The EconomistApril 14th 2018 3
GERMANYSPECIAL REPORTCONTENTS5 Politics
Between open and closed
6 Identity
Whose Heimat?
7 Social divisions
Ceçi n’est pas un hype!
8 Industry
AI meets autoland
9 Foreign policy
The somewhat reluctant
hegemon
10 History on television
Squarely in the frame
11 The next era
Children of Merkel1IN JANUARY A food bank in Essen, an industrial city in western Ger-
many, unwittingly caused a political storm by requiring each new claim-
ant to present a German identity document. Three-quarters of users were
foreign, explained Jörg Sartor, the food bank’s boss; surely that was unfair
to locals. First came protesters who daubed “racist” on his vans. Then the
far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party threw its (unsolicited) sup-
port behind him. Cameramen and reporters arrived. Other politicians
waded in on all sides. Even Angela Merkel gave her verdict: it was “not
good” that Mr Sartor had chosen to distinguish between Germans and
others. In early April he lifted the ban on foreign users.
The incident reflects a widespread feeling of what Mrs Merkel has
called Unbehagen, not easily translated but meaning anxiety or unease. A
country that long equated belonging with having four grandparents with
German names, and treated many immigrants as temporary visitors, has
seen a massive influx of foreigners following the chancellor’s decision in
2015 to keep borders open to refugees and asylum-seekers. At the same
time Germany’s traditionally egalitarian “social market economy” is be-
coming more polarised as globalisation buffets old industrial centres like
Essen; hence the food banks.
Speaking at a conference of her Christian Democrat (CDU) party in
Berlin in February, Mrs Merkel argued that this had affected the German
election on September 24th last year in three ways: voters feltUnbehagen
about the state’s ability to cope with crises like the massive influx of refu-
gees; about the country’s economic future; and about the state of the wid-
er world. That was a fair summary of the mood in the country she has run
for more than 12 years.
The chancellor was trying to explain why her centre-right Christian
Democratic Party and its Bavarian partner, the Christian Social Union
(CSU), had suffered a drop in their share of the vote to a post-war low of
33%. Her partners in the grand coalition that has run the country for eight
of her 12 years in power, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), also saw
their support fall, from 26% to 21%. The anti-immigration AfD, formed
only in 2013, took third place with 13%. An unprecedented five months of
coalition wrangling to form a government ended only on March 4thThe new Germans
Germany is becoming a more open, fragmented country. That will
mean rethinking many ingrained habits, says Jeremy CliffeACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In addition to those quoted in this
report, particular thanks for their
help and insights on Germany are
due to Melanie Amann, Tyson Barker,
Thorsten Benner, Ralf Beste,
Franziska Brantner, Ian Bremmer,
Sebastian Dullien, Henrik Enderlein,
Joschka Fischer, Ulrike Franke,
Ulrike Guérot, Manfred Güllner,
Wolfgang Ischinger, Katja Kipping,
Julia Klöckner, Matthias Krust, Hans
Kundnani, Mark Leonard, Christian
Lindner, Bernd Lucke, Brian Melican,
Michael Miebach, Andreas Nick, Omid
Nouripour, Christian Odendahl, Khue
Pham, Jean Pisani-Ferry, Jana
Puglierin, Stephan Richter, Norbert
Röttgen, David Saha, Güven Sayan,
Carsten Schneider, Daniela Schwar-
zer, Wolfgang Silbermann, Constanze
Stelzenmüller, Simon Vaut and
Roman Zatrepalek.