Well it seems to be self-inflicted.

We haven't heard from German SF member BansheeOne in a while, he has not posted since July 2023.

I'd love to hear from him as someone living there how things are going. I loved my 4 years there in Kitzingen and Wuerzburg, Germany back in the 90's courtesy of Uncle Sam.

Germany's Industrial Superpower Days Are Over, A Green "Victory"

quote:

Germany's Industrial Superpower Days Are Over,

Well, so are ours. Union over the Confederacy, WW1, WW2, all won because of our industrial might. And we gave it away, only we gave our greatest weapon away to a country we fought two wars against. Genius!

Now that Biden has frozen new natural gas exports Germany is still making brilliant decisions. No Nordstream pipeline left either.


Germany To Replace Nuclear With Natural Gas Plants for $16B

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Na...-Plants-for-16B.html

Last April, Germany shut down its last three nuclear power stations, marking the end of the country’s atomic age.

Berlin has unveiled plans to spend €16 billion on 10 gigawatts (GW) of new gas-fired power plants in a major overhaul of the country's energy grid.

Germany is also abandoning its short-lived love affair with coal.

If they stop making Knipex tools, I will loose my shit. Seriously, this might throw me over the edge of despondency. My whole Christmas gift tradition will be kaput. Damn greenie weenies.

It’s also because their “engineering” education - really, any European “engineering” education is a joke.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
If they stop making Knipex tools, I will loose my shit. Seriously, this might throw me over the edge of despondency. My whole Christmas gift tradition will be kaput. Damn greenie weenies.

Not to worry, there’s another source: Link.

14 years ago they tried replacing nuclear with renewables. 600,000 German households had their power shut off due to lack of payment. The price spiked quickly and hard. At least they're trying a viable option this time that will keep the price on the lower side. As far as coal is concerned the Germans never used coal as we know it. They have what's called lignite. It's coal with lots of water, and other crap so it burns very dirty.

Honestly, they need to abandon renewables. There are certain areas where solar and wind work better. Germany is not one of those areas.

They wasted so many resources going ‘green’(trying), now security is coming to the forefront. What else matters without security??


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...s-dont-pay-dues.html

quote:

Originally posted by sourdough44:
They wasted so many resources going ‘green’(trying), now security is coming to the forefront. What else matters without security??


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...s-dont-pay-dues.html

Most of them STILL aren’t spending the minimum 2% of GDP for defense as required by NATO, including Germany here.

I saw a chart and there are so many deadbeats it’s just laughable. The only ones paying their fair share are the US, the UK, Poland, and several of the newer Eastern European and Baltic NATO members.

Trump called them out on this and they did not like it but they still haven’t changed their ways.

quote:

Last April, Germany shut down its last three nuclear power stations, marking the end of the country’s atomic age.

Yep, self-inflicted.

A number of European countries have recently announced plans to step back from the ultra green agenda.
Not sure it's anything more than finally having reality sink in. Most were duped into doing all the green crap by the Greta Thunberg types that were pushed by the leftist politicians.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...britain-carbon-cost/

Yea the Germans have a big problem that we do not. Constitutionally they have to balance their budget, we just print money as needed. German defense spending is being increased next year and the environmental and foreign aid spending are being decreased to get them back up to 2 percent. After the Cold War ended the Germans had to rebuild East Germany and saw no need to maintain the spending for Nato since the Russians and Warsaw pact were gone.

Most forget or don't know that the German Constitution really restricts them on how they use their armed forces, so when Germany went to Afghanistan to help, some of their military spending was classified as foreign aid instead of as Nato spending.

I was US Army finance in Germany and speak the language fluently. It is so more complicated than just a couple of percentages on a chart. I still follow the German news daily. One thing I know from history, the Germans have rebuilt or refound themselves so many times I would not count them out.

We just took another big step towards 35 trillion in debt this morning so its really easy for us to be critical of other countries when we don't have the same limitations.

It takes a special kind of stupid to celebrate shooting yourself in the foot.

Shortage of natural gas for heating and energy generation - check

Shutting down reliable energy generation source (i.e. nuc) - check

German GDP shrinking (-0.2% in '23 and -0.3% in '22) - check

Not Germany per se, but I was talking with a European (Slovakia) knife maker last year on having a knife made & if someone commissioned an item with him, he'd work on it right away - but energy costs have risen so much that he now waits until he has 4 or more on the schedule before he would fire up his electric heat treat oven.

Wait times were impacted quite a bit for his customers.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
A number of European countries have recently announced plans to step back from the ultra green agenda.
Not sure it's anything more than finally having reality sink in. Most were duped into doing all the green crap by the Greta Thunberg types that were pushed by the leftist politicians.

They weren't duped. Those making policy were raking in money hand over fist because of the green weenie bullshit. Now, the people that are actually affected by shitty policy are starting to squawk about it and the policy makers, not wanting to be tarred and feathered, have pulled back a bit.

This is no different than 1930's Germany and their lack of agriculture. One day, they may find themselves at odds with whomever is providing their energy and will be cutoff, yet again. So much tied into this and why the farmers are prepared to wreak havoc on the politicians.