I visited Germany
recently on a short holiday. I had flown to the Niederrhein Airport in Weeze on a Ryan Air (the low cost carrier) plane. The Weeze Airport which is only 2 years old and still heavily under utilised still
looked a lot better than most national airports in the developing countries. The Airport looked spick and span,
and glistened as if it was just a day old.
However, any such good impression on a
visitor is lost immediately as the
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visitor comes into contact with Germans and engages them in a conversation. My first stop was in one of the car
rental offices, as I made enquiries at the counter, the duty officer Karl (not his real name) tried to be nice
to me in his heavily accented English, I saved him any further attempt at swallowing his tongue, and spoke German
to him. Karl seemed quite perplexed that a black man flying in from London
is able to speak his language; I explained to him that I had lived in Germany for a few years before relocating to the UK,
on hearing this, he let his guard down although I wished it was the car rental rates that he had lowered instead.
Karl engaged me in some light hearted
conversation, he could afford to, there was no queue behind me and I wasn’t in any kind of hurry either. Our banter
eventually moved on to the state of the German economy, and this appeared to have touched his soul, he spoke with
such conviction that I wondered what he was doing behind the desk of a car rental company, rather than working
in some government economic office. I did ask him that, and he replied that he had been downsized; an evidence
of what he had earlier told me was the problem with the German economy. He blamed Gerhard Schroeder and his Euro/Europe
loving Social Democratic Party for his and his country’s woes, according to him ‘The politicians have ruined Germany,
people are just managing to keep a smiling face but deep inside them, they are all burning, it’s like nobody knows
what’s going to happen next, there is so much fear in the land now’. Finally I decided that Karl’s tales of doom
wasn’t my ideal way of starting a holiday and I bid him goodbye, promising to continue our conversation on another
occasion. I did look for him on my way back but he was off-duty on the day.
As I sped to
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German Autobahns
are well sign-posted
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Dusseldorf on the A57 autobahn, I found it difficult to confirm all of Karl’s fears, although I wasn’t expecting
to see the type of rickety and beat-down cars that litter the pot-holed roads all over Africa but the several new
cars which sped past me on the way did not really indicate an economy that is about to crash. German motorways
which in most cases do not have any speed limits are arguably among the best in the world, and from my experience
Germans love taking out their anger and frustration out on their motorways, hence their fascination with strong
and fast cars. The motorways are also well sign posted, I began to wonder why Julius Berger Nigeria Plc is not taking a cue from Bilfinger & Berger (their German parent company)
in providing quality road signs in all the roads they build in Nigeria, most especially in Abuja. Their road signs in Nigeria can at best be described as a beginning artist’s practice work sheets.
I also took advantage of my visit to shop
for bargain items; the Euro/Pound dichotomy has considerably made products and services cheaper in mainland Europe than in the UK, take for instance a Fuji digital
camera I bought at Promarkt in Dusseldorf for 199 euros, the same camera retails for around £349 in
London. Another clear example of capitalist exploitation then, you may
say.
I tried to engage Germans in conversations
at every opportunity; the general
feeling was still that of nostalgia, fear and disappointment. This is quite understandable especially with the
unemployment figures in Germany now estimated at over 5 million. Looking back, it is not so difficult
to see what went wrong with the German economy, once one of the strongest in the world. Several factors have combined
to push the German economy down to the level it currently is at the moment.
The first is the German unification, after
the Berlin wall came crashing in 1989, The government of Helmut Kohl embarked on a massive programme of re-building
infrastructures in the former East Germany, conservative estimates of the amount spent so far by the German government
vary but according to the website - factbites, Since reunification in 1991, the German government has spent over $1 trillion on
rebuilding the infrastructure of the former communist East Germany. The economy wasn’t growing as fast as was predicted to fund the escalating expenditure,
at some point it appeared as if the German economy was shrinking and market expansion into Europe became an attractive option, the Germans
bought the Euro/Europe package hook, line and sinker and went in head on, but this has also back fired. The much
expected benefits of one Europe failed to materialise because, the government did not reckon with globalisation,
which has made it possible for cheaper and still well made products from Asia and America to compete against the
much touted ‘Made in Germany’ products. Germans appeared to have arrived late to the party, and have suddenly woken
up to reality. History also shows that Germans have always been an inward looking and self-dependent people, and
so they were not well prepared for a new and sudden psyche of sharing a common faith and destiny with other people
in the now united Europe.
Germans
who are normally very stolz (proud) people believing so much in their technik
and engineering as well as in the efficacy of their products and services now surprisingly are buying cheaper imports
ranging from cars to electronics etc. In today’s world economy, consumers care less about a product that will last
several years, such as Grundig and other such German made products. Consumers now prefer well designed, fashionable
and trendy products, and this is where German firms lost the plot, German firms believe so much in technik and are also known to make boring
products, but we live in a different age now, and consumers now have different lifestyles and expectations.
A CIA fact book entry described
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The once
proud 'Made in Germany' mark
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Germany in the following unsavoury terms ‘Germany's affluent and technologically powerful economy- the fifth largest national economy
in the world - has become one of the slowest growing economies in the entire euro zone, and a quick turnaround
is not in the offing in the foreseeable future’.
Germany
may still be a primary destination for political and economic refugees from many developing countries, but the
number of asylum seekers has been dropping in recent years, reaching about 50,000 in 2003. Could this then mean
that even immigrants are getting the message, and are staying away?
Germany's ageing population, combined
with high unemployment, has pushed social security outlays to a level exceeding contributions from workers. While
there is no immediate forecast of change and upswing in the German economy, it is indeed a sign of worry and concern
and the rest of the world should ponder what happens next to this once envied world economic power. There is a
danger for some overzealous patriots to easily swing Germans over with sweet rhetoric, false promises and hope,
Germans themselves may not have any problem in following any such ‘messiahs’, who normally will be extreme left
wing separatists, a situation like this will take the world back to the Nazi days all over.
I am sure Gerhard Schroeder won’t be sleeping
well, not with the recent results of the referendums on the EU constitution in neighbouring France and Holland, his once hoped for saviour (a united Europe) to restore the German economy to its pristine glory is fading away fast, and he doesn’t seem to
have many answers.
Germany will host the world cup in 2006,
but that doesn’t seem to be enough
good news for Germans, their passion for football is currently at odds with their anger and frustration as a result
of the state of their economy, they may therefore have shown the world a taster of what to expect next year, judging
from the crowd disturbances that greeted their recent 2-0 win over Tunisia in the 2005 Confederation Cup being
hosted by Germany.
Frau Heike, a jewel retailer in Düsseldorf,
however thinks that things are not as bad, according to her ‘Germans are always complaining, maybe it is the frustration
of the cuts on state benefits which they have come to depend so much on that is making them to shout’. People like
Heike, a new breed entrepreneur may not yet be feeling the pressure, but there is in fact trouble in the land.
Almost on a daily basis, there are news of German firms closing down, most worryingly are the news of the current
predicaments of two corporate giants BASF and SIEMENS, would their demise be the last sure sign that the Germany we know today is no longer the Germany
we used to know?
Even Mercedes Benz, the symbol of Germany’s industrial prowess has been experiencing hard times; Mercedes Benz may soon stop being the shinning
star of the German economy, because consumers are no longer snapping the brand up, like they have done in the past.
Recent reports claim that the Mercedes car division of the Daimler Chrysler group may soon sink into the red, with
loss estimates at over $500 million. The Smart brand (a collaboration with watchmaker Swatch) hasn’t started off
well, the brand loses about $600 million a year, total loses since the launching of the brand in 1998 is now estimated
at over $3 billion. Analysts say that the brand does not generate enough revenues to cover costs.
Another problem child
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The Mercedes
Mayback
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is the Mercedes Maybach, the high-end luxury car priced at over $300,000. Total world wide sales till date are
just a little over 500 units, this is despite the trappings and luxury that the Maybach offers, including a personal
liason manager. What German firms need to learn from all these are that consumers may no longer be prepared to
pay over the top for quality, especially when there are other competing and cheaper brands, from the new emerging
markets of Asia and Europe.
Whatever has gone wrong with the German
economy should also be a lesson for the other strong economies of the world, national fortune may now be likened
to a wind, it can blow towards any direction at any time. For the developing countries, most especially Nigeria,
they shouldn’t depend heavily on the proceeds of crude oil sales as their only source of revenues, we don’t want
to wake up tomorrow to discover that our cherished crude oil customers have now discovered cheaper and alternative
energy sources; the human tragedy that will follow such a situation will be enormous. For Nigeria and the rest of the developing world, strategic planning may just be the way forward.