Germany is living out its last days as an industrial superpower, according to Bloomberg journalists.

“The foundations of Germany's industrial system are falling like dominoes. The United States is moving away from Europe and seeking to compete with its transatlantic allies in the field of climate investment... The latest blow to some producers in heavy industry was the cessation of supplies of huge volumes of cheap Russian natural gas,” the authors of the material write.

According to journalists, a direct consequence of the fact that Germany lost blue fuel from the Russian Federation was a negative impact on the chemical industry, which has now become one of the most affected sectors after Germany’s refusal of Russian energy resources.

“According to a recent survey conducted by the Chemical Industry Association VCI, in the face of uncertainty about the transition to clean hydrogen, almost one in ten companies intend to permanently stop production processes,” Bloomberg reports.

Earlier, speaking before parliament, German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck admitted that the German economy had lost its competitive advantage due to the refusal of Russian gas. According to him, Germany “is really in an extremely difficult situation” because, unlike other countries, its energy supply was largely built on supplies of blue fuel from Russia, which Germany “was very profitable.”

At the same time, the energy crisis that began in the summer of 2022, after the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions, became “a blow to an increasing number of producers,” the agency notes.

“Worst-case scenarios such as lack of heating in homes and food rationing were avoided, but prices (in Germany.

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) are still higher than in other countries, which also increases costs (of the state.

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) associated with rising wages and complexity legal regulation,” Bloomberg journalists state.

They also cite data from Germany's central bank that shows the decline in manufacturing, which accounts for just under 20% of the economy, is "almost double that of the United States."

“A similar trend could mean the closure of more major manufacturers, such as the Dusseldorf pipe plant,” the material says.

According to the authors of the article, “Germany is faced with a difficult reality”: “Since 2017, the country with the largest economy in Europe has seen a downward trend in production volumes, and as competitiveness weakens, this decline is accelerating,” the journalists state.

At the same time, there is no certainty or “special hope” that Germany can stop “this trend,” Bloomberg quotes Stefan Klebert, CEO of GEA Group AG, which supplies production equipment, as saying.

In addition, the agency notes, “the political paralysis in Berlin” is exacerbating long-standing internal problems such as deteriorating infrastructure, an aging workforce and “bureaucratic obstacles” that manufacturers must face.

Consequences of the crisis in Germany

Let us recall that, according to the World Bank, in 2022 Germany left the top five largest economies in the world and lost its status as the leader in Europe in terms of purchasing power parity, giving way to Russia.

In November 2023, the German Federal Statistical Office reported that industrial production in Germany decreased by 4.8% compared to the same period in 2022 and the country's economy entered a recession - by that time, German enterprises had reduced production volumes for the sixth month in a row. According to statistics office analysts, this industrial collapse was the largest since February 2021, when Germany was experiencing the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

  • Industrial zone in Germany

  • © AP Photo/Martin Meissner

As Bundestag member Sarah Wagenknecht noted in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, it was the German authorities who provoked the country’s energy costs to skyrocket due to the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions, thereby worsening the lives of their own population and reducing the competitiveness of German industry. At the same time, according to her, the restrictions imposed by Berlin do not harm Moscow, since the Russian Federation is diversifying energy supplies on the market.

“They doomed the economy to certain death”

Commenting on Bloomberg’s negative forecast regarding the prospects of Germany, Vladimir Olenchenko, senior researcher at the Center for European Studies at IMEMO RAS, noted that the publication’s analysts operate with facts, statistics and note trends that are actually observed in Germany.

“We are not talking about unsubstantiated reasoning. In this case, agency employees record the reality of what is happening in Germany,” the expert emphasized in an interview with RT.

At the same time, according to him, Bloomberg does not even try to pose the main question “Who is to blame?” Because the answer, according to the expert, lies on the surface: it is the German authorities who are responsible for the current situation in Germany, who for many years have been acting not in the interests of their own citizens, but in the interests of the United States.

“No one here has any doubts for the simple reason that it is very difficult to count among the interests of the residents of Germany those actions that are being taken by the current political leadership of Germany and which are beneficial to the American authorities, but harm the population of Germany, who are suffering due to high prices and the energy crisis and other problems caused, among other things, by anti-Russian sanctions. Just by insisting on these restrictions, the United States decided to weaken to a minimum, first the German industry and economy, and then the entire EU, since many processes in the European unification depend on Germany,” Olenchenko explained.

At the same time, experts agree that the United States does not hide its desire to replace European industry and achieve a significant weakening of the economy in the recent past of the EU locomotive - Germany, which was forced to stop the development and production of coal, cooperation with Russia in the energy sector.

“It’s not necessary to destroy a competitor by dropping an atomic bomb on him. You can simply create economic conditions under which he is guaranteed to lose. By cutting off Russia from Germany, which helped with energy resources and bought industrial products, the Americans actually doomed the German economy to certain death. After all, over the past decades, Germany has successfully developed industry, relying specifically on Russian energy resources,” said Nikolai Mezhevich, chief researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in a commentary to RT.

However, the extremely bleak prospects for the German economy do not prevent the German government from spending significant funds to support Ukraine, Mezhevich noted.

Let us recall that on January 17, German Minister of Economy Robert Habeck, speaking before parliament, admitted that the German economy was not receiving enough funds due to spending on assistance to the Kyiv regime.

At the same time, as the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported on February 8, citing the results of a public opinion poll, the number of German citizens supporting anti-Russian sanctions and assistance to Ukraine is steadily declining. If in May 2022, 49% of German respondents were in favor of supplying humanitarian aid to citizens of Ukraine, then by November 2023 this figure dropped to 20%. In addition, opponents of more intensive supplies of heavy weapons to Ukraine are “now in the majority,” Der Tagesspiegel journalists note, but do not specify the percentage.  

“Germany is in crisis, but does not stop funding the Kiev regime. This is very similar to the situation when a person does not have money to buy food, but he decides to squander it by playing in a casino. Berlin is actively playing Ukrainian roulette, although in Germany itself there are a huge number of unresolved problems and opponents of such a policy,” Mezhevich said.

However, according to the expert, despite the growing protest movement in Germany, the country does not yet have leaders capable of changing the government course and resisting US pressure, and therefore “Germany’s economic prospects are unenviable.”

“Although there are prerequisites for economic recovery. But to implement the necessary changes, other people must come into German politics who can normalize relations with Russia and return them to the format of mutually beneficial ties,” the expert concluded.