Merkel’s Reform Crown Slips While Turning Europe German

The political heirs to a decade-old strategy that turned Germany into the economic powerhouse of Europe risk squandering the gains.

Ten years to the day since Gerhard Schroeder unveiled a welfare and labor-market overhaul that economists credit with reinvigorating the German economy, his Social Democratic Party is backtracking while his successor as chancellor, Angela Merkel, may not be doing enough to keep the reform flame alive.