Does Germany still have a future as a location? Hardly if you follow the public debate – but definitely if you go to where innovations, progress and prosperity have been emerging for decades.
There are few things that capture a problem as soberly as the monitors on the walls of a factory floor. At the metal processor Beulco in Attendorn, Sauerland, the picture is clear: only about a third of the machines displayed on the screen are glowing green on this October day – they are running. The rest remains pale, one says “lack of orders” and another “shortage of personnel”. Company boss Jürgen Christian Schütz points through a window at the neighboring buildings in the commercial area: “Almost all the companies here are not doing well,” he says. “We were the last ones who didn’t have short-time work. But now we’re ready.”
Source: Stern
