As the Germans struggled with GM and the USA to save Opel with, it seems, a successful deal with Canadian car parts maker Magna International done at the death, another tragedy has beset the German economy – the world’s largest beer mat maker with a 75% global share is going bust.
The reason seems to be industry consolidation, cutbacks in advertising because of the GFC and people more inclined to cry into their beer at home rather than enjoy their beer in company down at the local.
Still the US operation is unaffected according to this article whence the image comes.
These events led me to reflect on certain fragilities in the German economy evident on our trip to Europe last year. I guess we saw what most tourists see, but much that we saw seemed to depend distinctly on discretionary expenditure. With the GFC I wondered how well some of the enterprises we saw were doing now.
This post is not so much an analysis of the German economy; rather an excuse to post a few photos from the trip. By way of explanation, four siblings from my family plus partners enjoyed a riverboat cruise down the Rhine, with side trips, following which some of us spent some time in Germany, not all in the same places.
One of the absolute delights of the German stay was the Steiff display centre near Ulm in Southern Germany. One of the early female entrepreneurs, Margarite Steiff set up a felt toy factory in 1880 and made what is claimed to be the world’s first soft toy. Apparently they recently tried making the toys in China, but it just wasn’t successful, so they repatriated the operation. I suspect the German cultural content was simply too high.
This friendly fellah is there to greet the Australian traveller in the foyer:
There was an exhibition with a reasonable entry charge covering four flours. This was a favourite:
The exhibition included many scenes, domestic and wild.
Such quality is expensive. Lord knows how much you would pay for toys of the kind shown above. In the shop the cheapest soft toy big enough for a young child to cuddle would set you back about €45. We bought a cup of coffee and escaped. I wonder how well they are doing this year.
Exhibit 2 is a place we went to in a trip to the Black Forest. The main purpose was to visit a museum made up of old peasant houses. We went through one built in 1498, then a mill, still working, powered by a stream. From there we walked past a small field with a mob of plastic cows, across a stream to partake of coffee and cake in a shop next to this:
There were clocks galore, large and small, plus Steiff toys, all designed to relieve mostly American tourists if our boat was any guide of their money:
Again we escaped with a coffee. I didn’t price any of the clocks, partly because i was obsessed with finding the Mens, which wasn’t as straightforward as it looked.
At the other end of Germany there is another forest area at a place called Seiffen in the Erzgebirge Mountains near the Czech border, said to be the Christmas craft capital of Germany. It was once a mining area, but now that the mines are finished the locals have turned to wood carving (please note, Barnaby Joyce!) OK, the wood carving tradition probably predates the end of the mining. My elder brother and his wife spent a few days there. Here is a small example of the figurines made in the area:
Again the stuff is expensive. My wife and I saw a shop selling these figurines in Bamberg, a World heritage city not smashed in the war and not entirely overrun by tourists. We were tempted to buy and would have had to spend about €50 per item, but our host was in a hurry. Here’s my pic of the pics of Bamberg:
The Rhine cruise included a trip to Heidelberg, where the castle is a prime attraction. Although late in the season the place was swarming with tourists:
Notice one tourist in a kangaroo skin hat, no doubt an Australian. Notice also some scaffolding in the background. Everywhere old buildings and structures are being rebuilt and repaired. Much of the damage in this case was caused by the French, who had the habit of smashing things and burning cities on the way through. This is evidence of their handiwork from the 17th century:
The city itself, one of the many smallish but nice sized cities all over Germany, was quite attractive:
We were told they were visited by 4 million tourists per year. Again one wonders how many they are getting this year. After leaving the Schloß we walked through the town down what was the longest city mall in either Europe or the world, had a look at some exhibitions in the library of the old university, crossed the river via the far bridge in the photo, walked back along the Philosophers’ Way which you can see as a line about half way up the mountain, crossed over the near bridge and had a coffee in time to catch the bus back to the boat.
Germany struck me as being a bit like an historical theme park. Huge amounts of effort have gone into restoration. This was very noticeable in Nuremberg, where street scapes have been re-created and wrecked churches rebuilt. Nuremberg, like Dresden, was pretty much smashed towards the end of the war for no good military purpose. It seems they missed the Schloß, where we had a guided tour of the residence (no photos allowed on pain of death!) The tour group was fully subscribed, although on a work-day Tuesday, mostly by Germans. In early October the autumn colours were to die for, this one taken from the tower:
There are many museums in Nuremberg, notably the massive Nuremberg Nazi Museum, shown here looking across the lake from a position near where Hitler addressed the crowd during the Nazi rally in 1936 (not very photogenic).
Our host grew up in Nuremberg and used to swim in the lake a a kid after the war. We spent one very sobering afternoon in the museum.
A different kind of museum was the musical instruments museum in Rüdesheim am Rhein, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site:
The museum had many wondrous instruments, for example:
The final exhibit is the magnificent Cologne Cathedral. I’ll never forget how it’s floodlit shape loomed over us as we came in to dock by the bridge nearby in the early evening.
Again note the scaffolding. Work on the building is continuous. We were told that the cathedral has about 20,000 visitors per day and the city 6 million per year. The building with the wave-like roof pattern is the Ludwig Museum of modern art.
Touring and photography can be hard work, especially when you sail through a place like the Rhine Gorge, necessitating attention to the inner person:
I’m the one without a beard. I was on camera duty along with my ‘little’ brother. The time clocks on the cameras record that photos were taken minutes before and after this photo. I won’t show any of the 16 castles that we floated by within about 90 minutes. Just the Loreley:
Here’s the poem. If you look hard, you’ll see that there really isn’t a young woman with hair flowing in the wind near the top of that rock. But if you are looking hard and driving a boat, chances are you’ll hit a rock! They told us that the currents in the channel at that point are in fact quite dangerous.
There were four digital cameras at work on the trip, which means we didn’t miss much of importance. The upside and the downside is that there are about 4,500 other photos where these came from!
Great post Brian. I am almost sure I did the same trip. Well I have the same photos, minus the individuals anyway.
Off to Turkey later this year and while the airfares were a bargain, the accommodation costs are still non-negotiable. Only time will tell.
wpd, it was a family reunion in two parts. We all met in Zurich and then a 7-day trip down the Rhine from Basel to Amsterdam. An extra day in Amsterdam, then we went our separate ways, more or less, for 10 days to meet again for a week at my sister’s place in Toronto. We had 2 days in Vancouver on the way home.
For us probably the trip of a lifetime. Shared on the boat with 65 American dentists, pretending to be on a professional convention.
Oh no, Brian. I want the pictures of the 16 castles as well!!! Please!!
BilB, I might just do that when we get a rainy day, but I thought this post would take me half an hour and it took a lot longer. The main problem is that all the images have to be selected, which is distracting, and then re-sized and uploaded one by one.
Menanwhile the world is going to hell in a handbasket, as you know, and requires a bit of attention also
I think the “whole post” was delightful! and agree with the call for more!
fluff
Thanks, FRANK.
Just for BilB, I’d post a castle if I knew how to post an image from my hard drive in a comment, but I don’t.
Earlier this year when I was recovering from a minor operation I spent three days on the Rhine Gorge, ending up with packages of 19, 33, 96 an 161 images from the almost 200 taken by four cameras. What I’d like to do is establish a Picasa account, upload the 32 image package and post about half that many, and then link to the Picasa package.
The Rhine Gorge was the most photographed subject, followed not that far behind by the Heidelberg castle.
Brian, I was surprised to find out that Germany was the largest exporter in the world.
Germany’s excellence in engineering is being credited (by some) for this. The engineers bring in the big bucks and the tourist industries actually employ people.
Yes, aidan, I knew that, and one of the surprising things is how their world-class industries seem to be spread around often in relatively small cities.
But against that I’d like to know how much of their exporting is to other EC countries. If you threw a circle around a particular 80 million sized bit of the US and counted exports to other parts of the US you might find a new story.
Speaking of employment, one of the less pleasant aspects was the way the generally excellent tour guides placed themselves strategically at the end of the tour with people thrusting small change into their hand.
I didn’t notice what was going on at first, but the Americans and Canadians who were 95% of the tour group were of course right onto it.
Aidan – interesting to note that “The World” is actually the World’s biggest exporter.
But to whom?
I can happily wait for that rainy day. They are all great shots, but I have spent some time studying the blown apart castle. What an amazing construction. I am pleased that Europe has a programme to rebuild these magnficent structures. The 4 deg C GW temp rise map tells us that it will not be wasted effort, although one might have to be covered from head to toe to guard against drug resistant malaria transmitting mosquito bites when visiting 50 years from now. Not a problem for me but my daughters will be concerned.
BilB, some of the structures are amazing. we saw the Residenz in Wurzburg, where the foyer was covered by one unsupported span. I worked out that it was as big as our 24 perch block. Carriages could drive in and do an internal U turn and the stairs we wide enough for a woman in those 3 metre wide dresses to walk up or down. The architect was controversial at the time because people thought it would fall down. It not only stayed up but survived a fair bit of the rest of the building being damaged in WW2 (much of it now restored).
Here, thank googleness, is the Residenz, the foyer and the chapel the latter being just one corner of the whole structure.
Brian wrote:
Yes you’re probably correct as the proportion of trade within the EU has increased as a result of falling trade barriers. Paul Krugman is worth a look on this topic.
Make sure you click on the slide show on that link [ie. @ 12]. We weren’t allowed to take photos.
Nice photos.
Re the German economy, as long as they’re only subsidising cuckoo clocks and not IG Farben, I’ll be a happy dude.
As for the bloke with the Kangaroo hat, did you check-out his tobacco pouch by any chance?
Some years ago kangaroo-scrotum tobacco pouches were something of a fashion accessory for the well-appointed swish out beyond the Barcoo. Tasteless, but true. And if he’s daft-enough to go the hat, the pouch can’t be far behind.
If we are talking about subsidising industry, todays story (well yesterday really) came in a conversation (a good source but still needs verification). Fletchers have moved a Formica factory from NZ to Queensland. When challenged the answer was that in Queensland the off peak lowest rate power is to cost them 1.2 Aus cents per kilowatt hour. If that is not subsidising then I don’t know what is. Apparently retail power for the small user is around NZ 25 cents per kilowatt hour (requires verification).
If a business needs to have electricity for free to be competitive then they should give up and do something else.
I didn’t have to, Evan, because ’twas yours truly. I grabbed it literally on the way out as we left, as we were meeting up with people in Germany we’d spent a lot of time with growing up but hadn’t seen for 50 years. So at Munich airport it came in handy.
Also I have a bald pate and I found it kept me a bit warm. Finally, I figured if I got lost my rellies would be able to find me. I didn’t, but my elder brother nearly did when he tacked onto the back of the wrong tour group coming out of the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz.
I did see another one in Vancouver airport on the way home.
BilB, I’d have to agree.
I’ve just heard from my sister in Toronto who has commanded me to do more, so I’ve got my marching orders.
In defense of the roo-hat (Disclaimer: I don’t personally own one) .. my uncle is a brick-layer in the Shakey Isles and he swears by the roo hat for work-related activity. Had me buy him another as he was worried his first might be misplaced and he couldn’t bear to be without one. Wear it with pride Brian!
aidan, there is another little story. In the Heidelberg University Library, halfway up the stairs, there was yet another marble bust of some dead bald geezer who looked as though he needed a hat. So I put my hat on his head and posed next to him for a photo. Unfortunately at that point the battery on our camera expired. I almost decided there and then that we would have to come back!
Ahem, Brian…colour me embarrassed.
No probs, Evan. With my natural modesty I just didn’t want to big note myself!
I should point out that the statement in the post that Canadian parts maker (should read Canadian-Austrian parts maker) is buying Opel is misleading. The AFR today tells us that Magna will only have 20%. GM and Sherbank, majority-owned by the Russian government, are each taking a 35% share, the remaining 10% going to Opel workers. Now Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has come out against the deal.
Now according to Der Spiegel German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is also the Social Democrats (SPD) candidate to challenge Chancellor Angela Merkel for her job, has demanded that ailing department store chain Karstadt be saved.
Seems there is an election in four months time.