Industrial crisis and climb of the extreme right

The forklift moves in silence in the aisles of the factory. No sparrow leads it, it is an autonomous robot. If he presents no danger, Ralf Alers’ eye watches over the grain: “We have had it for three years. Nothing has ever happened but we remain cautious. It’s South Korean. »»

With his long experience of production manager in the workshops of Ziehl-Abggg, one of the world leaders in industrial fans, he anticipates disasters.

Around this debonary man, a shiny building of 8,400 m2, near the small town of Künzelsau (Baden-Wurtemberg), in the southwest of Germany. Everything mingles: high precision machines, articulated arms, sophisticated control systems …

Volkswagen plans to remove 35,000 jobs

Not a trace of oil or dust, and qualified workers who receive 4,000 euros per month, “without bonuses”. Here, the Deutsche Qualität impresses. From the management gateway, the logistical ballet which runs below returns to the photos on German efficiency. Joachim Ley, 48, CEO of the group, is a reflection of his factory. It displays the calm of those who solve the problems. In 2023, his company, which employs 5,000 people, made nearly a billion euros in sales worldwide.

Four factories came out of land in Poland, the United States, Vietnam and India. He assures him: “Germany is going through a deep industrial crisis, but Ziehl-Abel is doing well. Thanks to our internationalization strategy, we no longer depend on the inner situation. »What about others? Since the beginning of the decade, Germany has been doubtful. A dry economic breakdown that shakes the fundamentals of the country a few days before the legislative elections on February 23.

“We have known nothing like this since the Second World War,” admits the director, Joachim Ley. Economic growth is negative, exports drop, the country’s florets vacillate. In the automobile, Volkswagen plans to remove 35,000 jobs by 2030. Chemistry, pharmaceutics, metallurgy dismiss or restructure. Gourmet in energy, these sectors suffer from the outbreak of electricity and gas costs, a consequence of the war in Ukraine and the end of the Russian supply.

Beijing competition directly Germany

If profitable for decades, the export model reaches its limits. The advent of China changes the situation. Formerly a great customer of German industry, Beijing now manufactures its machines and cars, and directly competitions Germany by flooding the world with its sophisticated products. And to look too much outside, the country has forgotten its internal investments. Bridges, roads, establishments … The infrastructure is spoiling. In this dark painting, a thinning: the Mittelstand. These family, exporting, innovative and ultra-specialized businesses are getting used to it for the moment. But they look at the future with mistrust.

Künzelsau is the kingdom. On the banks of the Kocher, with well -maintained banks, the village of 15,000 inhabitants offers a concentrate of Germanic happiness: forests, vineyards, cycle paths … and international renowned industries.

In the valley, in addition to Ziehl-Abggg, we find Würth, the world leader in tools for tools and fixation; Hornschuch, manufacturer of adhesive films and imitation leather; 24/7 Gasflaschen, supplier of gas bottles; Bürkert, global champion of fluid and gas control systems in industry … and a dozen other companies.

All of them employ thousands of people in the country and around the world, invest, innovate and manufacture exceptional products. But they depend strongly on the rest of the national economy. And if it is enormous, the region coughs.

If Germany no longer has its industry, what is left of it?

When France is bad, she consoles herself with her wand, admires her castle in Versailles or Notre-Dame de Paris. When Italy doubts, she benefits from the Dolce Vita and rethinks to Julius Caesar. If Germany no longer has its industry, what is left of it? “More is the problem. Since 1945, she has built her identity on her commercial power, “said Stephan Martens, professor of German civilization at the University of Cergy-Pontoise (Val-d’Oise).

As often across the Rhine, you have to go back to the post-war period. From the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in 1949, it was not in the flag and the army. The identity marker becomes the economy. Ludwig Erhard, Minister of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, launches the foundations of Wirtschaftswunder the “economic miracle”.

Thanks to the American money of the Marshall Plan and European construction, Germany is organized to leave. With the Made in Germany – and football – the country is freed from its image of furious and barbarism. “Seeing our cars and our machines when I went on vacation in Spain, in France, and even further, always made me proud,” says Joachim Scholz, 62, mayor CDU (Christian Democrat Union, right) of Schöntal, Small village near Künzelsau.

The far -right AFD party exceeds 20% in polls

If the recession extends, where to find a substitute for national identity? “We are going in front of big problems in case the Made in Germany would not get back on foot,” says Joachim Scholz. Until then, the wealth of the country has made it possible to shape an exemplary parliamentary democracy. But the system no longer holds the extremist parties at a distance.

February 23 elections can create a national, and European earthquake. The alternative far right party for Germany (AFD), with whom Marine Le Pen broke on a European Union scale for his indulgence towards the Nazi period, exceeds 20% in the polls, just behind the CDU curators.

Nationalist, for the “remigration” of immigrants in their country, pro-Puttine, against the EU, antiVAX … The party condenses German turpitudes. In the east of the country, where the work of memory on Nazi history was not done by the communist regime of the GDR, some members are openly nostalgic for Hitler. In the west, the party often collects small people frightened by recent immigration.

A population divided in Künzelsau

In Künzelsau, AFD distributes leaflets in the main street on Friday morning, vegetable market day. Anton Baron, AFD deputy in the parliament of Baden-Wurtemberg, is accompanied by two activists, Barbara Hammel and Bernd Bauer. In the cold and the greyness, they welcome passers -by and offer them gadgets. Most look away but some stop. “I voted for you the last time. The country becomes dangerous in the evening, ”says a young woman with a troubled look who walks her dog. But Künzelsau is not a conquered land.

In front of the three accomplices, a man in working blue comes out of a craft van. He lights a cigarette and advances the quiet air. If the conversation begins cordially, the tension rises quickly. “You are dangerous, your solutions are silly. You only criticize and bring nothing concrete, ”says the worker.

It is Bernd Bauer who sticks to it, he knows his interlocutor for having given him evening lessons: “The media stuffed your skull with their propaganda. Anyway, you’ve always been a problem boy. “After forty-one years to vote CDU, Bernd Bauer joined AFD because of Angela Merkel,” who refocused the party and opened borders to dangerous immigrants “.

Germans dressed against Angela Merkel

Barbara Hammel, in AFD down jacket, is also a new recruit. When she was younger, she voted Die Grünen (the Greens), then CDU for twenty years. She has been campaigning for a year for the far right. What convinced him? Angela Merkel Ped! The ex-accused is doomed to the gemonies by a large part of the Germans, especially on the right.

“She ruled like the left. She opened the borders without ever closing them, ”Barbara plague. However, when nearly a million Syrians fled war in 2015, she worked at their welcome in her association. She remembers that in 2016, when the Kocher overflowed and Künzelsau was flooded, around fifty of them came to carry sandbags. “” They called me “Mama”, “she recalls.” But the refugees of the following years have never sought to integrate! They come for allowances. I want to protect the first refugees from other waves of criminals “, She concludes.

At the market, below, AFD hardly interests. Susanne, 53, has no doubt: she will never vote for this party, traumatized by her father, who made her scream Heil Hitler some mornings. “I was born in 1971, you realize …” The weight of history is deep. A generation of children has not experienced a cake and jovial grandfather.

“Mine had stunned his shoulder with a knife to erase her SS tattoos. I have always known it embittered and nasty. “He repeated it was better before”, “recalls Tobias, 47. This intimate link with the past has shaped the German relationship to democratic life. Because if they are proud of their export products, they mainly pride themselves on having designed an exemplary parliamentary democracy on ruins.

A fear of political instability

Their famous compromise, the engine of a stable and measured national policy, is now coming up against the polarization of the country. “We can no longer discuss while listening to. Wanting to control immigration does not make someone a Nazi or a member of the AFD, “said Lucas, 23 -year -old, on a sofa in the Heilbronn library. “And thinking about the fate of the planet does not mean being an unrealistic green howrt,” added Moritz, 20.

How to keep hope? Marc Steffen Dahlheimer, 46 and production manager at Bürkert, lists the reasons to believe it: “We have brains, know-how and products, it will come back. China that copies is a good sign. They copy the best, we just have to continue innovating. Donald Trump and his attacks? Americans need us. The jungle of globalization does not scare this pure Bürkert product which rather fears political instability. “We would need a coalition with only two parties, not three. It would be better to make real decisions and attack the bureaucracy, ”he admits.

By presenting his factory, he smiles yellow in front of the low crowd in the research and development area. The ethics of work is lost: “It is 3 pm, Friday afternoon, they have surely already left for weekends …” This annoyance, Ralf Alers, from Ziehl-Abel, the giant fans company, Sharing: “Young German workers stay three days and then go away. I have just hired fifteen Polish temporary workers. We also have Turks, Syrians, Italians, Ukrainians … They want to work. From this point of view, the country finds itself in the midst of an existential crisis.

“The country is no longer a European exception”

Economic difficulties, immigration, climb of the extreme right, does Germany look like France? “The February 23 election will be a test. The country is no longer a European exception. He finds his Tares, ”says the academic Stephan Martens.

In Schöntal, near Künzelsau, a large part of the voters of Joachim Scholz tell him: “This year is the last chance. If economic questions and immigration are not settled, it will be AFD. This is the next warned chancellor. She will have to restore the rank of Germany, “like a great Swiss, as it dreams”, according to the word of Stephan Martens.