That means nervous breakdown. Having them is a favorite German pastime. These days especially.
Germans on the verge of a nervous breakdown – It’s a sign of the nation’s fraught state of mind that many seriously believe this week’s unlikely plotters could have toppled democracy.
Early Wednesday, thousands of balaclava-clad German police officers fanned out across the country, arresting 25 people and seizing weapons to upend what authorities described as a diabolical plot to overthrow the country’s government and reinstate the monarchy. The group’s “military arm” was surreptitiously building “a new German army,” the lead prosecutor on the case said.
A day later, however, the case looks more like the script of a Monty Python episode than a sequel to the Day of the Jackal…
These Germans. They’re all worried about some horrible war just a few miles down the road and ever-growing inflation that looks as though it might be spiralling out of control.
They should worry about real problems, like they used to. You know, like their plans for this year’s third vacation, their next second car, finally starting that diet, which weekend demonstration to take part in, etc.
Germans worry about war and inflation – The German government is supporting Ukraine, battling inflation, and combatting climate change. A monthly survey has asked voters how they rate the efforts.
The war is driving up energy prices, but food prices have also risen significantly. Almost half of all respondents said they already have to cut back significantly because of this. Among low-income earners, 77% say they are beginning to struggle…
That means mouth and nose protection. You know, a face mask?
They keep you safe. Unless you’re a gas station employee asking a customer to put one on. Then they can be dangerous, deadly even. Remember the days when gas station employees were endangered by people who were already wearing the face masks when they came in?
Germany: Gas station employee killed over a face mask – A 20-year-old clerk was shot after asking a customer to wear a face mask in Germany. The suspected shooter said he was stressed out by coronavirus measures.
Not really. They’re just saving up their Angst for a rainy day. Oh, my. Look at those dark clouds over there…
German Inflation Hysteria Mysteriously Missing Before Vote – Germany’s sudden spike in pandemic-induced inflation is prompting a noticeably less hysterical response than the country is used to.
That marks a shift from traditional fears of lax southern European-style economics, infused with worries of 1920s Weimar-Republic hyperinflation, that caused alarm during the euro-zone debt crisis in the previous decade, according to academics including Ferdinand Fichtner of Berlin’s University of Applied Sciences.
“It’s surprisingly quiet compared to what you would have expected 10 years ago,” he said. “The outcry could have been louder. As far as the election is concerned, the topic may even be over because there’ll be no new inflation numbers.”
An annual study has again asked people what they fear the most. After almost two years of COVID pandemic, somewhat surprisingly, health issues do not top the list.
For years, there was no new public debt in Germany. This gave citizens the reassuring feeling of living in a fiscally sound country — until the coronavirus pandemic came rolling over our world like a tsunami.
“People like to push thoughts of illness away, we all know that. But when it comes to money, then, also in my experience, the fears are always very large.”
Germans fear Donald Trump more than coronavirus – Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump tops the list of things Germans fear the most, a new survey found.
Trump ranks number one this year on Germans’ list of fears at 53%. The US president has topped the R+V fear scale as early as 2018.
Why should they trust them any more now? Should a vaccination against COVID-19 ever be available, I mean.
According to a French online survey of parents in five European countries, Germany has a relatively high proportion of people who refuse vaccinations, when compared with the other nations; nearly 3% absolutely refuse to have their children vaccinated. The German Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) says that around 20% of the population is skeptical when it comes to vaccines…
Unlike in some EU countries, in Germany it has always been up to the individual whether they want to get a recommended vaccine.
“The idea that compulsory vaccinations will be carried out in the future is quite widespread among conspiracy theorists.”
No customers, no purchases, no spend money, no make money, no business, no future.
‘No lines, no crowds’ — Germans stay home as stores begin to reopen after coronavirus lockdown – German consumers are counting their pennies rather than returning to shop in large numbers as stores gradually reopen after being locked down during the coronavirus crisis, the national retailers association said on Wednesday.
“Consumers are in a crisis mode, consumer sentiment is in the doldrums.”
At least that’s what the German police are telling German citizens these days. So maybe that’s why there was a 9.6 percent increase last year in the number of Germans licensed to carry – gas pistols.
That must be the reason why. Although “insecurity” was mentioned several times in this article not a word was lost anywhere on where this insecurity in Germany is coming from. It’s tacitly understood, of course. It would be, I dunno, rude to actually mention it. Like I often say about this country, things are complicated here. Simply complicated.
Police representatives suggest the increase illustrates a latent sense of insecurity among citizens. However, Left Party domestic policy expert Ulla Jelpke said the increase was “a result of the panic created by law and order politicians like Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and right-wing agitators like the AfD [Alternative for Germany].”
Not quite as dramatic, granted, but just like how Fukushima took down the nuclear power industry in Germany, all it takes is a collapsed highway bridge in Italy to suddenly put Germany’s bridge infrastructure in full tilt crisis mode. You gotta worry about something, after all.
The latest reminder of the risks of aging infrastructure came Tuesday, when a highway bridge in Italy collapsed, killing at least 35 people. Germany is also exposed. Its once-envied network of roads, bridges and railways are decaying due to decades of underspending. The country has fallen to 15th in road quality behind Oman and Portugal, according to the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness rankings.
Autobahnbrücken in Deutschland – Jede achte Brücke in schlechtem Zustand.
Observing Hermann 