The Economy of Germany 

Thanks for watching EE nation! ❤️ If you enjoyed, please consider supporting the show on Patreon! 😎 See new videos early, participate in exclusive Q&As, and more! ➡️ www.patreon.com/EconomicsExplained

The 'e' in 'Porsche' is pronounced. It's a German word. We pronounce all letters, because dead letters are not efficient.

The whole world: German Efficiency is superior! Germans: wenn die DB noch einmal zu spät kommt, dann zieh ich in die schweiz

me, a german, slouching on the sofa while watching this video and munching crisps off of my chest *peak efficiency*

Kinda sounds like a history class. Please do a recent video explaining the economy today. I know for a fact that our big industrial sector is under pressure at the moment. Also considering the recent decline of the euro, how does that affect foreign investors? thank you.

"German efficiency" *laughs in Berlin Airport*

As much as I enjoyed the video, it should be called "The History of German Economy" and not "The Economy of Germany".

German Companies have to compete with other companies Telekom and Deutsche Bahn: Uhhh I don't know

I find the Dunning-Kruger effect working very well in judging whether a country is generally good. If the residents keep whining about the weather, the policy, the education and so on, it's usually a reasonably good country to live in. If people are all like "Viva xxx! We're the best of all! Don't you ever dare think otherwise!", you 'd better run.

Fun Fact: The label "made in germany" was originally introduced in great britain in an effort to warn it's people about inferior german products. The only catch was of course that german products turned out to be far superior to the british products and so the label meant to warn about inferior products turned into a quality seal^^

Everything Economics: economic dead weight *shows flag of Greece*

SPEAKER: “Germany has only a short history“ KARL DER GROßE: “hold my beer“

He said:"Germany isnt that old". "Italy is way older as country". Italy at unification at 1861. Italy :??????

"Germany A troublesome past" Well aint that the summary of the century...

"Germany never had a big empire like France,Italy..." *Cries in holy roman empire*

When Japan and Germany become economic powers Italy: sad corruption noises

When a German starts talking about efficiency, you better listen carefully.

*germans see Germany in the title* Also germans: DER KOMMENTARBEREICH GEHÖRT JETZT UNS

Some love from Belgium here. It's funny to see all these Germans in the comment section being so hard on Germany and themselves... It's like : " ' Gut ' is not good enough... Wir wollen Beste ! " xD Probably the main reason why Germany keeps outpacing most other nations economically despite all the shit that has been thrown at them. Perfection is not of this world my German friends, but you guys do a damn good closing in on it. Glad to have you guys on board of this big European mess :D

"If a company is causing environmental damage, it will be taken care of" Germany: laughs in automobile lobbyism -_-

I had the pleasure of living in Germany for several years. Everything really does seem to run very effciently (well, except Autobahn traffic). The classic example I will always remember... if a plumber or electrician comes to your house, they usually show up a few minutes early, wait outside your door, then knock at the exact appointed time. Compare that to the US where you're lucky if the person even shows up at all, much less on time.

Economy: *exists* Germany: Es ist freies Grundeigentum!

It's weird that Germany's patriotic symbol is an Eagle.. should be changed to a Phoenix considering their history and temperament.

"... a source of cheap export goods" - While showing Mercedes-Benz cars 🤣

Having moved from the UK to Germany and back again. I can tell you from at least a government perspective it is NOT efficient, I would argue it's perhaps by far the slowest and most inefficient out of the EU5. Takes 4 months to do anything that takes mere days in the UK for citizens to do anything, register with the gov, pensions, internet, bills, healthcare - it's honestly horrible

"German efficiency" *laughs in Berlin Airport* *laughs in Stuttgart 21* *laughs in Deutsche Bahn* *laughs in generic construction site*

More like a history lesson - you should make a second video that really explains the situation npw.

Looking through the comments, I can't help but to notice that the vast majority of people trashing Germany are Germans and the vast majority of people trashing America are Americans. I think it's safe to say that both countries are doing pretty well when you see that kind of behavior from the first and fourth largest economies in the universe. Cheers to all!

Just to be clear: Germany did not declare WW1

Germany: efficient Berlin: Hold my airport

Italy didn’t unite until the 1860’s either

As someone living in Germany I really appreciate this video referring to German history, to the German reunification and its economic system. The social market economy as you presented is really one of the special cultural goods a German can be proud of. Sadly, little foreigners and not every German knows what this system actually is and means. I think Germans should be a bit more courageous in supporting its economic system and show its positive aspects in cultural exchange, (,while respecting others, too). This could potentially be an enrichment to the world.

Germany is like that kid your class who you thought has no bright future because he's always causing trouble in school

"And its prosperity has overflown into other nations that have been.... less stable" everyone looks a Greece disappointedly

"Infrastructure spending increased" *Shows picture of a road in Norway*

You forget the most important fact about German reunification: the decision of West Germany to accept East German marks at parity with the Deutschmark. Under communism East Germans had large savings because there was not much they could buy and any black market was suppressed. So they had no choice but to save instead of spend. Those saving were denominated in East German Marks. When the wall came down and German reunification was being negotiated, it was not sure how much of the East German political system would survive. So the the West essentially bribed the East into complete absorption into the Western mold by accepting East Marks at parity. This caused the East German economy to completely collapse, because nothing in East Germany could compete with the West when the two Marks were at parity. If the East German mark was set at a much lower exchange rate, the East German economy would not have collapsed so completely. Initially the East Germans went on a spending spree, but this caused inflation in West Germany, so for much of the 90s the German economy was depressed because of austerity to control inflation combined with the complete collapse of the East German economy. People forget that Germany was the sick man of Europe for most of the 90s and early 2000s.

The 3 last minutes of this video made me emotional..what a strong country Germany is, you guys should be proud of always picking yourself up, my wish is for my beloved country South Africa to also rise against all adversity... I love Germany!!

"German efficiency" *laughs in Standesamt*

East and west are even. Sicherlich.

Ich bin ein simpler Mann. Ich sehe German, ich klicke.

"Germany started 2 world wars" Austria👀

Could we get a part two more about modern Germany? The history is interesting, don't get me wrong, but we'd still like to know about the country's modern economics

6:10 this is actually only partly true. Germany was still beaten while it was down. The loss of patents alone already constituted a bigger loss than the entirety of the Marshall Plan was worth for West Germany. Also well into 1950s they still disassembled factories. Germany was excluded from the patent union until way later while also forced to report every bit of research they did to the USA (which sold the tech to their own corps) which in turn stumped technological growth in Germany massively. Furthermore, Germany had to sell their produced coal at 1/3 of the world market price which was also a loss of billions. All in all, the allies took out of Germany more than 10 times the amount of money that the Marshall Plan gave them.

I am just saying that Germany doesn’t declare the First World War. It was Austria and we had to jouney because of treates

Maaan I didn’t know Germany was so badass. I hope to visit Germany some day.

Economics Explained: Releases a video about Germany All Germans: Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Kommentarbereich

Deutsche der Kommentarsektion versammelt euch!

Mate you are an absolute legend! Keep up all the great work champion! It’s been a long time since I binge watched RU-vid videos - you sir are responsible for that - well done

I've always admired how Germany has gone through so much and fought to pick itself back up.

When talking about Western Germany: *shows great parts of modern Germany* When talking about Eastern Germany: *ruins, destroyed shit, grey walls and etc. * I see what you did here, mate.

First of all I'm impressed by the crisp overview of our economic history. I also liked the logical "explanation" of the wars we fought (not justification obviously and even "explanation" seems odd in this sense). There must have been some serious research work done for this! After reviewing some of the comments here, some explanation for the more recent development of the German economy: Germany has been and is still heavily relying on their automotive business. Not only due to the many brands that are well known but also for a lot of smaller companies that supply them. With electrification on its way to the top Germany is on a pivot point for these businesses. There are a lot of investments done by OEMs as well as in incentives made by the country and states currently to keep this industry afloat. It will be interesting to see if they can make the cut or lose to companies that have a much more drastic impact and pace in electric and autonomous driving business. Some of today's industry branches also have a "negative" history in the sense that they have been part of the supply network for military or war in general. The technological and efficiency rise of these companies has been explained in the video. That being said some of these companies still profit from "yesterday's" profits. The way that you explained the West German starting point to rebuilt was excellent. Still today, Eastern Germany suffers from lower economy, though. Western states provided financial help since the reunion, but due to the mentioned factors still the eastern part is not comming on top. Equalizing living standards and economy in general has worked out in bigger cities, but rural areas have seen quite some exodi as people migrate to the cities (while in the old western parts these effects exist, too, but to a much smaller degree). One thing that needs to be mentioned is the very popular German way of operating smaller to medium businesses. It has been mentioned that regulations stop companies from becoming "too big" (which is really rarely the case, at least if compared internationally). The real deal is the high quality standard that even small companies oblige to, to be able to compete on national and international level (e. g. being a supplier to the automotive OEMs). I think you mentioned this to some degree, but KMUs really are the thing that seperates German industry most to other countries. Germany is also often quoted as the country of "Dichter and Denker" (poets and thinkers/inventors) which mainly refers to a time that is too long ago to have a realistic and measurable impact on today's industry. Nevertheless Germany had a strong starting point when it comes to important inventions for several markets (chemical, automotive, steel manufacturing, clothing, robotics, food supplies and probably many more that I can't think of). Having a strong start always comes in handy, even despite the fact that Germany had to struggle a lot with the different "problems" you have mentioned so nicely. One last thing to mention is Germany's role in the financial environment of Europe (you mentioned the crisis in 2008 and depts from southern countries like Greece and Italy). The role that Germany had to play in this can fill either a romantic novel, a thriller or a crime report, depending on the angle you look at it. I highly recommend Ray Dalio's explanation on why he thinks that Wolfgang Schäuble (Germany's minister of inner affairs and financials during this time) had a very unpopular role but managed it greatly. One thing that may not be forgotten is that Germany is still suffering to find a good balance between depts, interests rates from the EU and supporting their neighbors that they rely on so heavily (from a financial and industry point of view). Germany has a very primitive interest on keeping the European Union alive, obviously and thus their political interests may seem intriguing. I would love to see a further in-depth video on this by you, too! Future "hurdles" for Germany are digitalization (some scholars argue that Germany already lost the race some years ago), electrification and autonomous driving (as described above), creating a sustainable environment (both in energy and equal living standards between west and east, city and rural as well as rich and poor) and their political and financial role (often referred to as leading) in the EU to keep the European market up (which the can't do alone obviously!). This comment is very Germany-centred. There's a lot been and being influence by other great nations, especially in Europe, but I tried to adapt the narrower view the video had.

Explaining the German economic miracle without mentioning Erhard once? Pretending East Germany suffered mostly due to geography and industrial heritage, not socialism? What?

After watching this video, I'm going to start describing myself as a Rhine Capitalist. A competitive economy coupled with a strong public safety net. That's what I want to see in the UK.

"economic deadweight" as the Greek flag flashes. Hilarious!

"Germany loves their companys" i waited 4 months for an answer trying to register a business...

Wow, looking at the history through an economic lens makes so much sense and ties it to a thread, where before it all seemed like random events. Best history lesson i got in a long time. 👍

Important to note: the Nazis weren't the ones to ramp up spending, it was actually their predecessors, the Nazis just kept it up. No the Nazis didn't build the Autobahn (well not a big part of it). Please stop praising them for that.

They get knocked down, but they get up again.

Correction: Italy like Germany is a recent nation state

It tried to pick itself back up again then boom, COVID-19

thank you for making this video :') made me happy to watch it

"All great nations were formed in the aftermath of a war" - an Australian

USA: Our economy is developed even after a bloody civil war. Japan: We improved our economy even after being devastated by two nuclear bombs. ????: Amateurs. USA and Japan: What was that, punk? Germany: Amateurs.

I now this channel focuses on the economics but something worth mentioning is Germany’s very strong science/engineering history. They are the founders of many breakthroughs in chemistry and physics which lead to them being the best at producing many things which is still shown today.

With German efficiency this video could've been finished in 5 minutes

"even Greece and Italy have been around for hundreds of years" excuse me?

All of this enraged Adolf's father, who punished him severely.

Roses are red Violets are blue Verzeihen Sie bitte, es handelt sich bei dieser Kommentarsektion fortan um deutsches Staatseigentum

Germany is like a pheonix out of a fantasy book. always rising again. this time brighter than the last time ^^

Germany is like that one player in [ *generic fps game* ] that everyone yells at for being bad but gets 47 kills out of 50

WW3: *begins* UN: *looks at Germany* Germany: Hey! That wasn`t me! UN: Sorry, force of habit.

Can you do an overview of the economy of Puerto Rico? I feel like you would explain it rly well i like your channel!!!!!its easy enough for someone like me to understand!!!!keep it up!💖

Always interesting, thank you.

As a German I really like watching videos about Germany made from people from other countries. It really highlights the differences between the two. You mention strong social nets as a special thing about germany and I sit here and think "People here complain about the social system all the time for not providing enough support. Yet still it looks special and great from the outside? How bad is the situation in other countries?" Thank you very much for this video. It was great watching it.

I tried to click the like and "BOOM!"

Loved the photos of Heidelberg! I am currently studying here ;)

Spain has also a strange history. It was a dictatorship until 1970

I like how you don’t blame things like wars on a nation but rather see it as an unlucky incident that the majority of citizens aren’t responsible for. Great documentary 👍.

Some points for clarification: The German Empire/Kaiserreich was NOT ended with the so called Weimarer Republik. The German Empire was still the German Empire just continued as a republik without namechange; still known as the German Empire. The Weimarer Republik was a shoutout in Berlin (but given constitution in Weimer obvious...) as a contra to the establishing socialist microstates in Germany, especially, as part of the Novemberrevolution, the Spartakusbund lead by Karl Liebknecht. As for the abdication of Wilhelm II: He was somehow forced. As part of the Novemberrevolution 1918, at shoutout Wilhelm Scheidemann declared that the follow up republic is going to be a parliamentary republic. No word of a Kaiser. (He himself wasnt able to speak because he was on a SPA trip out of country...) So it was understand by people as a pure democracy without the Kaiser (for obvious reasons leading to a disaster). Therefore he officially abdicated days later. As part of the DDR: It was the second largest economy from all remaining Soviet allies. But the same problems, as mentioned in a video about the USSRian economy, were existing. About Marshall Plan: This plan was a economic buff offered by US to all nations in Europe (including the USSR and not yet totally bond puppets) to srrengthen their economy. The european market was an essecial market for US export and financial sector ( especially war debits). It also served the purpose to especially strengthen nations bordering the upcoming USSR and Warsaw Pact to be competitive faster and not leaning towards the USSR in sentiment by people. Therefore the occupied GB and US sector opened borders too. The French were pessimistic at first (wonders why though /i). Some clarification regarding the Berlin Wall: The DDR had immense problems with keeping their folks inside their realm of power. They fled because of indirect oppression and economic disastery. About 1/6 to 1/5 of total pop escaped by 1961. (Fleeing pop was also baited by western german government in form of different buffs like receiving 100DM for resettlement in West) So the government was forced to do something about that. The border from West to East was easily closed but Berlin was special. A city without clear borders to be controlled. So they built, under propaganda known as the antifashist wall - Antifaschistischer Schutzwall, the wall to keep pop out of West-Berlin and further possible escapes.

Very interesting. Thanks for posting!

French and my wife is German (born in East Germany) we share together a strong and sad history. we both learned history from a different perspective, it's interesting.

5:00 You missed the part where they rounded up the remaining unemployed and used them as slave labour. 100% Employment was a thing because it was effectively illegal to be unemployed.

I miss something on products made in Germany... Stamp: ''Made In Germany''

I think a really accurate explanation of German latest history and the economic system nowadays . Great job 😊👍🏻

A video on Austria would be very interesting, since life to Germany is very similar and yet the countries are so different

"Italy" an old nation? Garibaldi : Am I a joke to you?

12:39 "Industry has found a foothold in the east" *Video of a street in Hamburg"

The government isn't paying the retired workers enough due to the present situation in the economy .. Bitcoin investors are making huge profit now bitcoin has being raising the past few weeks currently 58k.. 2021 is going to be a great year for investors..

When your greek and you find your country been roasted in every single video of any subject :(

lots of issues with this video... yeah feel cheated a bit... it was much more history rather than economics. Would have wanted something that describes the rhine capitalism system for the full length rather than being mostly about history. And the history isn't well done either. For example. The hyper-inflation is given as something bad that happenned to Germany while they were dealing with crushing war reparations? They are actually one and the same, as the Germans printed marks to buy foreign currency to pay reparations. Some might argue that hyperinflation was a deliberate strategy to reduce the burden of reparations, others would call it desperation, but the two are inextricable, not independent, events. Germany didn't just spring up from no-where. If you are taking a historical perspective, talking about Germany as a young nation ignores the Holy Roman Empire, and the Hanseatic league, which were primarily economic arrangements that were crippled by yet another war, the 30 years war. Also for an economics lesson to talk about Germany/Prussia but not mention the Customs union of 1834? How did that happen? It also doesn't deal with the *efficiency* question at all. As all the comments say... Germany has also always been about bureacracy, and exploration of the interplay between bureaucracy, and quality, efficiency and exports would have been interesting... especially with using Japan's MITI as another comparable. Does a strong export economy only happen in extremely bureacratic states? If you look at all the economic miracles, is there a strong trend of a strong regulatory environment, being a pre-requisite for a strong export economy? Another interesting contrast would be with Italy, which went through the same Marshall Plan, was an economic powerhouse, but has been stagnating for decades... is this because of a lack of *efficiency* (whatever that is?) There were lots of interesting options to explore in this video. Instead we got a surface treatment of different topics entirely.

The economy of Austria, please. Social partnership is highly interesting.

I think overall it was an interesting synopsis refreshened my earlier information about Germany and my Parents being from Germany now understand the divisions felt even after the physical wall being taken down. Very informative

recently stumbled upon this channel. pretty great; would like to see one on Malaysia. thx EE man

"german" in the title: germans: ZUGRIFF!!!

Italy has only been unified for 10 years longer than Germany.

World: Has a war. Germany: Guess we're changing again.

Great Video!

As this channel is called "economics explained", can you please add more details about "economics". I like the channel but I find some of your videos very lacking in the real details department.

I feel like i'm watching the video at 1.25x speed. Maybe it's the coke, dunno

Great video once again