Ride a bike south from Munich city centre along the Isar rivers recently renaturalised

shores stony expanses that protect the Bavarian capital from flooding on rainy days and
invite picnickers on sunny ones cross a shady island with its own beer garden, turn up a
hill, and youll soon find yourself at the practice grounds of a football club that helped
mould eight of the players who won the orld !up for "ermany#
$n selected weekdays during the professional football season, a scattering of fans gather
around the perimetre of the pitch to watch Bayern Munichs senior team practice in the
open# In a few months, youll be able to spot Manuel %euer, Bastian &chweinsteiger, '(r)me
Boateng, *oni +roos, Mario ",t-e, .hilipp /ahm or *homas M0ller doing s1uats# 2rom
3445 to 3466, Miroslav +lose would have been there, too#
But on other days you can catch the youth team, part of a system that most experts credit
with &undays victory in Bra-il# "ermany revamped its youth development programme after
the national team turned in a dismal performance at the 7uropean !hampionships in 3444#
In the following years, the "erman 2ootball 8ssociation invested 96 billion in coaches,
facilities and workshops and rethought the "erman approach to the game and in doing so
created the generation of fit, flexible, creative players who da--led fans at the orld !up#
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*hat feels typical of todays "ermany# &pot a problem a weak national football team, a city
exposed to run:off from the 8lps analyse it, solve it# *he pattern extends from home life to
business to geopolitics# here 8merican working women can only dream of a system that
encourages men to share more of the burdens of family life, "ermany has replaced
maternity leave with ;parent time<, offering up to 6= months paid leave to couples who
both take time off after their childs birth#
here 2rench unions and companies go at each others throats over working conditions,
"ermany has loosened labour laws >ust enough to encourage hiring, helping push down
unemployment to record lows today# 8nd where the ?+ waxes nostalgic about its
manufacturing past, "ermany which faced the same market forces over the past =4 years
that prompted Britain to shift towards a service economy today boasts higher export
figures for high:tech products than any country on earth#
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&ome of this progress has only happened in the past decade or so, and even then, the rest of
the world is often tempted to brush off "ermanys successes or let its dark past
overshadow them# But the challenges of globalisation, global warming and a global
recession are causing many to look again# ;*he truth is that there is much to like and
admire about "ermany,< wrote the ?+ /abour politician &tewart ood in
the Guardian recently# ;8nd whisper it softly there is a lot we can learn from them too#<
*ake environmentalismA green, do:gooding "ermans have long been at the sharp end of
>okes, often for good reason# *heir water conservation efforts were so enthusiastic in the
6BB4s and early 3444s that by 344B sewage systems were suffering from too little water
running through them# But today there isnt a government on the planet that wouldnt want
its own citi-ens following suit# &imilarly, the Mittelstand is the envy of the western world
and beyond# The Economist reported last week that officials from &outh +orea, Iran and
7gypt have been in touch with the "erman trade body for mid:si-ed companies, asking for
advice on how to emulate its members success# In fact, the "erman model is already being
exported in very concrete waysA several "erman companies with manufacturing facilities
abroad have decided to address local skills shortages by recreating overseas versions of
"ermanys apprenticeship system, with future workers recruited young and given a mix of
classroom and on:the:>ob training that both prepares them for solid middle:class >obs and
inspires loyalty# Its proved so successful that, in the ?&, 8merican firms are following suit,
and in !hina, the government is adapting "ermanys apprentice training exam for its own
young people#
$ne hundred years after the start of the first world war, the society that self:immolated
between 6B6= and 6B=C and spent six decades slowly inching back to a state of grace is
experiencing a strange turn# *he "erman way of doing things that emerged out of the ashes
has not only been deemed acceptable neither hated nor feared it is also emerging as the
best path forward for 7urope, the west, the world# ;"ermany has become increasingly
comfortable in its own skin,< says &tephen "reen, author of Reluctant Meister: How
Germanys Past is Shaping its European Future# ;*he last thing "ermany would want is to
be thought of as a dominant or hegemonistic figure, but it is becoming more and more
influential#<
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here Britains dominance during the 6Bth century had to do with its colonial reach, and
the 8merican century grew out of military might and cultural hegemony, "ermanys
ascendance in the global imagination is more likely to stem from the peaceable export of
political and business models that have proven remarkably successful in their mother
country# hat are those modelsE
&imon inder, who wrote a book about "ermany in 3464 and one about the @apsburg
7mpire last year, argues the "erman way of doing things stems from a tradition a pre:
6B6= tradition of good governmentA ;In large parts of "ermany, particularly the old self:
governing little city states such as @amburg, 2rankfurt and /ubeck, there is a strong
tradition of cooperation, of an assumed community of interest between rulers and the
ruled, of taxes and services being intimately tangled#< inder says there were exceptions to
this model, of course, but they by and large gave way to ;1uite a broad base of individuals
working together at least to improve things<#
!ombine that with the intimate :experience of two disastrous experiments in top:down rule
%a-ism and !ommunism and a devotion to localism and accountability prevails# *hat
environment encourages people to change things they dont like# If the 8merican dream is
about individuals moving up in the world a headlong thrust to be part of the 6F the
"erman dream might have more to do with individuals changing it, ensuring that life isnt
too bad for the BBF#
hether this ideal of a well:run, democratic, Gcan:do country can be exported is another
1uestion, and early tests are yielding mixed results# *he first was the 7uro-one crisis# By
dint of its economys si-e and success, "ermany emerged reluctantly as 7uropes leader
following the credit crisis, recession and sovereign debt crisis and reviews of its time in
the hot seat have not been kind# *he austerity measures Berlin insisted on for the region,
and particularly for indebted peripheral 7uro-one countries, such as "reece and &pain,
remain controversial both for the hardship they dealt individuals and the likelihood they
are tamping growth#
%o one is arguing that the economies on the 7uro-one periphery had been well run, but
critics say "ermany cant insist on its neighbours changing their ways without also
changing its own namely, its habit over the past decade of running huge budget surpluses
thanks to strong exports and weak domestic consumption# "ood housekeeping, some might
say, but hard on trading partners attempting to boost their own export power particularly
when they share the same currency#
*he result of "ermans anaemic spending and ferocious selling, according to the ?&
*reasury, has been ;a deflationary bias< low growth and high unemployment ;for the
euro area, as well as for the world economy<#
inder sees "ermany in a bind similar to that of colonial powers like Britain and 2rance in
the 6Bth century, when occupation of, say, 7gypt was more about debt management than
any sort of land grab# hile "ermany has hardly occupied Ireland or "reece, the parallels
are evident, says inder# ;*he national government resents correctly resents being told
what to do by the external power, and yet its that external powers money thats being
used#<
Meanwhile, there is little delight in "ermany over its dominion# ;*he last thing "ermans
want is to even have a view on these issues,< says inder# In terms of non:7uro-one
7uropean relations, !hancellor 8ngela Merkel has tried to keep the ?+ engaged in 7?
politics rather than withdraw the favoured option of many people both within David
!amerons !onservative party and outside it# In doing so, shes won some praise for seeking
a balanced 7? in which the ?+s free:market tendencies serve as an important
counterweight to more protectionist impulses elsewhere#
?lrich &peck, a visiting scholar at !arnegie 7urope, argued in a blog post last month that
"ermanys leadership of 7urope is as a consensus:builderH if it were to use bullying tactics
;an anti:"erman coalition would form 1uickly<# 'osef 'offe, publisher:editor of Die eitA
;Merkel applies her domestic model check how the winds are blowing, go with the flow
to foreign policy#< *hat counts not >ust for 7uropean wrangling, but also when it comes to
the current crisis in ?kraine, where Merkel is merely ;manoeuvring between +iev and
.utin<#
*his is in part why 'offe re>ects the notion of any forthcoming ;"erman century<# ;*o be
able to act strategically is the condition sine 1ua non of any GIJ !entury# "ermany is not,
nor wants to be, a strategic actor# 8t heart, it is a G"reta "arbo .ower# ho famously saidA
GI want to be alone#<
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In business, however, the rest of the world keeps on knocking# hen the kingdom of &audi
8rabia decided to build the worlds biggest clock on the worlds tallest clock tower, it had
every reason to seek out designers close to homeA the setting was Mecca, after all, which
only Muslims are permitted to visit# But this was a pro>ect that re1uired specialists, and so a
meeting was arranged at a "eneva hotel between a representative of the &audi royal family
and three men from !alw, a small town K4km west of &tuttgart# *he "erman company,
.errot *urmuhren, opened its doors in 6LM4, employed @erman @esse for a period and is
today run by a fifth generation of the founding family# 8 world leader in ;tower clocks,
electronic bell ringing machines, automated carillon mechanisms as well as all other related
clock and clockwork technology< it won the &audi contract#
*his is the definition of Mittelstand successA to be a world leader in a niche market, the Ggo:
to company even if the customers are half:way around the world, a ;hidden champion< Nin
the "erman catchphraseO that benefits from globalisation rather than being washed away
by it# *o be part of the Mittelstand is also to be capable of employing C4 to C44 people in a
small town, meaning :talented youth neednt head to the big city to find success# Its
another way power this time economic is decentralised# *he success of the Mittelstand,
which generates the bulk of corporate revenues in "ermany, is deeply intertwined with the
countrys support for manufacturing# *he federal and state governments help fund research
often through %"$s such as the 2raunhofer Institute, with a research budget of 93 billion
that small and medium:si-ed businesses can use to maintain and improve the 1uality of
their products#
8dmirers of this model include the ?+, where politicians are trying to stoke the countrys
much:diminished manufacturing sector, and 2rance, which has traditionally poured
support into large ;national champions< but recently set up a bank to direct finance toward
mid:si-ed companies# More striking, perhaps, is the interest the "erman model is getting
from developing countries# ;Made in "ermany< was a label created in Britain in the late
6Bth century as "ermany moved from mass manufacturing to advanced manufacturing# *he
tag became a badge of honour# !hina may hope that, if it borrows from the "erman model,
;Made in !hina< will follow the same path#
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If there were policies not worth copying from modern "ermany they were, for many years,
those related to immigration# &tarting in the 6BM4s and 6B54s, when the domestic workforce
alone proved insufficient to support the countrys ;economic miracle<, waves of *urks
moved to "ermany as ;guest workers<, and many wound up staying leading to a three
million:strong population of people of *urkish origin living in "ermany today# 8nd yet,
says Demetrios .apademetriou, head of the Migration .olicy Institute 7urope, for four
decades politicians insisted that "ermany was ;not an immigration country<# ;I would sit in
the office of the interior minister in Bonn and discuss this issue, and successive ministers
over the years would say to me, G8re you nutsE Jou want us to become like the ?&E<
*hat changed fundamentally soon after Merkel took office in late 344C# ;In the same way
that we say only %ixon could open up !hina, Merkel takes over and the government goes
about very methodically changing the way official "ermany deals with the *urkish:origin
population,< says .apademetriou#
;*he line Gwe are not an immigration country was eliminated from the language of the
conservatives from 344C to 3464, and this created an environment that has allowed
"ermany to open up dramatically to immigration#<
*he years from 344C to 3464 might have caught "ermany up with its 7uropean peers, but
its the time since that make it something of a model# ?nlike countries such as Denmark,
the ?+ and !anada, "ermany never adopted a points:based system for immigration, where
people with certain skills usually determined by higher degrees are permitted to enter
with the idea that theyll naturally find >obs#
It avoided the problems associated with this approach that many immigrants are forced
to take positions for which they are over1ualified because their credentials are not
recognised in their new countries, or have trouble finding work altogether during
downturns by waiting until it was clear that domestic employers needed more workers,
and then smoothing the immigrants paths#
;*heyve taken 7? directives on immigration seriously whether its work permits or
recognising foreign credentials and imported them into their own legislation and theyre
doing better in these regards than any other 7uropean country,< says .apademetriou#
Joung &paniards and Italians moving to "ermany because of the economic crisis are having
a better experience than previous generations did#
8nd if its leading 7urope in these areas, it almost goes without saying that "ermanys
policies are better than those in the ?&, a traditional ;immigration country< but one that, in
.apademetrious view, has never in the past C4 years been more confused about
immigration than it is today#
$n the ground, however, there is still a way to goH the "erman national football team may
boast players from a range of backgrounds but "ermanys ability to build community
among different immigrant groups still pales in comparison to 8mericas, for example# ;*he
sameyness can be 1uite stifling,< says inder# ;Its about body language,< says
.apademetriou# ;Immigrants know whether they are part of the society or not#<
7lsewhere, too, the picture is inevitably less rosy than at first appears# "erman women are
still under:represented in politics and business compared with %ordic countries# *he
countrys support for solar power looks from some angles as if its done more to fill the
pockets of solar:cell installers than create a sustainable model for green energy# *he
changes to labour law have created a two:class system of >obs, where new positions offer
workers much less security than old ones#
*he act of perfecting, then, rather than the act of having perfected is the appeal of the
"erman modelA the sense that change is possible, unlike in other parts of the est, where
political infighting shuts down governments, or resentment of centralised power prompts
secessionist movements, oranger over immigration and unemployment wins elections for
far:right politicians#
@ow can the rest of us get a piece of that feelingE inder lives in /ondon and has no plans
to move to Berlin# But he thinks its time for some degree of blatant imitationA ;If you look
at the 6Bth century, all 7uropean countries wanted to be like Britain# *hey go through the
most ama-ing hoops# 7veryone dresses like British people, theres a kind of obsession,
because Britain is viewed as having the middle:class system that allows people to progress#
8t this point it seems to me blindingly obvious that we ought to >ust copy "ermanys
success# *heres no shame, theres a long tradition of it, >ust as weve been copied in the
past#<
Correction: This article originally stated that German women are under-
represented in business and politics compared with the US and UK. This was
inaccurate and has been removed - the US and UK both have a lower
proportion of women in their legislatures.