The Germany that Friedrich Merz has inherited as chancellor is in shocking shape.
Now in its third year of recession, Germany’s postwar engineering-export business model - and underlying prosperity - have been hammered by war on its doorstep, soaring energy prices, brutal bureaucracy, reform-shy politicians and chastening Chinese competition.
At the end of Broken Republik, Bloomberg journalists Chris Reiter and Will Wilkes say they “remain hopeful that Germany can arrest its slide toward the abyss”. For the 278 previous pages, they have gone to considerable lengths to explain why this is unlikely.
After a scorchingly negative introduction, which may sap the casual reader of the will to continue, the book races through the postwar period before settling into its themes of modern decline and collective denial.
Their insider-outsider gaze provides timely, brutal diagnoses of the hollowed-out promises of modern Germany, in particular dwindling social equality and threadbare welfare nets.
Some chapters shine with original reporting, analysis and clever data collation, in particular Germany’s naive self-deception in its trade ties to China and Russia.
Other sections are more desk-bound and Wikipedesque. Curiously absent throughout: German voices or insights into the origins of the status quo or prospects of change.
The British-US team stumble occasionally over their own expat assertions and assumptions of their adopted homeland.
Decrying Germany’s lack of national heroes or touchstones, for instance, they go on to dismiss pride in their national writers Goethe and Schiller “as a form of chauvinism that props up a fragile national identity”.
Their repeated insistence that greater German nationalism - shunned since Nazi era abuse- is the answer for this country’s ills seem strange advice in the era of Maga America and Brexit Britain.
After 250 pages of stringent analysis that is strong on what but weak on why, their proposals to save Germany are a mixed bag. A welcome but unoriginal idea is to boost affordable housing with interest-free loans and simpler bureaucracy. Another of their ideas -- for a national asparagus holiday -- has, given the kilo price of this seasonal vegetable, would thrill Marie Antoinette.
For all their knowledge and insights, three decades here mean some of Germany’s worst national characteristics have seeped into Broken Republik. Looking on the bright side: its doleful doommongery and hectoring humourlessness will have you whingeing like a local in no time.
Derek Scally is Berlin Correspondent
