Germany has been Europe’s economic engine for decades, pulling the region through one crisis after another. But that resilience is breaking down, and it spells danger for the whole continent.
Decades of flawed energy policy, the demise of combustion-engine cars and a sluggish transition to new technologies are converging to pose the most fundamental threat to the nation’s prosperity since reunification. But unlike in 1990, the political class lacks the leadership to tackle the structural issues gnawing at the heart of the country’s competitiveness.
"We’ve been naive as a society because everything seems fine,” BASF SE Chief Executive Officer Martin Brudermuller said. "These problems we have in Germany are accumulating. We have a period of change ahead of us; I don’t know if everyone realizes this.”