Germany Endures 3-Year Recession as Layoffs Mount and Economic Model Unravels
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 1
Germany Endures 3-Year Recession as Layoffs Mount and Economic Model Unravels
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 1
Three years of near-continuous recession have left Germany’s economy in what the report describes as a deep structural mess, with fresh layoffs hitting established companies including Commerzbank.
That weakness is tied not just to current downturn data but to a longer strategic shift: Germany opened more to foreign capital, banks and insurers sold corporate stakes, and labor-market protections were pared back.
The changes eroded parts of the postwar model that once linked skilled technical training, long-term corporate ownership and stable labor relations to the strength of the Made-in-Germany brand.
The economic slump now sits beneath a wider national strain — Chancellor Friedrich Merz faces weak approval, the AfD is gaining ground, and a U.S. troop pullback threatens a core security relationship.
Can Germany lead a sovereign Europe when its own government and economy are in a state of crisis?
With its economic model broken, can Germany invent a new national identity for the 21st century?
As the far-right gains power, are echoes of Germany's darkest history returning to haunt its future?