You always have to be careful with superlatives, but this one is true: Never before in the history of the Federal Republic have the Germans been as despondent as they were this year.

In mid-2022, only 23 percent of Germans said they were looking forward to the next twelve months with hope.

That was the lowest value since records began in 1949. Whether it was the Korean War, the oil crisis, the financial crisis or the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when World War III seemed imminent - the Germans have never been as pessimistic as they were this year 1949

Patrick Bernau

Responsible editor for economy and "value" of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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The Germans actually have enough experience of crises in recent years.

First came the financial crisis, which grew into the euro crisis.

It was replaced by the refugee crisis.

Then came the first major drought summer of the climate crisis and finally the Corona crisis.

It wasn't really over yet, and that's when things really got going this year.

Russian President Putin invaded Ukraine and cut off gas flow to Europe following European sanctions.

Germany found itself caught up in a Ukraine crisis and an energy crisis at the same time.

That could actually be enough of a crisis, life would then be complicated enough.

But in the meantime it is still the case that one crisis exacerbates the other.

What's going on there?

The polycrisis: if you defuse one crisis, you exacerbate the other

In the energy crisis, is Russia flaring off its gas?

The rest of the world may replace it with newly developed ones.

Both are bad for the climate.

Or: Corona, in one way or another, has led to the fact that large waves of flu and respiratory diseases are now piling up and leading to a new public health crisis.

Great pessimists even feared that the energy crisis and the resulting inflation could bring citizens to the barricades and thus drive democracy into a crisis.

The risk sociologist Ortwin Renn calls this phenomenon “polycrisis” in an essay he wrote together with a number of colleagues – and this much is true: life in the polycrisis is not particularly pleasant.

"Regardless of what you do: if you de-escalate one crisis, you exacerbate the other," says Renn.

It's a tricky situation - and it's remained somewhat of a mystery until now.

Why are we stuck in so many crises at the same time this year?

This can only be understood if you give some thought to what problem the world is making a crisis of.

And there are two criteria that at least help to turn an issue into a crisis.

A crisis demands immediate attention

First, we become aware of a disruption in an area we hadn't given much thought to before, seen as a matter for the experts and taken for granted.

"Things become visible that previously remained latent," says the sociologist Armin Nassehi, for example how much global politics can influence energy prices - or how much the energy transition depends on gas supplies.

“What else is there becomes visible because some arrangements no longer work.

That increases the experience of crises,” sums up Nassehi.

“It cannot be clearly determined whether the situation is more critical.

That she is experienced like that, yes.”