Jan Hormes makes dreams come true.
Young families come to him, who can finally build the house they have been looking forward to for so long.
Or couples who want to exchange their rental apartment for the old building with the dark wooden floorboards.
Hormes gives them loans.
In the past ten years, it was a dream job because interest rates kept falling.
But the tide has turned and interest rates have been rising for the past six months at a rate that Hormes never thought possible.
Instead of looking forward to owning a home, he experiences "more and more frustration in the consultations," says the man from the Palatinate.
Johannes Pennekamp
Responsible editor for economic reporting, responsible for "The Lounge".
Follow I follow
1200 euros for interest and repayment were due just a few months ago for an average loan per month.
Today he has to add 800 euros more to the offer, Hormes calculates.
The costs for craftsmen and real estate continue to climb.
Horme's clients are mostly doctors.
Thanks to financial buffers, they can often still just about manage their projects.
“But the class of buyers is clearly shifting towards the upper class,” says Hormes.
Politicians know that it gets tricky when the somewhat more solvent middle class has to cut back.
Food 13 percent more expensive
What is happening on the real estate market because of the high inflation and the interest rate hike by the European Central Bank is extreme.
But in many other areas too, rising consumer prices, which rose by an average of almost eight percent last year, are no longer just affecting low earners.
This is evident in many places: the owner of an “unpackaged” shop in Frankfurt, for example, reports that even customers who are not starving themselves have been staying away for some time because even they no longer like the organic egg for 80 cents.
That may sound like a luxury problem.
But the fact that meat has become a fifth more expensive over the year and food as a whole by almost 13 percent is also felt by people who don't have to pay attention to every cent in the supermarket.
This is especially true for the energy costs.
The housing industry recently warned that a household of four would have to pay up to 5,000 euros more for electricity and heating than last year.
Anyone who sets aside such amounts for the day of the advance bill must earn very well in order not to have to save on vacation, a car or a visit to the opera.
A consultant from the consumer advice center Hessen summarizes: "Many people feel that it is much more difficult to create the same assets as the parents."
All of this is not only a financial cut for millions of Germans.
Notoriously, they have always been particularly afraid of currency devaluation, even in times when inflation is sticking to zero.
Now the inflation is actually there, and the fear of decline is increasing again: when asked about their biggest concerns, the Germans name inflation.
Even shortly after the Russian attack on Ukraine, Germans were more concerned about money than the military threat, according to a survey by McKinsey management consultants.
It would be astonishing if the major economic shifts and fears had no political consequences.
But what exactly is rolling towards the country?
And who can benefit politically in the end?