure seemed rather more likely than success.

Difficult decisions awaited Adenauer. Nobody could tell him with certainty what steps to take to rescue the nation’s devastated economy. No results were guaranteed.

Relying on his appointee Ludwig Erhard, the new government cut personal income taxes drastically. For many citizens, tax rates fell by more than half.

Adenauer also removed many price controls. Sellers were allowed to experiment with different price levels to see which worked best. After years of dictatorship, the economy was finally free.

These two policies - lowering taxes and removing price controls - fueled what economists call the Wirtschaftswunder or ‘economic miracle.’ When West Germany seemed destined to slowly slide into a “third world” condition, it instead became one of the largest economic and manufacturing powers in the world.

Adenauer’s political opponents inside Germany - from the competing political parties - weren’t happy with his administration, but they figured that they would simply wait until Adenauer’s time in office was over.

Konrad Adenauer would, however, be Germany’s chancellor for a surprising fourteen years. Together with Ludwig Erhard, he kept the Germans free from excessive regulation and taxation. Adenauer’s policies energized the German economy throughout the 1950s and made it the fastest-growing on the planet.

The fact that he was almost 75 years old when he became chancellor did not get in the way of Adenauer’s plans to make Germany the manufacturing the economic giant of Europe, and a powerful financial force around the world. Hans-Peter Schwarz writes:

Adenauer’s age itself led many observers to assume that he would be no more than a transitional figure. In the early days this fact helped him. During the formation of his government, opponents and rivals were able to console themselves with the thought that time would soon eliminate an old man who had been under stress for years and was now on an exhausting political treadmill.

More than 50 years later, economists still study Adenauer’s years in office, from 1949 to 1963, as one of the most productive eras. His policies were an unprecedented success in economic growth, and manifested the link between personal political liberty and prosperity for citizens at every income level.

The Circumstances Leading to the Berlin Wall

When the fighting in Europe ended in April and May 1945, the victorious Allies - England, the USSR, and the USA - divided Germany into four zones, one for each of the Allies (including France).

The capital city Berlin lay in the Soviet zone. It was likewise divided into four sectors. This meant that the British, French, and American sectors of Berlin were an “island” surrounded on all sides by Soviet-controlled territory.

The original vision included open borders between the four zones of Germany, and between the four sectors of Berlin. The USSR quickly made it clear, however, that it was eager to restrict or stop the people’s movement across these borders.

The French, Americans, and British merged their zones and allowed them form a sovereign state, The Federal Republic of Germany, known more commonly as “West Germany.” Likewise, the corresponding three sectors of Berlin were merged to form “West Berlin.”

Eventually, the Soviets cut off all movement into or out of West Berlin by car, truck, bus, or railroad. This was done suddenly in June 1949. The USSR hoped that West Berlin would collapse when all supplies, included food, medicine, and fuel were denied.

The western Allies responded with the massive effort known as the “Berlin Airlift,” a technologically amazing string of round-the-clock flights, bringing nearly every imaginable supply to the city: gasoline, coal, clothing, medicine, newspapers, etc.

The logistics were complex, precise, and breathtaking in scope: airplanes landed every thirty seconds in Berlin. Each plane rolled to a stop, was quickly unloaded, and took off again to land in West Germany, take on new cargo, and repeat the process.

Everything was precisely timed: a twelve-man crew could unload ten tons of coal from an airplane in five minutes and forty-five seconds. This exact timing was maintained for thousands of flights, with hundreds of airplanes, connecting several different airbases in West Germany to the two landing airports in West Berlin.

The Soviet blockade lasted from June 1948 to May 1949. The USSR decided to end the blockade, because the airlift had shown that the western Allies were resolved to support West Berlin, and the airlift had effectively negated the Soviet effort to isolate the city and starve it into surrender.

From the time the war ended, through the 1950s, the Communists made it ever more difficult for people to move in or out of the Soviet occupational zone, or ‘East Germany,’ as it came to be known. They likewise kept tightening the borders between East Berlin and the rest of the city.

The USSR was aware that East Germany was losing population. The workforce there was highly skilled, and the Soviets depended on it to augment and enhance the industrial and technological base in Russia.

The continual trickle of scientific expertise out of East Germany posed a strategic problem for the communists. The borders around East Germany, and around East Berlin, had to be sealed. Vice President Dick Cheney describes the events in early 1961:

Documents in the Soviet archives released since the collapse of the Soviet Union detail Khrushchev’s plan. In a meeting with the President of the Supreme Soviet on May 26, 1961, Khrushchev laid out his scheme for isolating West Berlin and shutting off the flow of refugees from the East. He did not believe the Americans or any of the other Western powers would stop him, and as he saw it the situation was dire: thousands of East Germans citizens were fleeing the Soviet Bloc through West Berlin. Khrushchev planned to notify Kennedy that the Soviets and the East Germans would sign a treaty by the end of the year closing all corridors of access to West Berlin, with or without U.S. approval.

In Khrushchev’s estimation, Kennedy was young and indecisive. Khrushchev had scored a tactical victory over Kennedy at the Bay of Pigs, when Kennedy launched the invasion of Cuba, but then didn’t authorize the Air Force to support the soldiers landing on the beaches there.

The troops who hoped to liberate Cuba from the Soviet-backed communist dictatorship instead found themselves easy targets without the air support which had been promised to them and on which they had counted. Kennedy’s halfway measure - launch an invasion but then fail to sustain it - created the impression the mind of Khrushchev that Kennedy was passive and not ready to stand solidly in the face of the USSR’s socialist aggression.

Khrushchev and Kennedy met face-to-face in Vienna in June 1961. The Soviet leader was full of bombast, and the young U.S. president miserably endured the meeting.

Khrushchev left the meeting confident that he could do as he pleased, and the American leader would organize little or no resistance.

In August 1961, in a massive surprise operation, soldiers built a wall encircling West Berlin. At dawn, those who were in that half of the city found that they could not leave. Whether they were permanent residents or mere visitors, they were confined.

Likewise, those in East Berlin could not go to West Berlin. Family or friends who were merely spending the night with loved ones in East Berlin suddenly found themselves to be permanent residents of the Soviet-controlled half of the city.

For the next three decades, very few people crossed in either direction between the two halves of the city. Of those who did cross, some did so legally, others found ways to sneak or escape from East Berlin into West Berlin.

Tragically, many died attempting this escape, shot by socialist guards who patrolled along the Berlin Wall.

The wall became a symbol of Soviet socialism. The final opening of the wall, in November 1989, and its demolition in 1990, became a symbol of the freedom which came to the East Germans, largely as a result of pressure from NATO and from President Ronald Reagan’s assertive response to the USSR’s bullying.

Rebuilding a Nation: Adenauer Despite the Circumstances

Konrad Adenauer became the first postwar leader of modern Germany in 1949, and the country’s first freely-elected leader since the early 1930s. After a dozen years of brutal Nazi oppression, the people had a chance to return to individual political liberty.

To regain this freedom, the nation would first have to rebuild itself physically: its industries and infrastructure.

Amidst the devastation caused by massive bombing, that prerequisite would have been difficult enough by itself: the cities and factories were largely destroyed. But Adenauer faced an additional challenge: he had to first persuade the western Allies - England, France, and the United States - to trust Germany.

The Allies controlled Germany as part of the immediate postwar arrangement. When combat ended in 1945, there was lots of chaos and no functional government, and the Allied presence was necessary.

By 1949, the nation was minting its own coins again, and the time had arrived for bits of independence to be granted to the Germans. Until then, the ruling power was in the hands of the “high commissioners,” a group of leaders appointed by the Allies. It was with them that Adenauer would have to bargain, as Horst Osterheld writes:

Adenauer began by setting himself five goals: the restoration of the economy and of good order internally, the reclamation of political capability, the readoption into the family of nations and the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany in the camp of the free nations. He embarked on these goals only one day after his first Cabinet had taken the oath on 21 September 1949, by beginning to negotiate the Petersberg Agreement with the High Commissioners, who at that time had all the power in their hands. The outstanding item was the dismantling of the great German industrial concerns. Had this been carried out according to plan, things would have looked hopeless for the German economy. Adenauer fought for every workshop and every machine. The result repaid his efforts: eighteen large works were struck off the dismantling list, including the Bayer works, the chemical factories of Hüls and Gelsenberg, the Thyssen foundries, the Klöckner works, the Bochum corporation and Ruhrstahl A.G.; in Berlin all the factories were actually preserved. A gigantic success, “almost as important psychologically as materially, that is, to the morale of our leading industrialists and the enthusiasm of our working population.”

The tentative plans by the Allies to largely disassemble German industrial capability was halted, and West Germany began to work ceaselessly on what textbooks now call the “economic miracle” - the transformation from nearly complete wartime destruction to economic superpower in little more than a decade.

Those living in East Germany had a more difficult time. The occupying Soviet army dismantled research laboratories and even entire factories, crated them up, and sent to to Russia. East Germany had been home, e.g., to the rocket development center at Peenemünde, which was technologically ahead of anything the USSR had.

In West Germany, the people had found a reliable leader in Adenauer. He had bravely and vocally opposed Hitler, and had paid the price because of it for twelve long years. He’d been arrested and narrowly escaped death.

Adenauer would lead Germany for well over a decade, from a nation decimated by war to a leading world economic power. He was on good terms with U.S. presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. He developed working relationships with other European nations, who relied on his intentions to develop peace and freedom.

Is Germany Shrinking?

Although it is still fashionable, in certain segments of the social sciences and news media, to mention the earth’s “overpopulation” problem, it has become clear among environmental biologists that the planet’s carrying capacity is many billions more than its current level.

With renewable and sustainable methods, food, water, clean air, and a standard of living higher than world’s current average can be maintained for a population far exceeding current levels.

A new awareness has arisen that humanity may, in fact, be facing an underpopulation problem. Declining birthrates in developed “first-world” countries threaten our ability to sustain civilization.

A birthrate of somewhere between 2.3 and 2.5 children per couple is required to maintain a population. Shrinking populations wreak economic havoc. Populations which are growing at a slow but steady pace optimize economic growth. Reiner Klingholz, a researcher at Berlin’s Institute for Population and Development, Das Berlin-Institut für Bevölkerung und Entwicklung, writes:

Working longer is one option to counter a shrinking workforce. But extending the retirement age can only partly solve the problem of an aging population, because it is the very old who are aging the fastest. Today, 20 percent of Germany’s population is older than 65, and 5 percent are older than 80. In 2050, the 65-plus age group will make up 32 percent and the 80-plus group 14 percent. In other words: By mid-century one out of seven Germans will be older than 80. The figures are similar in Spain and Italy. The Old World will then truly be the oldest.

Aside from the economic and environmental damage - shrinking populations produce more pollution - done by Germany’s stagnating population growth, there is global fallout, especially because other advanced nations are facing similar phenomena.

The ‘first-world’ nations are stewards of a type of human civilization; will they be able to continue to fill that role if they have ever older and ever fewer citizens?

A loose set of worldviews coalesce around these countries: beliefs that war is better than peace, that women have certain legal and social equalities with men, that every human being has dignity, that such human dignity is worthy of respect, that every human life is valuable, that human life should not be ended capriciously, that the individual is significant, that liberty is a central human value, etc.

If the nations of the developed world are in a population decline, will they still be able to represent these, their peculiar and characteristic notions, to the rest of the world? Or will this cultural heritage be endangered?

Ironically, some sociologists hypothesize that it was Western Civilization’s occasional departures from its own worldview which have triggered a pattern of low birthrate, a pattern which can be interpreted as a collective self-hatred or a collective suicide: the carnage of the two world wars may have left the cultures deflated and cynical - sometimes obviously so, as in postmodern art, sometimes in a hidden manner behind an optimistic facade.

Statistical population counts have hidden the fact that Germany has suffered from a low birthrate for a number of years. But the graying of civilization can no longer be camouflaged, as Patrick Buchanan writes:

What Klingholz is saying bears repeating: Germans have been dying out for forty years and this has been covered up by counting Turks, East Europeans, and Arabs as Germans. Now, not even immigrants from the Muslim lands, Eastern Europe, and the Third World can mask the reality.
Astonishing. Not long after World War II, West Germany boasted the world’s second largest economy. Now a united Germany is on schedule to become a retirement center, nursing home, and cemetery for the Germanic peoples, whose origins date back to before the birth of Christ.

If the first-world nations are weakened by low birthrate and stagnating, or even shrinking, populations, then the rest of the world will suffer the absence of this rich cultural heritage.

The problem of a handful of developed nations will become a global problem. The worldview which informed both technological progress and humanitarian compassion will leave a devastating void throughout the world.

It is in the interests of the entire global community to sustain the civilization which alone articulated the principles of individualism and liberty, while at the same time replacing both ethical and aesthetic barbarism with a cultural tradition which inspires both scientific exploration and philosophical reflection.

A Shrinking Deutschland?

Even as scientists find that the carrying capacity of planet earth, managed sustainably and renewably, is many billions more than the world’s current inhabitants, a different sort of population problem is emerging in developed or ‘first-world’ countries.

Germany is a clear example of a nation suffering from underpopulation. The birthrate is perilously low, and the society is measurably shrinking.

Because this is happening to other countries, and because these communities are custodians of important cultures and civilizations, this trend is not a national problem: it is a global problem.

The causes of this phenomenon are complex and mysterious. One hypothesis is that these traditions exhausted themselves in the carnage of the two world wars, as Patrick Buchanan writes:

For ten years, 1914-1918 and 1939-1945, Britons and Germans fought. By 1945, Germany was finished as a military power and Britain was finished as a world power. Now the Germans have begun to disappear. “Since 1972, Germany has not seen a single year where the number of newborns exceeded the number of deaths,” writes Reiner Klingholz, of Berlin’s Institute for Population and Development.

Sociologists have speculated about a number of possible causes. Why would people choose to have fewer children? A birthrate of between 2.3 and 2.5 children per couple is sufficient to hold a population even.

Historically, children were a financial benefit, when societies were largely agricultural. Children helped to do farmwork, and provided care when aging parents eventually became unable to economically sustain themselves.

This pattern continued during the early years of the Industrial Revolution.

As economies shifted to the later phases of the Industrial Revolution, and then into more technology- and information-oriented patterns, children became less of a financial advantage, and in some cases could even be viewed as burden.

Reiner Klingholz earned his Ph.D. in molecular biology, but his career has taken him into the field of population statistics. Noting that the population problem was disguised by immigration, he writes:

Since 1972, Germany has not seen a single year where the number of newborns exceeded the number of deaths. The creeping population-shrinking process was only masked by high immigration figures that could camouflage the natural losses — at least until 2003. Since then, the overall population of Germany has declined; the Federal Statistical Office expects that the nation will have around eight million fewer inhabitants by mid-century — a loss that is the equivalent of losing the populations of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, and Frankfurt combined. Germany, along with Ukraine and Romania, presently lead the league of European countries with populations set to contract.

What does this situation mean for the world as a whole? Because some other countries are experiencing similar underpopulation problems, concerns arise that some aspects of civilization may be at risk.

These nations have been the caretakers of a set of worldviews, including notions that human life is valuable, that every human being has dignity and should be respected, that women have certain fundamental legal and social equalities with men, that war is better than peace, that rational dialogue is salutary, that human life should not be capriciously taken, etc.

Ironically, the psychology causing this depopulation may be triggered in part by those instances in which this civilization violated its own principles.

If these populations shrink, will they be able to sustain these cultural heritages and share them with the world? Will these social notions continue to have an impact on the globe?

A shrinking population means not only fewer people in some regions of the planet, but a poorer legacy for the world’s civilization.

Adenauer Emerges

1933 was a grim year in the history of central Europe. In January, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party found a way to circumvent constitutional procedures and seize power, even though they never had a majority in a free election.

As soon as they had power, the Nazis took steps to silence any opposition. They murdered most vocal and influential political opponents of Hitler. Lesser opponents were silenced in other ways.

Over the next several months, the Nazis implemented their Gleichschaltung, their plan to ensure that every aspect of public and private life was controlled by the government. The ordinary citizen would have no more private life.

The Nazis believed that the government should know everything and supervise everything - that’s the meaning of the word ‘Nazi’ - it’s short for “national socialism.”

When the government “nationalizes,” it takes over businesses, schools, hospitals, and anything else it can get its hands on. It owns them and controls them. It uses them to influence what people do and how people think.

When the government “socializes,” it taxes and regulates, taking away a person’s freedom to do what she or he wants with his or her own property.

The name ‘Nazi’ refers to a government which nationalized industries and businesses, and a government which socialized the basic functions of life: education, healthcare, transportation, etc.

In the midst of this horrifying takeover of society, there were brave people who resisted. The children of the Scholl family founded a resistance group among the university students in München (Munich). People like Oskar Schindler and Dietrich Bonhoeffer smuggled Jews out of Germany to freedom, and organized assassination attempts on Hitler.

The number of those who resisted was large; some of them may never be identified as anti-Hitler subversives, because they worked in secret, and perhaps died in secret.

One such man was Konrad Adenauer.

Adenauer had been the mayor of Köln (the German city Cologne) for a number of years prior to Hitler’s seizure of power. As soon as the Nazis had a hold on the national government, they began to pressure Adenauer to leave office.

Adenauer was known as someone who’d clearly opposed the plans of the Nazis. When Adenauer refused to leave, he was forced out of office, as historian Horst Osterheld recounts:

Efforts were made to force him to resign, to entice him with pension offers, but Adenauer stayed. He held out until the local government elections which took place a week later, on 12 March. On the very eve of the elections the Chief of Police had given him his word and that of his officers “to defend him to the last man.” When Adenauer asked barely twenty-four hours later for protection, because he had reason to believe that there was a plan to imprison him in his office next morning or even to push him out of the window, he was told - the request was made in Berlin - that “unfortunately nothing could be done.” On Monday, 13 March, Adenauer stole out of his house in the early morning, past the sleeping SA guard, and went to Berlin. He first tried to take the bull by the horns by going to see Hermann Göring a few days after his arrival to protest against his dismissal and expulsion, which had already been pronounced. He asked in vain.

No longer mayor, Adenauer would spend the Nazi years as a private citizen, working behind the scenes to undermine Hitler’s government. The Nazis arrested him several times, and at one point arranged for him to be deported to the East - which would have meant either his death in a concentration camp or his death on the eastern front.

When order was given to ship Adenauer eastward, an old acquaintance, Eugen Zander, who’d work for the Cologne city government years earlier, rescued Adenauer by having him sent to the hospital.

At war’s end, Adenauer quickly emerged as an individual who’d not only resisted Hitler’s Nazis, but who also had political skills and experience in government.

Although it might seem inevitable that Adenauer would be the leader of Germany’s first free government in fifteen years, it was only by a thin margin that he became chancellor in 1949.

Life Without School Buses?

The ubiquitous big yellow school bus has come to be a symbol for education in North America, so thoroughly is it linked with the daily trip to school.

For this reason, many Americans are surprised to learn that in much of Austria, Switzerland, Germany, and other parts of central Europe, there are no school buses!

In other parts of that region, to be sure, there are some school buses, but far fewer than one finds in America. Many children take, instead of a school bus, the public bus.

By contrast, many cities in the United States spend millions of dollars in needless duplication, as school buses and public buses follow each other along nearly identical routes.

This redundancy is not the result of any educational, transportational, or economic policy. Instead, it is the result of social views about childhood.

American parents are, in this respect at least, more protective of their children. They tend to think that a school-age child would not be safe or comfortable on a bus filled with adult commuters on their way to work.

By contrast, the children of central Europe are raised to function more independently, so a second-grade student is accustomed to boarding a public bus and sitting, perhaps, between an accountant and an engineer on their way to work.

The fact that the American busing pattern is needlessly expensive, or environmentally unfriendly, is not the main concern. More to the point is an overly protective attitude on the part of American parents.

Instead of worrying about the impact of adult commuters on students, it is worth considering the impact of the students and their presence on the adults.

In many American cities, school buses are known as the home to bullying, drug deals, fistfights, and other undesirable behavior. To unleash the company of schoolchildren onto unsuspecting adult commuters would place the adults at risk, not the students.

By contrast, children in central Europe learn appropriate public behavior at an early age, and thus are able confidently and safely to use public transportation to and from school.

Is it time for America to abandon the big yellow school buses and teach children deportment?

Sport in Deutschland

There are both similarities and differences between the ways in which sports in the United States and in Germany are organized.

Like young people in the United States, many young Germans are involved in athletics. The same sports are offered in both countries, but the levels of popularity vary.

For example, many people enjoy Handball in Germany, but few people in the United States. American-style football, baseball, and basketball are known throughout Germany, but are less popular there than in the United States.

One big difference is that schools have almost nothing to do with sports in Germany. Schools offer physical education (or ‘gym’) classes, but do not organize teams.

Instead, students go to sports clubs after school. These clubs are privately organized and have nothing to do with the educational system. They offer scholarships so that anyone can have a chance to play.

Even the smallest German towns will have several athletic clubs. The Deutscher Sportbund coordinates and oversees the clubs.

In addition to team and individual sports, there are Wandervereine (hiking clubs) and Turnvereine (gymnastics clubs). If you want something more aggressive than Wandern, you can go in for Klettern (rock climbing) or Bergsteigen (mountain climbing).

In addition to Wanderwege (hiking paths), there are Trimm-Dich-Pfade (fitness paths), on which there are periodic stations to stop and do exercises before running or walking further.

Athletic clubs usually have the words Verein, Klub, or Gemeinde in their names. You’ll find many organizations with names like Turn- und Sportgemeinde or Turn- und Sportverein, indicating that they offer a wide range of sports and gymnastics.

Clubs which specialize in only one activity will often feature that in the club’s name: a Schützenverein is a shooting club for rifles and pistols. Jagen and Angeln (hunting and fishing) tend to be hobbies of the wealthy in Germany, while in the United States, people from all income levels enjoy those activities.

Naturally, Fußball is the major sport in Germany, and there are Fußballklubs and Fußballvereine for children, teenagers, and adults. They are coordinated by the Deutscher Fußball-Bund.

The highest level of soccer play is found in the three tiers of the Bundesliga. At the end of the year, one team emerges as the Deutscher Fußballmeister.

Of course, there are many other kinds of sports. People enjoy Tennis, Tischtennis, Segeln, Windsurfen, Segelfliegen, Ballonfahren, Eishockey, and Drachenfliegen.

Golf is not as common in Germany as it is in the United States.

Skilaufen or Skilanglauf is Nordic cross-country skiing, while Skifahren or Abfahrtsski is Alpine downhill skiing.

Bodensee: Lake Constance

The largest lake in Germany is the Bodensee. Located in the southwestern part of the country, it’s therefore also at a Dreiländereck: a place where the borders of three different nations meet.

The Bodensee borders on Deutschland, die Schweiz, and Österreich. On some English maps, it’s also known as ‘Lake Constance.’

On the north side of the lake, there’s Deutschland. At the east end of the lake is Österreich. Along the south is die Schweiz.

Several major towns are located on the shores of the Bodensee: On the German side, there are Überlingen, Meersburg, Lindau, Konstanz, and Friedrichshafen. On the Austrian side, there’s Bregenz. On the Swiss side, there are smaller towns like Romanshorn and Kreuzlingen.

Many famous people have lived here over the centuries. The famous inventor, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, lived and worked in Konstanz from 1838 to 1917. He is also known as Graf, meaning ‘count.’ Graf Zeppelin developed the famous type of lighter-than-air ship.

The famous author Annette von Droste-Hülshoff was born in northern Germany in 1797 and spent part of her life there. But she moved to Meersburg later in life and remained there until her death in 1848. Mountains in the area inspired some of her poems.

The lake is good for segeln, schwimmen, and windsurfen. There are three main islands in the lake: Mainau, Lindau, and Reichenau.

Mainau is also known as the Blumeninsel, and the entire island is essentially one big park, with lots of flowers and other plants.

The three islands, as well as the cities around the shores of the lake, have the usual Burgen and Schlösser and other historic buildings which tourists love to see.

Oktoberfest - What It Really Is

People who’ve never been to Germany, and never taken a German class in high school, have still probably heard about the Oktoberfest. This annual event, in the city of München, attracts attention and tourists from around the world. But what, exactly, is it?

The Oktoberfest takes place every year, regardless of the weather, and it’s mostly outdoors, so if it seems rainy, people simply bring umbrellas. Food is one aspect of the celebration. People enjoy roasted Hühner and different types of Wurst. There are also Kartoffelsalat and Brezeln.

The Fest takes place on a large festival grounds called the Theresienwiese, which locals call simply the Wies’n. The fairgrounds were named after a princess whose wedding was celebrated by a horse race held there.

The wedding of Princess Therese and Crown Prince Ludwig took place in 1810. The horse race attracted over 40,000 spectators and turned into a big party. It was so successful that they decided to do it again the next year, and every year, and to name the fairgrounds after the princess.

At the beginning of the Oktoberfest, there’s a big parade, including a Trachtenfest: people wearing the old-fashioned traditional clothing of the region. The parade winds through the streets of downtown München and out of town to the Theresienwiese.

During the Fest, many people wear Trachten, the typical traditional clothing of the region. Because the Fest takes place in Bayern, many signs are written in local dialect, and people speak in a Bavarian accent.

The Fest is now sixteen days long, begins in September, and ends on the first Sonntag im Oktober. Millions of tourists from around the world attend, but lots of Germans are there, too.

There are games and rides, similar to a carnival atmosphere, and souvenirs of all types are sold. Naturally, there’s lots of Bier and Wein. Hundreds, even thousands, of picnic tables are set up in long rows, and people often start a conversation with someone they’ve never met before. It’s a friendly and relaxed atmosphere, called Gemütlichkeit.

The Fest has lots of Musik: sometimes Blasmusik from a wind ensemble, sometimes a Ziehharmonika (accordion), and sometimes modern music from a DJ. Naturally, there’s lots of Tanz as well!

The various tents, with food and drink, and the large groups of tables, are sponsored by various Brauereien, the major breweries of München. They see this as an opportunity to advertise their brand and get people to try it.

Freizeit! Fun Stuff in Central Europe

If you’re walking around a large city in central Europe - like Wien or Genf - there’s lots of entertainment. Billboards (Reklametafeln) are regularly updated with posters advertising concerts, plays, movies, and festivals. Those same posters are hung on columns or pillars (Litfaßsäulen) which are placed in parks or near sidewalks for that purpose.

In local newspapers (Zeitungen), magazines (Zeitschriften), and brochures (Broschüren), schedules for these events might be published several months ahead.

If you’re going into a movie theater (Kino), you’ll find small printed symbols on the posters which tell you about the Jugendschutzgesetz - the youth protection law. If the movie’s poster says frei ab 14 Jahren, then you’ve got to be at least 14 years old to get into that movie.

Even smaller town will have Theater, Opern, Museen, and Konzertsäle: theaters, operas, museums, and concert halls. It’s best to buy your Theaterkarten (theater tickets) in advance, in case the performance is sold out (ausverkauft) on the day of the performance.

If you live there, you might buy an Abonnement (a subscription to season tickets). If you get to the theater at the last minute and still don’t have tickets, check at the Abendkasse counter to see if there are any still available.

At a concert or play, the seating is described as Parkett if it’s near the orchestra, Loge if it’s a box seat, 1. Rang if it’s the first balcony, Balkon if it’s the center of the first balcony, and Gallerie if it’s the gallery. If your ticket says Reihe 7, Platz 10, then your exact seat is row 7, seat 10.

At nicer concerts, you’ll leave your hat, coat, and bag at the Garderobe: the checkroom. During the summer, many people enjoy a more casual experience at a Freilichttheater.

Large cities have a Zoo, also called a Tiergarten.

At different times of the year, large and small towns have a Musikfest, a Filmfest, a Kunstfest, and just about any other kind of Fest you can imagine. Just add the word Fest to your favorite form of entertainment: Tanzfest, Sportfest, and so forth.

A town will have a yearly Stadtfest, and a village will have an annual Dorffest. A group of students from the same school can organize a Schulfest.

Several times a week, there will be a Markt, which is like an ordinary farmer’s market with fruits and vegetables. But once a year, there’s a Jahrmarkt, also called Volksfest, which is like a carnival. A Zirkus will come to town from time to time.

Some celebrations are regional: München is of course known for its Oktoberfest. Around the city of Köln, the Mardi Gras celebration is known as Karneval, but in southern Germany, it’s called Fasching.

At a Dorffest, the streets in the center of the village may be closed to car traffic, and tables will be set up outdoors. There will be Musik and Tanz, Bier and Wein, and lots of fun conversation. This friendly, relaxed, and congenial atmosphere is called Gemütlichkeit and is some of the best fun you’ll ever have!

08 / 15 Nullachtfünfzehn

Imagine that you’re having a conversation with a friend in Germany, and you ask her or him how his day has been. You might ask Wie geht’s? or Wie war die Schule heute?

You might expect answers like gut or schlecht or langweilig or nicht so gut or so lala. But you might be surprised to if your friend answered by saying null acht fünfzehn.

To answer a question with 08 / 15 is to use an idiom. It means, roughly, ‘run-of-the-mill’ or ‘usual’ and is indicates that things are going routinely, even boringly.

The story behind this odd expression starts in 1908. In that year, a particular type of machine gun was designed, manufactured, and brought into service in the German army. The design was updated in 1915.

The official designation for this weapon was LMG 08/15, whereby LMG stands for leichtes Maschinengewehr. This weapon was produced in large numbers, and widely used, both in training and in battle, in World War I. It also saw use in WWII.

The ubiquity of this gun, both during long boring repetitive hours of training, and in long hours in the trenches on the front lines, made it a symbol of routine.

Decades after the war, author Hans Helmut Kirst titled one of his novels 08/15. The novel dealt with WWII.

The phrase 08/15 is now used to indicate that something is normal, routine, or repetitively boring. It is sometimes written in its slang pronunciation, nullachtfuffzehn. In the twelfth and final volume of the standard Duden reference books, the phrase is explained:

Die als geflügeltes Wort (auch in der Form „Nullachtfuffzehn“) in die Umgangssprache eingegangene Zahlenkombination ist zu einem Begriff geworden, mit dem man etwas als „alltäglich“ und „gänzlich unoriginell“ charakterisiert. Sie kam durch den deutschen Schriftsteller Hans Helmut Kirst (1914-1989) ins allgemeine Bewußtsein, nachdem dieser seiner sehr bekannt gewordenen Romantrilogie aus den Jahren 1954/1955 den Titel „08/15“ gegeben hatte. Zugrunde liegt die militärische Bezeichnung für ein Maschinengewehr aus dem Jahr 1908, das 1915 technisch verändert wurde und die Bezeichnung LMG 08/15 bekam. Die Zahlen wurden dann zunächst zu einer Metapher für den geistlosen militärischen Drill.

The term can be used pejoratively, in the sense of mittelmäßig, or neutrally, in the sense of üblich or alltäglich.

Germany's Mittelstand - What Is It?

Economists study Germany in order to unravel the mysteries of its continued success. Two factors are manufacturing and exporting. Germany has managed to continue to be strong in both of these.

While many first-world, high-tech countries have seen their manufacturing outsourced to nations with lower labor costs, Germany has maintained some level of domestic production. To be sure, German firms have some amount of offshore factories, but relative to other economies - the USA, the UK - there’s more domestic manufacturing.

This trend is powered not only by the big companies - BASF, Bayer, Bosch, Siemens, VW, BMW, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes-Benz-Daimler, Birkenstock, etc. - but also by the small and medium sized companies.

Standing between the large companies and the individual proprietors, these firms are called the Mittelstand and are the source of as much growth and innovation as the big firms.

When recession hits, the Mittelstand allows Germany to bounce back quicker than other nations. The BBC’s Stephen Evans writes:

This recovery is spread widely because every German town seems to have its periphery populated by the famed “mittelstand” of small and not-so-small companies, exporting countless unglamorous but profitable products. These companies are often family-owned and founded on values of quality and investment, combined with a shrewd search for markets.

In addition to policies carefully crafted to encourage a positive balance of trade, Germany also enjoys a superior worker-training system. While the USA and other nations have competitive university-trained professionals and large pools of unskilled labor, they lack the middle level: skilled craftsmen.

Germany’s skilled tradesmen create the legendary quality that goes along with brands like Porsche, BMW, and Zeiss. These artisans are produced by a thorough educational system which siphons good students away from the university-bound track and places them into apprenticeships.

The German economic structure ensures that master craftsmen are paid as well as the professionals coming out of the universities, and sometimes even better. There is no social stigma attached to being a machinist or a tool-and-die maker.

Can other nations replicate the results of the German system? Newsweek’s Rose Jacobs writes:

The Mittelstand is the envy of the western world – and beyond. The Economist reported last week that officials from South Korea, Iran and Egypt have been in touch with the German trade body for mid-sized companies, asking for advice on how to emulate its members’ success. In fact, the German model is already being exported in very concrete ways: several German companies with manufacturing facilities abroad have decided to address local skills shortages by recreating overseas versions of Germany’s apprenticeship system, with future workers recruited young and given a mix of classroom and on-the-job training that both prepares them for solid middle-class jobs and inspires loyalty. It’s proved so successful that, in the US, American firms are following suit, and in China, the government is adapting Germany’s apprentice training exam for its own young people.

The German economy provides a stable and predictable environment, which in turn encourages investors to take more risks, and look further into the future, foregoing short-term results for long-term ones.

The German model works even outside of Europe, as shoppers in North America flock to German retailers like Aldi and Trader Joe’s.

UK's Stewart Wood Analyzes Germany

As a member of Britain’s Labor Party (‘Labour Party’ as they spell it), Stewart Wood has a lifetime appointment in the House of Lords, and is a leader in his party. Writing in the Guardian, a Manchester newspaper with a global following, Wood encourages his fellow Englishmen to consider what they might learn from the example of Germany.

After a few years of prosperity in the 1980s, when real growth in all income groups ignited productivity in the lower and middle classes and encouraged innovation in business, British economic activity has stagnated. Wood sees, in the German system, a motivation for employers to invest in their workers.

The perception that there is potential for growth makes investors more future-oriented. A predictable and stable economic environment, and freedom to innovate, foster a psychology in which management is willing to take risks, because prospects and expectations are better. Wood writes:

What is most inspirational about the German economy is not the policies it has pursued, but the consensus of values on which the economy is based. Germany is committed to a free market economy, but one in which capitalism is organised and responsible. This “social market” rests on widely accepted rules and practices: to encourage long-termism; to promote collaboration rather than conflict in the workplace; to incentivise employers to invest in the skills and productivity of their workers; and to try to ensure prosperity is available to Germans in all regions rather than just one. And when bad times hit, Germans fall back on a welfare system explicitly based on the interlocking principles of need and contribution.

One aspect of the German economy is a strong manufacturing sector. While other high-tech countries have outsourced physical production to offshore sites with lower costs, Germany found ways to keep factories at home: higher productivity and smarter methods.

To be sure, even German companies fight the threat, and the temptation, of outsourcing to third-world sites. But even in the sweatshop-prone clothing industry, German companies like Adidas, Puma, and Hugo Boss have kept at least some operations on German soil.

As German firms continue to expand - Adidas is now the parent company of Reebok, and Americans are now shopping at German stores like Aldi and Trader Joe’s - Stewart Wood wants his fellow Brits to study those examples

Because the truth is that there is much to like and admire about Germany. And – whisper it softly – there is a lot we can learn from them too.

While major names come quickly to mind - BASF, Bosch, Siemens, Lufthansa, T-Mobile, Birkenstock, Hapag-Lloyd, and Bayer - the small and middle sized companies, whose names are largely unknown outside, and sometimes inside, Germany are also crucial to economic success. These small and middle sized companies are categorized as Mittelstand, between the large companies and individual proprietors.

As often as not, the Mittelstand drives economic growth, creating innovative products, new processes, and increasing employment.

Germany’s education system produces superior technicians and highly-skilled craftsmen. While many first-world nations have excellent universities which produce professionals, Germany has paired its prize universities with mid-level training programs for machinists and tool-and-die makers.

Craftsmanship is as important as engineering for the production of legendary brands like Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz-Daimler. Stewart Wood states bluntly:

It remains the most successful exporting nation in modern European history.

The lesson from Germany: keep domestic manufacturing at home, allow stability and deregulation to encourage investment, and train a solid cadre of skilled craftsmen to complement the university-trained high-tech professionals.

Germany's Strong Economy: Two of Its Key Elements

For several decades, Germany has led the nations of Europe in various economic indicators. Through rising and falling business cycles, the wax and wane of employment rates, inflation and recession, and the other usual ebb and flow phenomena of finance, Germany remains at or near the top of the list.

Why is the German economy so successful?

The answer is multi-factorial. Writing for Newsweek in July 2014, Rose Jacobs identifies labor policies and a strong manufacturing sector as two of the elements fueling Germany’s growing economy:

Where French unions and companies go at each others’ throats over working conditions, Germany has loosened labour laws just enough to encourage hiring, helping push down unemployment to record lows today. And where the UK waxes nostalgic about its manufacturing past, Germany – which faced the same market forces over the past 40 years that prompted Britain to shift towards a service economy – today boasts higher export figures for high-tech products than any country on earth.

While German workers are well-paid, productive, and enjoy good working conditions relative to their peers in Europe and North America, the relationship between management and organized labor is less combative.

While other nations have moved steadily toward a service economy, Germany has retained a healthy manufacturing base. Germany still makes money by building products and selling them both domestically and abroad.

Learning German Pays!

In March 2014, The Economist published a study of how knowing a foreign language affects a worker’s paycheck. Obviously, it helps!

In almost every profession, knowing German will increase your earnings: engineers, chemists, physicists, and managers all get paid more if they know German. The same is true for those working in marketing, life sciences, economics, pharmaceuticals, software, telecommunications, and healthcare.

The Economist cites MIT’s Albert Saiz, who got his doctorate from Harvard. Analyzing the salaries of various professionals, Saiz

found quite different premiums for different languages: just 1.5% for Spanish, 2.3% for French and 3.8% for German. This translates into big differences in the language account: your Spanish is worth $51,000, but French, $77,000, and German, $128,000. Humans are famously bad at weighting the future against the present, but if you dangled even a post-dated $128,000 cheque in front of the average 14-year-old, Goethe and Schiller would be hotter than Facebook.

Obviously, the numbers will vary from individual to individual. Saiz reckoned with a $45,000 starting salary. The 3.8% premium for knowing German would be $1710 in the first year. This amount compounds over time. “Assuming just a 1% real salary increase per year and a 2% average real return over 40 years,” Saiz arrives at the figures above.

In any case, learning German is worth it!

Studying in California? Take a German Class!

A survey of academic majors and professional programs at the University of California and the California State University system shows that German is recommended, strongly recommended, or required for more degrees and diplomas than any other world language.

Evidence comes from three documents: “Prerequisites and Recommended Subjects in Preparation for Work at the University of California,” “San Francisco State University Bulletin,” and “U.C. Berkeley General Catalog.”

German is recommended or prescribed for a total of 56 majors or degree programs. By contrast, French was recommended for 43 majors, Spanish for 21, Japanese for 7, and Chinese for 4.

The following departments recommended German to their undergraduate majors and to their graduate students: Ancient Civilization, Anthropology, Art History, Classical Studies, Comparative Literature, Dramatic Art, Literature, Mathematics, and Paleontology, among others.

These departments “strongly” recommended German: Anatomy, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Biochemistry, Biology, Biomedical Physics, Botany, Chemistry, Film Studies, Genetics, Linguistics, Logic and Methodology of Science, Molecular Biology, Music, Near Eastern Studies, Physical Science, Physics, Physiology, Religious Studies, Zoology, and others.

Special Occasions - Feiertage, Besondere Ereignisse, und Besondere Anlässe

Like Americans, people in Austria, Switzerland, and other parts of central Europe have special occasions in life - milestones, or Meilensteine. Many of these rites of passage - Übergangsriten - are the same on both continents: Geburtstage (birthdays), Hochzeiten (weddings), Verlobungen (engagements), etc.

To celebrate these occasions, people send Glückwunschkarten (greeting cards) and Geschenke (gifts or presents). They might throw a party, and the German language has several words for ‘party’ - Party, Fest, Fete, and others.

A special type of Fest happens the evening before a Hochzeit, and is called a Polterabend. The verb poltern means ‘to rumble’ or otherwise make loud noises, and is familiar to English speakers in the term Poltergeist.

An old tradition calls for friends of the family to gather in front of the bride’s house on the evening before the Hochzeit and make lots of noise, often by breaking pottery (but not glass). Allegedly, this habit arose from an ancient superstition advising that loud noise would scare away evil spirits and thereby protect the Braut (bride) so that she could arrive safely the next morning at the Hochzeit. But in reality it’s simply a fun way for the friends to be laut.

Meanwhile, the Bräutigam (groom) is probably far away, drinking Bier with his friends.

On the day of the Hochzeit, most German couples will get married twice. There will be a government wedding at the Standesamt (registrar’s office), often located in the Rathaus (city hall). This makes them officially married for tax purposes.

Most couples will have a second wedding ceremony with family and friends, usually in a Kirche or in a Synagoge. Afterward, the Hochzeitspaar (bride and groom) typically celebrates in a restaurant, which has been reserved for the occasion so that no other customers are there, and the group takes over the entire place for meals and dancing.

Every year afterward, the Ehepaar (married couple) will celebrate that date as their Hochzeitstag or Jubiläum.

Das Ehepaar will celebrate a silberne Hochzeit or Silberhochzeit, which happens nach fünf-und-zwanzig Jahren.

Likewise, they’ll celebrate a goldene Hochzeit after fifty years.

When a child is born, the family and friends will often throw a party for the Taufe (baptism).

In addition to celebrating a person’s Geburtstag, some regions of Austria, Switzerland, and southern Germany also celebrate Namenstag. To find a person’s Namenstag, find a saint who has the same name, and then find the date which is the official holiday for that saint. The territories which celebrate Namenstag tend to be Roman Catholic regions; other parts of Germany and Switzerland are Lutheran or Calvinist, and tend not to observe Namenstag.

The famous professional soccer player Bastian Schweinsteiger, for example, was born on August 1, so that’s his Geburtstag. But the official holiday to celebrate St. Sebastian is January 20, so that becomes Schweinsteiger’s Namenstag.

The Geburtstagskarten which people receive on their birthdays often say Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag or Herzliche Glückwünsche zum Geburtstag.

The phrases Herzlichen Glückwunsch and Herzliche Glückwünsche are appropriate, not only for Geburtstage, but also for any other achievement or happy occasion.

Around the age of 13 or 14, a student will complete her or his religious instruction, and celebrate a Konfirmation.

Naturally, there’s a big Fest when students finish school. After completing the Grundschule, you’ll go on to one of three types of high school. If you’re graduating from a Hauptschule, your diploma is called a Abschlusszeugnis. If you’re graduating from a Realschule, your diploma is called a Mittlere Reifezeugnis. From the Gymnasium, you’ll get an Abitur. The word Abitur refers both to the test and to the diploma that you receive if you pass the test.

Der zweite Sonntag im Mai ist Muttertag in der Schweiz, in Österreich, in Deutschland, in Liechtenstein, und in den USA. Aber in Luxemburg ist Muttertag an dem zweiten Sonntag im Juni.

Der dritte Sonntag im Juni ist Vatertag in den USA. In Österreich ist Vatertag an dem zweiten Sonntag im Juni. In Luxemburg ist Vatertag an dem ersten Sonntag im Oktober. In Liechtenstein ist Vatertag immer am 19ten März.

The celebration of Ostern (Easter) can vary from mid-March to late April. Vierzig Tage nach Ostern ist Vatertag in Deutschland. This same date is also celebrated as Himmelfahrtstag (Ascension Day). Many schools get Ferien (vacation days) for Himmelfahrt.

Different regions have different dates for Vatertag in der Schweiz, so you have to ask which Kanton you’re in before you know when this holiday is.

When someone dies, the remaining family members, along with some friends, will place a Todesanzeige in the local Zeitung (newspaper) - an announcement of the person’s death along with comments and memories. As Zeitungen have become less common, these Todesanzeigen now appear online. The family will also mail printed cards with the Todesanzeige in special envelopes with black rims.

Dining in Deutschland

If you’re walking down the street in a typical Austrian or Swiss town, and you’re looking for something to eat, you can usually learn exactly which types of food are served in a restaurant without going inside. Most restaurants in central Europe post a menu - eine Speisekarte - next to the door. This convenient feature will tell you exactly which dishes the restaurant serves, and at which price.

In most German restaurants, the customers will seat themselves. Only in the finest and most elegant restaurants will a host or hostess seat you. If there are no empty tables, you can join a large table if there are empty chairs at it. You simply ask, Ist hier noch frei? to inquire if you can use the unoccupied seats. The people already at the table might answer with Ja, bitte or Bitte sehr if you can use those chairs.

Usually, a waiter or waitress - der Kellner or die Kellnerin - will bring you a menu. If they don’t, you can ask by saying die Speisekarte, bitte! But don’t ask for das Menü, because that doesn’t mean ‘menu’ - it means ‘a full meal’ and is the way to order the restaurant’s special of the day: an entree, probably with soup and salad.

If you order das Gedeck, it’s like ordering das Menü - the restaurant has selected a full meal for you as a package deal. It’s probably die Suppe at the beginning and der Nachtisch at the end.

If you’re speaking to a waiter, address him as Herr Ober; to the waitress, as Fräulein. Another option is to address either of them as Bedienung. As with all cultural vocabulary, there are variations from town to town and from time to time. In a small restaurant in a small town, where the owners are the managers and wait personally on customers themselves, you’d address them as Herr Wirt and Frau Wirtin. Such family-owned and -operated establishments tend to be the most traditional and are of the oldest type.

Typically, restaurants do not automatically serve a glass of water with the meal. If you order water, you’ll get a bottle of Mineralwasser and it will be added to your bill. Mineralwasser comes in a number of varieties: Stilles Wasser, or ohne Kohlensäure, has no carbonation. If it’s mit Kohlensäure, or Sprudel, then it does have carbonation.

If you simply want a glass of tap water from the faucet, you may ask for Leitungswasser. Such a request is usually made by foreign tourists from America.

The prices on the Speisekarte both include any applicable taxes, like a ‘value-added tax’ or Mehrwertssteuer, similar to a sales tax, and include an already calculated tip or Bedienungsgeld. These will vary, but are around 16% for the Mehrwertssteuer and 10% to 15% for the Bedienungsgeld. Because these are already included in the prices listed on the Speisekarte, you don’t tip the waitress or waiter in the same way you do in an American restaurant.

When you are finished with your meal, you might ask to pay by saying Bedienung, ich möchte zahlen! or Die Rechnung, bitte! or Zahlen, bitte!

The Kellner or Kellnerin will tell you how much you owe, or hand you a Zettel - a small slip of paper with the amount written one it. Because the Bedienungsgeld is already included in the amount, a large tip is not necessary. Most customers will, however, round the amount up to the nearest Euro. If the bill amounts to, for example, einundzwanzig Euro dreißig, a customer will hand the Bedienung some money and say zweiundzwanzig, bitte, indicating that the bill is to be “rounded up” to the next whole number. This little gift to the Kellner or Kellnerin is called the Trinkgeld.

The use of Kreditkarten is becoming more widespread in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, but many restaurants and other establishments accept payment only in Bargeld - cash.

Often, the pace of such things is a bit more deliberative than in the United States, so allow more time for the dining experience. If you’ve got to get to an appointment, catch a train, or be at the airport at a certain time, allow a couple of hours for a restaurant meal. If you need to eat in a hurry, avoid the restaurant and go instead to a Schnellimbiss, also called a Schnellgaststätte, or a Imbissstube, or simply an Imbiss. Whichever name you call it, it’s quick, and less expensive than a restaurant. It’s the traditional central European version of fast food. Usually, its main offerings are several different types of Wurst. You can get Bratwurst, Currywurst, Bockwurst, Frankfurter, Thüringer, and other types of sausage. The Frankfurter and Bockwurst are mild in flavor and most like an American hotdog. The other sausage types have richer and more pronounced flavor.

In addition to Wurst, regional variations of the word include Würstel, Würstchen, Würstl, Würstli, and Würstle. A mild Wurst like the Frankfurter or Bockwurst is also sometimes called a Wiener Wurst, a Wiener, or similar variations.

When you get a Wurst at an Imbiss, it will not be served in a bun like an American hotdog. Instead, it will come with a slice of bread - eine Scheibe Brot - or a roll - a Brötchen. A Brötchen may also be called a Semmel. The Wurst will usually also be served with Senf (mustard).

In addition to Wurst, an Imbiss often offers Pommes frites and Getränke (french fries and beverages). Some offer Brathähnchen: grilled chicken. Türkische Imbisse will offer Döner, short for Döner Kebab, a Mediterranean speciality.

Whether you go for a nice restaurant or fast food, eating in Germany is tasty!