Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot Get the most important global markets news at your fingertips with a Bloomberg.com subscription Former headquarters of Flotteladen in Allensbach will now serve as the home of Hectronic Cloud Labs GmbH which will focus on developing digital solutions Hectronic GmbH announced it has completed the acquisition of Flotteladen strengthening its capabilities in the e-mobility and cloud solutions sector The company previously held a minority stake in the charging solution provider having integrated its e-mobility solutions offering along with its sales team and expertise into the Sales and Service Company (VSG) division Hectronic VSG provides a comprehensive range of e-mobility services from planning and developing charging infrastructure to user-friendly payment processes and the efficient management of charging parks VSG can now design and implement its offerings even more efficiently the former headquarters of Flotteladen in Allensbach will now serve as the home of Hectronic Cloud Labs GmbH “With the full acquisition of Flotteladen and the establishment of Hectronic Cloud Labs GmbH we are consistently pursuing our strategic direction in e-mobility and cloud services The combined expertise enhances our capacity for innovation and enables us to bring digital solutions to market even faster,” said Stefan Forster This new development hub will closely collaborate with Hectronic’s existing cloud locations in Bonndorf and Pune (India) further advancing the evolution of cloud-based services Driving future of mobility – Meet us at P2D to experience EV charging in a whole new dimension Christ Wash Systems Let there be light! VEGA, the next generation. Get Ahead of Flow Rate Issues Detect and Fix Anomalies Fast with Fuel Analytics. Get the eBook! Book your stand NOW! The leading service station and car wash trade fair in Europe. KÄRCHER - CONNECT. CLEAN. CARE.No matter what your challenge is. There’s Kärcher for that. Copyright © 2025. All rights reserved. Use of this website signifies your agreement to the Privacy policy The German police had zero time for Greta earlier this year But something went wrong. In fact, it appears that the exact opposite has happened. The Greens have been eclipsed by the far-Right they were supposed to counter: the Greens are currently polling at 13% while the far-Right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has seen its popularity soar to 20% the German Greens have plummeted ten points in the polls they saw their worst regional election result in the northern state in over 20 years The poor showing in the north-western city is symbolically significant: it was there that the party entered a state parliament for the first time And while Germany’s smallest state is not considered a bellwether the loss is a reminder that the party remains deeply unpopular with vast swaths of the poor and working class fears that the Greens’ climate policies will inflict harm on Germany’s industrial base are felt especially acutely: when the city’s powerful shipbuilding industry collapsed in successive waves in the Eighties and Nineties tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs The end of the Cold War compounded the devastation as the city-state’s booming defence industry was subject to dramatic cuts To this day, Bremen has not recovered. The current unemployment rate stands at 11.4% — about twice the national average and the highest in Germany. One in four people is at risk of poverty. While the Greens have paid lip service to voters’s economic concerns, claiming that climate-friendly policies need not “come at the expense of social justice” One of the Greens’s most controversial plans which will probably come into force next year will phase out old oil and gas heating systems replacing them with climate-friendly heat pumps The process is expected to cost up to €13,000 per household The Greens have always been perceived — rightly or wrongly — as a party of privilege. In 1979, the US ambassador to West Germany, Walter J. Stoessel J, described party members as “unpolitical dreamers back to nature romantics with a few cynical leftists thrown in for good measure” He also noted that they “drew most of their supporters from the urban areas specifically from well-educated middle and upper-middle class voters under 30” the party was comprised largely of young militants The Green movement emerged out of the tear gas and violence of the 1968 student revolt It was virulently opposed to prevailing social norms which they understood as not only inherently oppressive but also key to understanding their parents’ submission to Nazism: “authoritarian” social structures could explain why the previous generation had so tragically failed to resist The Greens concluded that society could inoculate itself against the resurgence of fascism through the deliberate destruction of social taboos This line of thinking led the young Greens down a dark path The protests of 1968 had revived interest in the works of Freud disciple Wilhelm Reich who described the supposed links between authoritarian submission and sexual repression he wrote: “Suppression of the natural sexuality in the child makes the child apprehensive ‘good’ and ‘adjusted’ in the authoritarian sense … it paralyses the rebellious force.” Influenced by these works early Green party members pushed for the removal of the two sections of Germany’s penal code that criminalised sex between adults and children at which leaders apologised to the victims of sexual abuse strange trip for the Greens from the tear-gas choked streets of 1968 to the Reichstag the party at last entered national government as part of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s “third way” coalition Power would quickly render them unrecognisable: within a year the pacifist party was breaking the post-WWII German taboo of going to war The Greens occupied the foreign ministry then the leading figure of the party’s “Realo” wing – the realistic more mainstream segment of the party that was amenable to compromise with established parties The Realos clashed with the “Fundis” — party fundamentalists who believed that the Greens should never abandon their founding principles This internal clash reached a zenith in 1999 with the Kosovo War While Fischer supported participation in the Nato intervention on humanitarian grounds the Fundis were wary about Germany bombing a city that the Nazis had attacked 58 years previously The Green Party forever abandoned its pacifism and Germany its unofficial prohibition on war By Maurice Frank Schroeder and the Greens presided over an increasingly unpopular “neoliberal shock-therapy programme” The Greens were in opposition for 16 years until 2021 when they returned to power with their strongest ever electoral showing The party took about 14% of the vote in the federal election and became part of the “traffic-light coalition” with party leader Annalena Baerbock becoming minister of foreign affairs while her co-leader Robert Habeck became minister of economic affairs and climate action uncomplicated by the baggage of the two major parties By John Lewis-Stempel But the Greens are also under fire from their activist base for abandoning some of their own signature policies After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine the German government scrambled to end its dependence on Russian gas This entailed making compromises on coal and nuclear power the biggest betrayal was the Greens’s “backroom deal” with the German multinational energy firm RWE which allowed for the razing of Lutzerath to make way for a coal mine Well-publicised protests and activist occupation of the town followed; Greta Thunberg was even detained there by German police a long-time aide to the Green party leader took a job as chief lobbyist with RWE 54% of Germans are against inviting Ukraine to join Nato; only 27% support it the AfD have defined themselves in opposition to the Greens on the war in Ukraine fashioning themselves as Germany’s “peace party” AfD MP Petr Bystron claims that the party’s popularity surged in the polls immediately after the unveiling of their peace plan with their denunciations of BlackRock and American arms companies AfD sound a lot like the Greens of yesteryear Keen observers note that AfD’s appropriation of peacenik rhetoric is a clever smokescreen for a worryingly pro-Russian agenda. Some media reports allege that Bystron recently made a secret trip to Belarus supporters of the Green’s foreign policy will eventually have to contend with the mounting public opposition to their current approach beyond labelling critics Putinists or unwitting dupes of Russian propaganda Opposition to uncompromising German militarism predates Putin by many decades — and no one should understand it better than the formerly pacifist party In the failure of the party that was supposed to lead the “green wave” across Europe there lies a lesson for environmentalists everywhere Green parties cannot succeed unless they shake their associations with liberal privilege; from today’s vantage point The public has roundly rejected the naïve idea that the Greens are “outsiders” charting a new voters see them as part of politics as usual even if their machinations are hidden behind pretty verbiage and green paint Germany’s Green dream is out of reach for too many; in fact it looks like little more than the right to purchase a clear conscience while demanding that the poor subsidise it Lily Lynch is a writer and journalist based in Belgrade Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" Please click here to view our media pack for more information on advertising and partnership opportunities with UnHerd This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page The German government’s pro-Israel stance on the Gaza war is not supported by the public The poll by the Allensbach Institute found that majority of Germans are against taking side in the Israel-Palestine conflict and strongly oppose providing military support to Israel Some 43% of those surveyed said Germany should stay out of the conflict and only 34% said they agree with the view that Germany bears special responsibility for Israel due to its Nazi past Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly said that Israel’s security is non-negotiable Germany “has only one place,” and that is “firmly at the side of Israel.” only 31% of respondents backed Scholz’s approach and said they are supporting Israel’s military campaign in Gaza against Hamas 38% of those surveyed said Israel should be urged to exercise restraint to prevent casualties among the Palestinian civilian population The poll showed that majority of the Germans expects the government to take a more balanced stance and step up efforts for a diplomatic solution to the conflict 57% of Germans said Scholz’s government should pursue a mediating role between the warring parties 17% of the respondents criticized the Israeli government Around 38% said Israel has “too little understanding for its Arab neighbors” and “unjustly occupying territories.” Asked about German government’s offer of military support to Israel majority of the respondents opposed sending ammunition or weapons Some 8% of Germans said they support sending weapons and only 3% said the German armed forces Bundeswehr should offer support Israel in its military campaign In German Buch News by Ingrid SüßmannJuly 21 In last week’s article “Germany: A Nation Of Readers?” numbers focused on media consumption habits and behavior for print books This week article will highlight the Allensbach Media Market Analysis key findings for digital reading Allensbach Media Market Analysis conducts a major study of 25,000 Germans about their media consumption habits and behavior its conclusions are an accurate representation of the German-speaking population aged 14 and over making it one of the most important media market studies in Germany while an additional 11.5% are interested in trying out digital reading The number of people being opposed to digital reading is much higher: two thirds of the people polled (69.1%) are not at all interested in reading ebooks Age is a great differentiator in this matter: only 56% of the 14 to 29-year-olds are uninterested in digital reading compared with 86% of people over 60 years old Corresponding to those findings is the number of people who prefer to read longer text as print books: 64% prefer reading the “traditional” way this number has dropped in comparison to last year The number of those who don’t have a preference between print and digital reading has risen accordingly: in 2014 23% didn’t have a preference between print books and ebooks; in 2015 the picture changes accordingly when you look at the different age groups: within the group of younger readers aged 14-29 only 27% prefer reading longer texts in print while the number of those who read in multiple formats has risen: in 2015 has yet to embrace ebooks: 86% prefer print over digital reading 7.5% of Germans have bought ebooks during the last year the majority of ebook buyers (40.4%) bought 1-2 ebooks per year 32.7% were frequent buyers who bought 5 or more ebooks in 2014 age is one of the main differentiators when it comes to digital reading preference While older readers are generally less interested in digital reading younger readers seem more willing to embrace ebooks and digital formats As more and more digital natives enter the group being polled in the Allensbach Media Market Analysis Ingrid Süßmann is an IT Project Manager at Droemer Knaur in Munich She previously worked as Author Relations Manager for neobooks and has held various positions at Random House Germany and Carlsen Verlag In addition to her work in book publishing Ingrid is also a certified beekeeper and fan of baby donkeys Tags: , , , , Get the most important global markets news at your fingertips with a Bloomberg.com subscription. Parties must clear a 5% electoral threshold in Germany to win seats in the national parliament or at least three of the party's candidates must win their local elections outright Germany will hold a snap national election on February 23 following the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-way coalition the CDU/CSU leads in our polling aggregate by 9 points over the AfD The far-right AfD has gained 3.7 points since June 2024 the current leaders in the national parliament have lost 12.3 points since the last federal election “big-tent” parties: Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the opposition conservatives an alliance of the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party with smaller parties such as the Greens and far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) gaining ground Greens and AfD are all fielding candidates for chancellor Also running are the pro-market Free Democrats (FDP) the far-left Linke and the leftist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) who are all at risk of missing the 5% threshold to make it into parliament Polling data from walrecht.de Our poll aggregate for parties is estimated using local polynomial regression which is a method used to fit a curve through individual poll points The margin of error for individual polls is estimated from the poll’s sample size and the number of eligible German voters reported by the German Federal Statistical Office © 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved The end of the world appears to have been postponed indefinitely China has lifted its pandemic restrictions and reopened its ports many companies have readjusted and diversified their supply chains So is it now time to exit crisis mode and concentrate again on day-to-day business The desire to leave crises quickly behind and to look ahead is part of the fixed managerial mindset But what if the exceptional case becomes the general rule many sectors are resuming a successful path many DAX companies are posting record dividends and the order books are full through to April But the position could dampen down by the mid-year point The need for restructuring is likely to increase in the short term That much is also indicated by the latest PwC CEO Survey1: 73% of the CEOs surveyed are working on the assumption that global economic growth will contract in the coming year The last time CEOs were that pessimistic was 12 years ago the general population in Germany is more pessimistic about the future than at any time since the 1950s2 50% of German engineering companies are currently in a financially strained situation But is the conventional restructuring toolbox still the right choice in times of disruptive transformation Today’s generation of managers have spent the majority of their careers in a golden decade of growth and negative interest rates and have only experienced time- or regionally-limited crises the situation in their core markets was governed by very favorable conditions But the current poly- or multi-crises demand that CEOs develop new crisis management strategies  ̶  and a new view of transformation The transformation with which today’s companies are reacting to the disruptions to their business model can only be successful if it is understood not as a process Transformation as a mindset means a constant willingness to innovate to be agile and to question one’s own actions and ways of doing business Anyone failing to internalize this attitude quickly loses out we have identified four drivers that we see as the basis for transformation as a mindset CEOs should therefore resist the temptation – whether driven by the zeitgeist or by necessity – to simply delegate the crisis to a Chief Transformation Officer a passion for taking an active role in shaping the business model and a strong but compact team of decision takers Overcoming a crisis is part of the supreme discipline and core tasks of the CEO delegating corporate strategic challenges to a (newly-created) executive post doesn’t necessarily mean that the problem is solved announcing ambitious targets does not mean that they will be achieved Churchill reputedly advised “never waste a good crisis” in which the familiar temporarily loses its validity And crises are a window in time in which you can and must rethink things Those who do not allow themselves to be overwhelmed by the shock of the crises instead asserting the will to shape things But it is even better if you constantly question the processes and aims of your own organization ahead of the crisis In German Buch News by Ingrid SüßmannJuly 14 Below are some key findings for 2015 on German reading habits: Close to 7 out of 10 Germans (68.7%) are interested in books; 3 out of 10 (29.6%) are especially interested 71.2% were interested in books and 31.8% claimed to be very interested in books Although the number of people interested in books dropped 44.6% of the German population read a book at least once a week This number has been declining constantly over the last two years: 46.9% called themselves regular readers in 2014 Avid readers — those who read daily — make up 14.1% of Germans whereas readers who only read sporadically — less than once a month — were at 37.7% The group of occasional readers has grown significantly over the last year: in 2014 58.3% of Germans bought a book in the last 12 months a figure that has been steady over the last years: in 2014 and 2013 59% of Germans reported buying at least one book a year women read far more than men: 54% of the women read a book at least once a week The same can be said about book buyers: women between 30 and 44 years old are the group buying the most books A solid quarter (25.1%) of Germans don’t buy books at all Book buying in general seems to be correlated to age: the older you get the less likely you will buy a book; 28% of Germans over 60 years of age didn’t buy any books in 2015 While the majority of people polled (38.6%) said they read both paperback and hardcover books the gap between either/or readers is much bigger: 27.9% prefer waiting to buy the cheaper paperback while 8.5% would rather buy hardcover books availability of other entertainment options it seems that plenty of Germans still choose to buy and read books Tags: , , A recent survey shows that more than half of Germans disagree with the country's migration policy and have little confidence in the current government The specter of more wars and another Trump presidency are also fueling anxiety 5 min Share The photo shows Ukrainian refugees arriving at Berlin’s main train station It is an image that symbolizes Germans' fears: They feel unsafe because of the growing number of migrants in the country and they are worried because of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East Jens Schicke / Imago Security isn’t everything but without security everything is nothing: If this saying is true then Germany is likely in a bad mood at the moment People are feeling increasingly threatened particularly by continuing high levels of migration and the rise of extremist groups and they are also worried about the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East This is the result of the Security Report 2024 The study by the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research on behalf of the Center for Strategy and Higher Leadership was published on Jan East Germans' perception of security also differs significantly from that of their West German compatriots According to the survey, 65% of citizens did not agree with the government's refugee policy, while only 12% supported it. In addition, Germans clearly lack confidence that the current government will get migration issues under control: Only 4% expressed great confidence, while 42% had no confidence at all and 44% were skeptical. One in three respondents feel less safe in their place of residence than before due to the refugee situation, a feeling which is even more pronounced in eastern Germany. When asked what Germany should do if the U.S. were to reduce its military support for Ukraine, the results were mixed. One third of respondents voted in favor of Germany continuing to provide arms, while a further 20% voted for an expansion of arms deliveries. However, 31% would follow the (possible) American example and also reduce support. Germans' doubts about the United States are not only growing on the question of military support for Ukraine. According to the report, Donald Trump's success in the primaries has led to increased doubts in Germany about America as a reliable ally. Currently 39% of citizens still believe that the alliance with the U.S. is stable, while 29% express doubts. Because of increasing insecurity in the world, more than two thirds of Germans are in favor of higher investment in the German armed forces and police. At the same time, 60% of citizens think that there has been no progress in equipping the armed forces. What's more, 39% no longer believe that progress will be made. The majority of Germans are wondering where and how the «turnaround» proclaimed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz is actually taking place, says Klaus Schweinsberg, co-editor of the study. Public support for investment in the Bundeswehr is at an all-time high, but the government is not taking advantage of this tail wind: «This is not only politically foolish, but irresponsible in view of the real threats from Russia.» ShareSaveLeadershipLeadership StrategiesThe Corona Crisis: The Rothschilds? Bill Gates? The Search For A Scapegoat Has BegunByRainer Zitelmann, Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. The psychology of success and wealth and the power of capitalism.Mar 23, 2020, 07:00am EDTShareSaveThis article is more than 5 years old.As scientists attempt to understand the corona virus, outlandish conspiracy theories are already ... More spreading. It is almost a law of human nature: In any crisis, natural disaster or epidemic, sooner or later people will begin to search for the “guilty parties” and events will quickly become politicized. Emerging crises are usually not taken all that seriously at first. Of course, at some point, panic will break out, but at least initially, the primary focus is on getting to grips with the immediate consequences of a disaster—which is precisely what we are seeing right now with the corona crisis. In some cases, disasters were also interpreted as punishment for sinful actions. For example, in 1542, after an earthquake, the city of Florence issued strict edicts against sodomy and blasphemy. A modern variant of this philosophy can be seen in the climate religion: whenever there’s a flood, drought or storm, yes, in relation to any extreme natural event, climate activists claim that “Mother Nature” is striking back because we have treated her so badly. People Rarely Understand Complex Cause And Effect Relationships 72.2 % of the German-speaking population over the age of 14 likes to listen very much or likes to listen to rock and pop music. In 2022, rock/pop remains to be the most popular music genre among a total of 14 genre categories whose preferences are surveyed by the Allensbach Demoscopic Institute's annual ‘Media Market Analysis’ (AWA). As in 2005, rock and pop remains particularly popular in the age groups up to 49 years, but since then it has also gained strong preference in the age groups 50-59 years, 60-69 years as well as 70+ years. Besides rock/pop, hip-hop and rap as well as techno, house and dance are high on the popularity scale among teenagers and young adults. Oldies and evergreens are the second most popular genre category in Germany, with a particularly strong preference in the age groups 50-59 years, 60-69 years and 70+ years. German Schlager as well as Volksmusik and brass band music are also liked mainly in the older age groups, though the appreciation trend for these genres is declining among older people. Operas, operettas also tended to lose some of their followers among the older age groups. The preference for the category ‘classical music, piano recitals, symphonies’ increased by 4.5 % over the last ten years in the 70+ age group, with slight decreases in the younger population. The figures suggest that the age cohorts maintain their favourite music over the long term. This is particularly clear for rock and pop music, where preferences extend into higher age groups over time. Wie bereits bei den Teenagern vor 10 und vor 20 Jahren ist für rund 12 % der heute 14- bis 19-Jährigen Klassik eine der bevorzugten Musikrichtungen Musicals hören gegenwärtig 22 % der Teenager sehr gern bzw auch noch gern – das Genre war vor 20 Jahren noch bei 35 % der damals 14- bis 19-Jährigen beliebt The data are conducted in a representative sample (based on quota sampling procedure) of the German-speaking population above the age of 14 (2022: 70.601 million people) Every year more than 20,000 persons (2022: 23,015) living in private households in Germany are polled at their main place of residence The poll uses face-to-face oral interviews Compiled by the German Music Information Centre from various issues of the Allensbacher Markt- und Werbeträgeranalyse (AWA) published annually by the Allensbach Demoscopic Institute klassische Musik und Opern sind bei Frauen deutlich beliebter als bei Männern Hardrock und Heavy Metal trifft häufiger den Musikgeschmack von Männern Besuche von Rock/Pop-Festivals und Konzerten sind besonders bei Jugendlichen und jungen Erwachsenen beliebt Aber auch bei älteren Menschen nimmt das Eventinteresse zu Für den Besuch von Jazzfestivals interessiert sich ein kleinerer Teil der Menschen ab 14 Jahre Ein Zusammenhang zeigt sich zwischen Eventinteresse und der Schul- und Berufsbildung Jede*r Zehnte in Deutschland hat Interesse am Besuch von klassischen Musikfestivals Besonders ausgeprägt ist das Interesse bei über 70-Jährigen und bei Menschen mit abgeschlossenem Studium Knapp zwei Drittel der Bevölkerung ab 14 Jahre besuchen Musikveranstaltungen Menschen mit Hauptschulbildung haben seltener Teilhabe an musikalischer Live-Kultur Klassik und Schlager/Volksmusik eher ältere Menschen; Rock und Pop dominieren die Beliebtheitsskala Unter Klassikfans gibt es die meisten aktiv Musizierenden die größte Besucherreichweite und die teuersten Tickets Operetten und Konzerte der klassichen Musik waren deutlich günstiger Musical taste is linked to generational affiliation while there are indications of a declining trend in classical music Der Tonträgermarkt wurde in den letzten zehn Jahren stark durch die Digitalisierung geprägt Dies zeigt sich anhand von Umsatzentwicklungen