"Shabby Chic" driving Berlin's recovery

Berlin often makes headlines for its cultural cache and political prestige, but the city has, until recently, been outshone by Germany’s many thriving economic hubs. Munich and Stuttgart dominate the international auto industry and manufacturing. Hamburg and Cologne broadcast high-quality news and media. Germany’s stock exchange and financial powerhouses populate Frankfurt, and the Rhine/Ruhr is home to the country’s heavy industry.

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Germany in 2012

As 2012 begins, it appears we are in store for another year of headlines dominated by economic doom, gloom and disparity. With the debt crisis turning two this spring and another recession either already here or at the gates, two recently published articles effectively summed up the current economic environment.

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Berliners say "when will these bailouts end?"

The message was unequivocal Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative coalition was in apparent harmony with the opposition last Thursday as the Bundestag voted overwhelmingly to expand the European Financial Stability Facility, raising its scope to €440 billion. Only the socialist Left party, and a handful of government backbench rebels, voted against the measure.

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Am Berliner Hauptbahnhof

As the German national rail network began to take shape in the closing decades of the 19th century, several large and impressive terminus stations where built in metropolitan Berlin. The most important of these was the Lehter Bahnhof, connecting the booming German capital with the ports in Germany’s second largest city, Hamburg

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The Media Spree District of Berlin – Riverside Development Opportunities

Before the river Spree turns right and enters Berlin’s central district, Mitte, just south of Alexanderplatz, it flows westward on a wide and direct course. For much of this straightaway, between Ostkreuz and Jannowitzbrücke, the river was used during German division as a natural addition to the already infamous border defenses of the Berlin Wall.

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Gucci, Luxury Apartments and Bombed-Out Ruins

When the Wall fell in Berlin in 1989, what many now consider the “heart of Berlin” was a mess of abandoned buildings, empty lots and prefabricated Eastern Block monstrosities. Hackescher Markt was less lively street cafes than bullet strafed facades, Friedrichstrasse more border blockades than Gucci.

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Employment in Germany

2010 ended with German unemployment falling to its lowest level in decades, below the fabled 3 million mark. In the wake of German reunification millions of workers lost their jobs as inefficient East German state industry collapsed and the massive adjustment to a capitalist economy began; this monumental transition happened faster and more dramatically than in nearly every other former communist economy.

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Transport in Berlin

With a daily ridership roughly the size of Ireland’s population, Berlin’s transportation network is worth taking a moment to appreciate. A comprehensive network of express, local and underground trains complimented by trams, ferries and buses, this organizational wonder ranks among the best in the world.

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Spendthrifts V Free Spenders

Few other places in the world can claim the heap of wealth Germany considers normal. A nation physically devastated by repeated wars, reparations, occupations and division, it somehow always managed to maintain a standard of living less turbulent nations worldwide would be envious of.

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Short-Work Scheme saves German Jobs

In 2009 the German economy contracted by nearly 5%, nearly twice the decline seen in most other major industrialized nations. While the US and other large European powers were drumming up support for massive bailouts and large stimulus packages to shore up credit and consumption, Germany remained a relatively lonely voice for restraint. Instead of focusing on stimulus and massive bailouts, Berlin opted for focused aid and stemming job losses.

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