The first Thursday in each month, when the unemployment figures are announced, has become the bleakest and most predictable day in Germany's political calendar.
Government ministers adopt their gravest expressions as they announce the latest record figure and promise that the unemployment tide is about to turn. Opposition leaders rehearse ritual denunciations of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's economic policies and call for an immediate general election.
Until yesterday, when the jobless figure reached a new post-war record of almost five million, the only people to remain silent were the unemployed themselves. Now, after seven years of failed government initiatives while German dole queues doubled, the jobless have finally had enough.
"This is the starting signal and it will become a mass movement because unemployment is so huge," said Mr Uwe Kantelhardt, one of the organisers of yesterday's protest.
Mr Kantelhardt co-ordinated the nationwide demonstrations with the help of a handful of other unemployed people in a tiny office in Bielefeld. The idea came to him last month while he was watching the television news.
"When I saw the protests of the French unemployed, I felt like greased lightning. Something was happening at last," he said.
Despite the energy of Mr Kantelhardt and his friends, few of the groups representing the unemployed expect the German jobless to stage protests on the scale of their counterparts in France. One explanation for the relative passivity in Germany is that many unemployed people feel more ashamed than angry at losing their jobs.
"Unemployed people are slow to out themselves because they fear they will be branded as failures," according to Mr Rainer Hamish of Muellheim's Centre for the Unemployed.
The problem is greatest in the east of the country, where 20 per cent of the workforce is now idle. In the city of Dessau, once one of East Germany's busiest industrial centres, one worker in four is without a job.
From the top floor of Dessau's unemployment office, there is a fine view of the city's old industrial landscape - the brewery, the chemical plant and numerous factory buildings in between. Before German unification, there were 10 firms in Dessau that employed more than 1,000 people. Today there is none. All the big factories have closed down and the unemployment office is itself one of the city's biggest employers.
Unemployment leads to an increase in crime, especially among the young. In eastern Germany, youthful hooliganism often takes the form of racist outrages and support for extreme right-wing views.
Notwithstanding the politicians' monthly hand-wringing about unemployment, there is little sign that either the government or the opposition has developed a coherent strategy for solving the problem. Unemployed groups claim that neither political parties nor trade unions are interested in the plight of the jobless and that safeguarding the privileges of those in work remains the priority of those in power.
Most economists agree that a significant improvement in the jobless figures is not in sight and that a root and branch reform of the job market is urgently needed. But few German workers are prepared to sacrifice their high wages, short working hours and long holidays and most are simply banking on a swift return to the good old days of ever-growing prosperity.
Germany's unemployment problem is the biggest blot on Dr Kohl's political record and voters do not seem inclined to forgive him for his failure to make good numerous promises to tackle it. He hopes to win re-election in September by presenting the launch of the euro as a historic event on the scale of German unification. But unless he succeeds in reversing the unemployment trend within the next six months, Dr Kohl could soon be out of a job himself.