Huge funeral attendance

October 28, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Automobiles, China, E-cars, Electric Cars, Germany, Industry, Strikes, Volkswagen, VW Leave a comment

At Germany’s automobile industry burial.

Volkswagen AG workers in Germany will pause production on Monday to join rallies about the automaker’s plans for unprecedented factory closures in the country.

Labor leaders plan to inform employees at 11 German sites about the latest on negotiations with the company. The events kick off a contentious week for Europe’s biggest carmaker, which is expected to post declining sales and profit when it reports third-quarter results on Wednesday…

The automaker has had a rough few weeks since it issued its second profit warning in three months in late September. While its premium brands including Audi and Porsche have been the carmaker’s biggest source of profit in recent years, they’re now struggling. Porsche AG on Friday said it’s weighing cost cuts and reviewing its model lineup after a demand slump in China hit its profits.

What can stop it?

October 27, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Asylum Seekers, Borders, EU, Germans, Germany, Migrants, Populism, Refugees Leave a comment

Hmmm. That’s a tough one.

What can stop the rise of populism in Germany? How about taking care of the problem you created? You know, like the voters have been demanding you to do for nearly ten years now? Until the migrant madness ends, this “populism” you fear won’t.

What can stop the rise of populism in Germany and elsewhere?

Populist parties are on the rise in Germany as they are all over the world. What can open societies do to protect democracy?

“We have to realize that party democracy is losing structure and strength. Party democracy is changing into a movement democracy, which is much more volatile.”

“Everything that could go wrong went wrong, or is going wrong”

October 24, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Automobiles, Bureaucracy, Economy, Energy, German, Germany, Industry, Language, Technology 1 Comment

Other than that though, alles ist in Ordnung (everything’s OK).

Germany’s lost decade: How the Fortune 500 Europe giant is flirting with long-term irrelevance – There is an elephant in the room of the 2024 edition of the Fortune 500 Europe. It’s not a crisis-riddled company or scandal-hit CEO. Rather, it’s the whole German economy.

For most of the 21st century, economists and neighboring countries have looked to Germany with admiration and envy as it managed to weather economic storms with relative ease, capitalizing on trade with growing economies and expanding the power of its industrial giants in the process.

However, a shifting world order has pulled the carpet out from underneath Germany. The industrial quirks that once helped it outgrow its European peers are fast becoming a burden, and crisis after crisis has exposed a lack of planning at the top of government.

“Their parmesan is really good here!”

October 23, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Home Cooking Tags: Cocaine, Germany, Pizza Leave a comment

I got item 40.

German police raid pizzeria serving side order of cocaine – Police have raided a pizzeria in western Germany which they alleged served customers a side of cocaine when they ordered item number 40 on the menu.

I would have gone with “Talahon”

October 19, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Higher Education, Home Cooking Tags: German, Germans, Germany, Language, Words, Youth 1 Comment

But I’m not a young German.

The race was extremely close: “Aura” is the German youth word of the year 2024, with a wafer-thin lead over “Talahon” and a new interpretation of “scissors.”

Talahon: An adherent of an urban subculture of males aged between about 13 and 25, typically but not necessarily of Middle Eastern origin, characterized, among other things, by a passion for German hip hop and wearing counterfeit designer labels.

Worry about the cost of living?

October 12, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Business, Cost of Living, Costs, Fees, German, Germans, Germany, Inflation, Language, Regulations, Taxation, Taxes Leave a comment

Why should Germans worry about that?

Vater Staat (Father State) has everything under control. Wie immer (as usual).

Germans fear rising cost of living – Inflation, migration, expensive housing — these are the things that most people in Germany are worried about, according to the latest study “Germans’ Fears 2024.”

What? Even more security?

October 10, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: China, Espionage, Germany, News, Politics, Russia, Security, Spies Leave a comment

Germany is already more secure than Fort Knox when it comes to espionage as it is.

Although it’s more like the Fort of Hard Knocks, come to think of it.

Germany to beef up security checks amid spying fears – Germany’s government has said the country will tighten security checks for staff in sensitive areas of government and business. The move comes after an increase in suspected espionage cases…

Several cases of alleged spying for Moscow have rocked Germany since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In one case, a former German intelligence officer was accused of passing information to Russia that showed Berlin had access to details of Moscow’s mercenary operations in Ukraine.

Chinese espionage has also been a growing concern. In April, the most high-profile such case saw an aide to a German far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) member of the European Parliament arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

“The crux of the biscuit…

October 8, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Helplessness, Higher Education, Home Cooking Tags: English, German, Germany, Language Leave a comment

is the apostrophe.”

They’re not used in German to show possession. Until now. Sort of.

Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official approval – Linguistic body has relaxed rules on use of apostrophe to show possession, not traditionally correct in German.

Once upon a time
Somebody say to me
(This is a dog talkin’ now)
What is your Conceptual Continuity?
Well, I told him right then (Fido said)
It should be easy to see
The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe…

Car science isn’t rocket science, people

September 23, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Automobiles, Electric Cars, Employment, Germany, Industry, Subsidies, Volkswagen Leave a comment

Nobody wants Volkswagen’s electric cars.

The fewest German drivers do, anyway.

Driving on empty: The German government has few options to help an ailing car industry – Economy Minister Robert Habeck will meet with carmakers — but he has few weapons to stave off a car industry crisis.

Threats of historic job cuts and plant closures at German car giant Volkswagen and plunging earnings elsewhere in the industry are prompting Federal Economy Minister Robert Habeck to hold crisis talks on Monday.

But strained federal finances, fights with China over car tariffs and looming EU environmental regulations leave Habeck with few tools to help an industry which is the country’s economic backbone.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

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