Whether someone considers a trip to the past enjoyable depends entirely on the present. More and more Germans would like to take at least a virtual look back at the old Federal Republic before it disappears completely from the collective consciousness. Few people outside the political class would argue that the country is in a better state today than it was 30 years ago.
What is the best way to organize such a nostalgic journey? Simply talk to foreigners whose experience of Germany goes back a little further. For many Chinese, Australians, Britons and Americans who vacationed or studied between the North Sea and the Alps decades ago, the Federal Republic still appears to be a country of capricious weather and occasionally grumpy inhabitants, but also a well-organized, efficient and safe society.
Nostalgic memories of Germany persist remarkably tenaciously abroad. Anyone who wants to preserve this pleasant illusion should not make the mistake of coming to see for themselves today.
A Sad Farce Spreads
Some time ago, a video of a Chinese scientist talking about his trip to a conference in Berlin went viral. After the event, he decided to travel by ICE train [high-speed trains operated by Deutsche Bahn – German Railways, ed. note] to Frankfurt Airport, from where he was to fly home. He must have received useful advice about German railways from locals during his stay, because he planned a three-hour buffer. He already had his ticket and was traveling with only hand luggage. What could possibly go wrong?
But something did go wrong. His adventure began in Berlin with a delay, he missed his connection, the next ICE train was stuck somewhere on the tracks, and the replacement train crawled toward its destination with ever-increasing delays. The brave man from the Far East reached the departure gate at the last minute, running all the way.
What surprised him most, as he recounted in the video, was the stoic calm of his fellow German passengers: no swearing, no grumbling, just silent, desperate glances at their mobile phone screens. The scientist probably expected that in an orderly society like Germany, such a chaotic journey would provoke a collective outburst of discontent.
Only 60% of Trains Arrive on Time
There is a reason for the resigned passivity that fascinated him so much. It also reflects the current state of Germany rather well. In 2025, only 60% of trains arrived on time (in 2015, it was still 75%). Every 20th train is canceled completely, which, incidentally, also removes it from the delay statistics. Locals therefore know exactly what they are getting into.
At this point, here is some practical advice for anyone who only knows the German railway system from the old days: if you feel an urgent need to use the toilet as a passenger, leave in good time. On some long-distance trains, you will pass three, sometimes even four, broken and closed toilets before reaching one that is actually functioning. There is usually a queue there.
In addition, the reconstruction of Stuttgart station began in 2010. After a generously calculated nine years, trains were supposed to run through the new underground terminal. At that point, however, there was only a huge construction pit. The company announced 2026 as the final concrete completion date. Even that, however, cannot be met. To be on the safe side, the management of the state-owned company has refrained from announcing any new date.
The situation is similar with almost all major construction projects today. Construction of the new Carola Bridge in Dresden, which collapsed on 11 September 2024, will begin in 2028 at the earliest, with the opening planned for around 2032. The complete renovation of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, which began in 2013 and is scheduled for completion in 2037, will probably drag on until 2043. Anyone in the prime of life today will probably only see it when they retire.
A brief comparison: it took workers six years, from 1909 to 1915, to build Leipzig Central Station, long considered the largest of its kind in Europe. At the time, that pace was not considered remarkable, but simply normal.
Incidentally, there was also once a phenomenon called winter in Germany. In January 2026, all trams in Berlin were out of service for two days, even though there were no exceptionally low temperatures or extreme snowfall. In northern Germany, a blizzard led to a temporary halt in rail traffic, and thus temporarily to zero delays. In Lower Saxony, 18,000 electronic documents from the judicial administration, including urgent cases, were left pending. Why? Many officials were working from home because of winter storm Elli, and the ministry’s outdated server collapsed under the strain of external access.
The Resignation of the Typical German
Perhaps after this by no means exhaustive list, you will understand why the once typical German puts up with train delays and much worse things with resignation and, in the eyes of foreigners, appears sheep-like. Today, he is happy if he gets anywhere at all. He considers it a miracle when a new bridge or station is built somewhere, regardless of when it happens.
As the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once wrote, “Not how the world is, but that it is, is the mystical.” Today, Germans apply this thought to their prosaic everyday lives. They rejoice when only part of the infrastructure collapses in winter, rather than all of it. They breathe a sigh of relief when, after months of waiting, they finally hold an official document in their hands.
The author of this text intends to get married. To do so, he needs a birth certificate, which he applied for in September 2025. In January 2026, he cautiously inquired about the status and received a reply asking him kindly not to press the matter. Mail from August of the previous year was currently being processed.
As a resident, one no longer expects improvement and is satisfied if things do not get much worse. In other words, this country no longer expects anything from itself.
From a Country of Engineers to a State of Bureaucrats
How did Germany get to where it is today? There are only partial answers to that question. Let everyone piece together their own picture from them.
At the end of 2025, the Federal Statistical Office reported a decline in the labor force for the first time in a long while, despite the fact that several million people had immigrated to the country since 2015. A closer look is even more revealing: the number of industrial workers and self-employed people has been declining since 2016. During the same period, the number of public sector employees rose from 10.74 million to 12.38 million. Of those more than 12 million, only 7.25 million are now employed in industry and 3.67 million are self-employed.
The country of engineers has successfully transformed itself into a state of bureaucrats. This bureaucracy protects and feeds itself, primarily by constantly producing new regulations and rules.
That is one reason construction projects now take decades. Of course, with the help of artificial intelligence and digitization, documents could be issued within 24 hours. However, that would happen at the expense of public employees who, when it comes to defending their own positions, possess very natural intelligence.
In this area, the state still functions surprisingly well. Recently, someone posted a letter from the tax office on X notifying him of tax arrears of 37 cents and imposing a hefty fine. The letter arrived in a flash. Here, they do not work on last August first. When it comes to collecting money, the XXL state apparatus suddenly behaves as agilely as a young tiger. And it is just as voracious.
Celebrating Incompetence
Secondly, the worship of incompetence is rampant in the country. Green Party politician Robert Habeck, who has never shown any particular interest in economic matters, nevertheless became economy minister of Europe’s most powerful country in 2021, only to explain to the nation that companies whose businesses are falling apart are not going bankrupt, they are “just ceasing production”. His party colleague Annalena Baerbock declared the electricity grid to be a storage facility, published a book in 2021 that consisted largely of plagiarism, recommended a “360-degree turn” to Putin as foreign minister and called South Africa a “bacon of hope” instead of a “beacon of hope”.
Habeck, Baerbock and others in this league could and still can get away with almost anything, as most German journalists are at their feet anyway. Because in today’s newsrooms, it is no longer “tell it like it is” – the motto of Spiegel founder Rudolf Augstein – but “write according to feeling”.
Lower Saxony’s Education Minister Julia Willie Hamburg, Bundestag Vice-President Omid Nouripour, Bundestag member Katrin Göring-Eckardt, sometimes mentioned as a future federal president, and many other politicians share one biographical detail: they have no professional qualification. Nor do they have any experience in the private sector.
Any incompetence at the top eventually trickles down. It used to be said that Germany was averagely governed but well managed. Today, neither is true.
The Pioneer Is Lagging Behind
Added to this is contempt for entrepreneurs, for example on the part of Social Democratic Party (SPD) chairwoman Bärbel Bas, who believes that her party should fight against business owners.
We also see contempt for general education. In the TIMSS international test, a global ranking of student performance in mathematics and science, German fourth graders ranked 12th in 2007. Sixteen years later, they were only in 21st place, far behind Turkey, England, Romania and other countries.
And finally, those who constantly tell themselves that they are “pioneers” for the whole world, especially in the energy transition, which in reality no one is copying, eventually stop asking critical questions about themselves. Perhaps today’s Germany is simply suffering from what American anthropologist Louis Kroeber once called “cultural exhaustion”.
So is there anything left of the famous German thoroughness? Yes, definitely, not only in details such as the collection of 37 cents in tax debt, but also in the big picture. If the motto of today’s German leaders is to bring down a country that once functioned at least reasonably well, then let us at least do it properly.
However, there is still a glimmer of hope. At the beginning of 2026, it became apparent that dismantling the decommissioned Brokdorf nuclear power plant would probably take 50 years, as thousands of regulations had to be complied with. Perhaps it will go so slowly that the next, or even the following, federal government, which will be at least partially reasonable, will decide to put the power plant back into operation. The contract will then go to Chinese engineers.
By fax.