Germany’s Better. No, Worse. Wait, What?
Germany tends to be painted by outsiders and insiders in mutually exclusive superlatives. Both caricatures miss the point.
So how are we doing?
Photographer: Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images
Here’s a bizarre tale of two Germanies, as told in just one pair of new book titles. One jacket cover promises to reveal “Why the Germans Do it Better.” The other rhetorically asks Germans whether they’ve already “Missed the Future.”
It’s a dichotomy I’ve observed throughout my life as a dual citizen of the U.S. and Germany, having lived in both places as well as the U.K. and Asia. From the outside, Germany often looks enigmatically strong, orderly or even enlightened. From the inside, it can appear hopelessly behind, calcified and often benighted — and probably on the verge of terminal decline.