Germany

GERMANY SPECIAL REPORT

OCTOBER 27, 2015

25 YEARS OF UNITY A chronology of spectacular events since the breathtaking reunification of East and West

GERMANY

SPECIAL REPORT

OCTOBER 27, 2015

CONTENTS 14 Economy

Thanks to its prudent investments in the future, Germany’s economy remains in good shape despite a difficult international economic environment.

24 Industry

20 Foreign Trade

Hanover Messe 2015 showcases developments in ‘Industry 4.0’ – the German government’s hightech strategy aiming to digitize manufacturing and create intelligent factories – since its launch in 2011.

Germany’s trade with the Asia-Pacific region makes up roughly 15% of all German foreign trade, with the proportion rising steadily.

30 Education

With more than 400 universities boasting an outstanding reputation globally, Germany offers students excellent opportunities in research and teaching.

42 Health Tourism

39 Research

With over 70,000 health travelers visiting the country, Germany stands in the fourth place among the leading destinations for health tourism worldwide.

Germany has bagged more Nobel Prizes in sciences than any other nation for most of the past century, and the raw output of scientific research in the country consistently ranks among the world’s best.

Supplement team General Manager Mohd. Allam Ali

Layout & Design A.K. Vinay Kumar

Editor Abdulwahid Mohammad Jan Business Manager Haridev Sharma

Circulation Manager Adel Hammam Printed by Raya Commercial Printing Press

AGM Marketing James John

Graphic Sunil Baby

Advertising Office Gulf Times/Arrayah Building, C Ring Road, P.O. Box 533, Doha Qatar Tel: (00974) 44466620/53 Fax: (00974) 44310992 email: advr@gulf-times.com Cover photo by Virginia Duran

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Bilateral Ties

Unified Germany inspires the world Message from Hans-Udo Muzel

Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the State of Qatar Dear readers of the “Gulf Times”, 2015 is a very special year indeed, as Germany is commemorating 25 years of reunification. In October, Germans worldwide remember the peaceful reunification of their country with joy and gratitude. We are grateful to all those who supported the peaceful German reunification, thus putting an end to animosities and to the era of Cold War between East and West. Much has been achieved in the past 25 years. The unified Germany we see today inspires people around the world because of its commitment to democracy, human rights, and prosperity. People in Germany have worked together to make the great task of integrating East and West a veritable success story. I hope that Germany’s exceptional path of bridging historical gaps that – at one point in time seemed unbridgeable and of settling issues that once seemed irresolvable, can serve as a valuable example for other regions in the world.

German-Qatari relations are a cornerstone of Germany’s relations with the Arab world in general and with the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council in particular. There is an amazing spirit of mutual trust and understanding in all fields of cooperation and at all levels. Looking back at more than 40 years of diplomatic relations between Qatar and Germany, the State of Qatar has become an exceptionally important partner for Germany in the MENA region. Qatar is one of the most dynamic countries in the Gulf region. German companies and institutions in many fields are eager to develop activities in Qatar as well as with their Qatari partners. Germany, the largest European economy and Qatar, the new economic powerhouse in the Gulf – are in a position to complement each other. Germany is valued in the region as an important and reliable partner, both in politics and in economic and commercial affairs.

The large number of official visits in the spheres of politics, business and culture, in recent years, bear witness to this. Frequent talks on the highest political level are indicative of the significance both sides attach to the furthering of bilateral relations. Last year, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, has visited Germany at the invitation of Federal President Joachim Gauck and Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel.

Foreign Minister Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier has held bilateral talks on various occasions with his Qatari counterpart, Foreign Minister Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah, in Berlin and

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Doha as well as in the context of international conferences. In 2015, Qatar emerged as an important partner of Germany’s G7 presidency.

In his capacity as Chairman-in-Office of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Foreign Minister Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah participated in the G7 Ministerial Outreach Meeting on the margins of the 70th UN General Assembly in New York, convened by the current G7 Chairperson Foreign Minister Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Sigmar Gabriel, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, accompanied by a large business delegation, visited Doha in April 2015 on the occasion of a meeting of the GermanQatari Joint Economic Commission. Numerous business delegations from both countries have participated in high-level events and meetings in Germany and Qatar. Further delegation visits and business meetings will follow in late 2015 and in the following year.

2017 is earmarked as the “Qatar-German Cultural Year” Many exciting events are planned, both in Berlin and Doha.

This lively exchange on the official level is flanked by the increasing number of German expatriates who call Qatar their home, as well as the rising number of visitors from Qatar who travel to Germany for educational purposes, leisure, business or medical treatment.

The Exchange between Germany and Qatar in the business sector is growing rapidly.

German products and brands are well known worldwide for their outstanding and sustainable quality. Some of the leading companies are represented in this special report. We are very proud of our achievements in the economic sector and in research and development (R & B), but we are also mindful of our responsibilities to maintain the momentum. An impressive number of German companies and research institutions offer their products, services and expertise in the framework of major infrastructural projects and impressive business ventures in Qatar or have entered into a partnership with Qatari enterprises. The German Business Council Qatar (GCBQ), which was established in 2002, provides a solid foundation for a mutually trustworthy and fruitful cooperation. Moreover, the office of German Industry and Commerce Qatar (AHK) is another well-established contact point for doing business with Germany. The interest in reciprocal long-term economic and financial collaboration is underlined by Qatar’s impressive investment activities in Germany.

In the course of intensifying relations,

Ambassador Hans-Udo Muzel represents German interests in the State of Qatar. He and his team work to foster and deepen GermanQatari relations in the political, economic and cultural spheres. cultural exchange between Germany and Qatar is increasingly improving. Following German reunification, Germany’s capital Berlin ceased to be a divided city and rose above the East-West divide – to become an international laboratory for creative minds where the future is close enough to touch. The mix of people of all walks of life, its cosmopolitan character, its buzzing arts scene, its spirit and its youth makes Berlin a special destination which is certainly worthwhile visiting again and again. Doha has also developed into a cultural hub in the Gulf with impressive cultural institutions, festivals, museums and modern art galleries.

Founded in 2008, the German International School in Doha (GISD) is an important partner for German-Qatari cooperation in the field of education and culture. In addition, the Goethe-Institute offers a wide range of German language courses in Qatar through a partner institution (German Language Centre Doha).

Furthermore, an independent Qatari school has begun teaching the German language to its students. German-Qatari relations are also a success story in the field of sports. Thanks to its excellent sporting facilities, Doha has become a sought-after destination for German sports professionals. Several German Bundesliga (premier league) clubs organise training camps in Qatar. In October 2015, Germany will send more than 40 young athletes to the IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, another fantastic initiative of the Qatari government and sports organizations in Qatar.

Germany has a lot to offer – this is the message of the “Special Report Germany 2015”, published by the “Gulf Times” to mark the Day of German Unity in 2015. I am very grateful indeed to the editor and staff of the “Gulf Times” for this initiative. They have aimed to cover as many areas as possible in order to provide a compact overview of the diversity of our country.

I trust this supplement will give you lots of ideas for your next visit to Germany.

Herzlich willkommen!

Qatar and Germany stronger together Message from Abdulrahman Mohamed Al-Khulaifi Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Germany

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he 3rd of October is a historic date – not only for Germans but also for the world and of course also for Qatar.

Germany took on the challenge to reunite, and end its division which lasted four decades. And what a challenge this was: economically and financially but especially mentally with the aim to retain its unity, no matter what may this cost.

25 years later, United Germany has grown together and become stronger, expanding its leading role in the European Union as well as in the world. It takes on today´s various challenges. Germany has played a key role in the European financial crisis.

Despite heavy criticism, German leaders have stayed on course and pursued a political agenda it considered to be right. As Qataris, we have made similar experiences with unbalanced public presentation. Leadership means remaining on course even in difficult times. This determination and endurance is something I truly admire in Germany and it is exactly what we need when coping with the problems of today’s world.

The most pressing of these is the refugee crisis. Millions of people are fleeing their home countries due to war and hunger.

Many of them are trying to fight their way through to Europe. Here Germany and in particular German Chancellor Angela Merkel have shown leadership, humanity and great flexibility to improve the lives of so many people. For this approach, Germany is admired around the world, especially by the international press.

Qatar is very proud to have such a strong and determined partner in Germany. Together we develop concepts to tackle the refugee crisis and to ensure stability in the region.

Just recently, we held a joint conference on the refugee situation and discussed adequate measures to improve the situation. Financial assistance is important, but not enough. We believe that practical steps taken in the region are also necessary. We made decisive steps forward to tackle this issue and to defuse the situation.

H.E. Abdulrahman Mohamed Al Khulaifi with falconers at a function in the Embassy of the State of Qatar in Berlin.

Qatar and Germany have faced and overcome some common challenges.

However, these challenges did not drive us apart. Just the opposite: They even brought us closer. Today I am happy to say that Qatar and Germany are linked by mutual friendship and broad political and economic partnership.

Strong economic ties are only one field of fruitful cooperation between our two countries. Many German companies are operating in Qatar and vice versa, Qatar is a huge investor in German companies. Thus, both countries contribute to the prosperity of one another, creating jobs and realizing the full economic potential.

Like the reunited Germany, Qatar is a relatively young country with a huge development through natural resources. My country is the worlds` leading producer and supplier of LNG. Our production of energy is gigantic, technologically superior and reliable at any time. Qatar is also known for its ambitious and speedy development of infrastructure. The commitment of many

German companies like Siemens, Solarworld, Hochtief, Dorsch and Herrenknecht, to name just a few, is helpful in delivering these projects.

The fast and successful development of Qatar as a country is a huge challenge, maybe comparable with the reunification of the two German states. When facing tasks as big as these, mistakes can hardly be avoided.

And yes, Qatar, just like Germany, has made mistakes during this process. But we learn from mistakes and we always work hard to make the necessary improvements.

It was October 3, 1990 that made this strong friendship between a united Germany and Qatar possible. Therefore, this is a historic date for our countries.

Together, we celebrate this event with the people of Germany and look back at their achievements. Only as partners, we can ensure a bright future for our peoples.

Let us work together for a better future for our Qatar and Germany. Together we are stronger.

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German Unity

Germany has a responsibility to help shape the future international order Message from Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs

25 years of German unity. 3 October 2015 is an occasion for us Germans to celebrate, but also to look back with gratitude.

Back when the Helsinki Final Act was signed 40 years ago, we Germans and our neighbours were already witnessing the advent of a new era in European relations.

Together we hoped for stability and peace. The process of détente between East and West paved the way towards ending the Cold War. We are deeply grateful for the trust afforded to us then by Germany’s neighbours and partners. It is only thanks to this trust and your agreement that our country could overcome its division and that Europe could grow together once again.

We are grateful to the brave people in the former GDR and eastern Europe who brought the Wall down with their desire for peace and their civic courage.

In 1990, German reunification was spurred on by something that still applies today – not only to Germany but to the whole world: democracy and the rule of law are the guarantors of peace and stability. The reunification of Germany taught us that governments depend on the trust of their citizens. They who protect fundamental rights win people’s trust and can enjoy full economic and social development, they can develop and maintain trusting relations with their neighbours and partners.

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The reunification of Germany 25 years ago brought with it the hope of a more peaceful and stable future. Yet what we’re experiencing today is a host of crises and conflicts which to someone of my generation seem unprecedented in their intensity and complexity. War, terror and violence – from the Middle East to the Sahel – are forcing thousands upon thousands of people to flee. At the same time, the most serious conflict since the end of the Cold War is smouldering in eastern Europe.

Yet the storms must not destroy what we have built up over many years: namely the vision of a peaceful order in Europe and beyond the continent, based on dialogue, trust and security. This is what will serve as Germany’s compass when we assume chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in 2016.

Germany has a responsibility to help shape the future international order. In doing so, it is clear to us that only one thing can provide us with a realistic and legitimate framework for our politics – European unity. Following two World Wars and the division of Germany this is the only convincing way to organise policy at the heart of Europe.

German responsibility today – 25 years after the reunification of Germany and Europe – does not only mean taking responsibility for your own country but also for the joint European project, for peace and cohesion in Europe.

German Unity

25 German years Germany celebrates the 25th anniversary of its reunification and 25 years of convergence between east and west.

The Bundestag, the Federal Parliament, in session at the Reichstag, the Federal Parliament building.

1990 to 1996 – from reunification to the redesign of Potsdam Platz.

1990 – Germany is one country again. The Treaty on German Unity comes into force on 3 October: the former GDR (East Germany) joins the territory covered by the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Earlier, the Two Plus Four Treaty between the foreign ministers of the two German states and the victorious powers of the Second World War had paved the way for reunification.

1991 – New seat of government. The constitutive session of the first all-German Bundestag (parliament) is held in Berlin’s Reichstag building in January. Subsequent sessions move back to Bonn.

On 20 June, the Bundestag votes for Berlin as the new seat of parliament and government. Eight years later, parliamentarians finally move into the Reichstag building.

1992 – Coming to terms with the past. Citizens gain access to the mountains of files compiled by the GDR’s Ministry for State Security (Stasi) after decades of spying on the population. Joachim Gauck, Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records, is inundated with applications to inspect files.

1993 – Aufbau Ost. The Solidarity Pact East (later Solidarity Pact I)

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becomes law on 13 March. It allocates a total of 94.5 billion euros until the end of 2004 for “economic reconstruction in the east” (in other words, the former GDR, now the five new German states). From 2005 to 2019 the Solidarity Pact II pledges a further 156 billion euros to the new states.

1994 – Farewell to the Allies. To great applause from the population of Berlin, the troops of the Western Allies hold a final joint parade on 18 June; their presence in the capital ends officially on 8 September. The last Russian troops also leave Berlin – and take their leave by singing a marching song in German.

1995 – Spectacular art event. Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrap Berlin’s Reichstag building for two weeks in the summer. The happening attracts approximately five million people: a cultural highlight for the reunited city.

1996 – New Berlin. The complete redesign of Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz makes progress. But before world-class architects like Renzo Piano and Arata Isozaki complete their work, Daniel Barenboim conducts a Ballet of the Cranes on 26 October.

1998 to 2004 – from the Wall Memorial in Berlin to EU enlargement.

1998 – Wall memorial. A monument to Germany’s partition and the victims of the Berlin Wall is opened on 13 August as the first part of the Berlin Wall Memorial. Two steel structures enclose a section of the Wall. A documentation centre is added to the memorial in 1999, the Chapel of Reconciliation in 2000.

1999 – Capital of Culture. Weimar, city of those princes among poets Goethe and Schiller, is the European Capital of Culture. Its visitors are fascinated by this centre of German classicism and Bauhaus art.

Seven million day tourists visit the city in 1999.

2000 – Expo in Germany. Germany’s first world exhibition is held from 1 June to 31 October: EXPO 2000. The venue is Hanover, the motto: “People – Nature – Technology”. Some 18 million people visit the exhibition.

2001 – Bayern are number one. Bayern Munich, Germany’s internationally best known soccer club, wins the Champions League on 23 May. Six months after winning the crown of European club football, they also take home the Intercontinental Cup. 2002 – Solidarity. Germany suffers serious floods following torrential rains. The eastern states along the River Elbe are particularly hard hit. The whole of the country helps: volunteers from all over Germany support fire services, the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), the German Red Cross and the Bundeswehr. People also make donations totalling 500 million euros.

2003 – Summer of the century. A heat wave produces the hottest August since weather records began. The water level in the Rhine falls to a record low.

Bayern Munich playing against Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga in September 2011.

2004 – Building European bridges. EU enlargement comes into effect on 1 May and adds ten new member states, mainly central and eastern European countries. At the Frankfurt/Oder–Slubice border crossing, Germany celebrates with Poland, its neighbour and new EU partner.

The German and Polish foreign ministers shake hands on the bridge between the two cities.

2005 to 2010 – from the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche to the Expo in Shanghai.

2005 – Frauenkirche as a symbol of peace. Sixty years after its destruction during the Second World War, the rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) shines in new splendour. It is consecrated on 30 October.

2006 – Carefree festival of football. The FIFA World Cup becomes a “summer fairytale” for the hosts Germany. Although the German team are beaten in the semi-final by the later champions Italy, the carefree

and peaceful atmosphere throughout the country makes for a real festival of football.

2007 – Global summit. The heads of state and government of the seven leading industrialised nations and Russia meet in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm. The G8 Summit’s discussions focus on global strategies to protect the climate and measures to help Africa fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

The destroyed and rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady)

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German Unity

2008 – Bonn fights biopiracy. The ninth UN Conference on Biological Diversity meets in Bonn in May. The member states pledge to fight biopiracy in particular. Germany will hold the presidency of the convention until the follow-up conference in Japan in October 2010 – and aims to continue the fight against the exploitation of biological resources.

2009 – Celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. Germany is joined by guests from all over the world to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the

fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November. An impressive firework display lights up the sky above the Brandenburg Gate. Earlier, 1,000 massive dominoes had fallen along the Wall’s former route.

2010 – Vision of the future. “Better City, Better Life” is the motto of the Expo in Shanghai, China. Germany presents “balancity”, an eco-friendly pavilion that stands for equilibrium between nature and the modern city.

2011 to 2015 – from the decision about the energy transition to the 25th anniversary of reunification.

2011 – Accelerated energy transition. Following the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, the Federal Government decides that Germany will phase out nuclear energy by 2022 – much earlier than planned. In addition, greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced to 40% less than 1990s levels by 2020.

2012 – New head of state. The Federal Assembly elects Joachim Gauck, former GDR civil rights campaigner and Federal Commissioner for the Records of the Stasi, as the eleventh President of the Federal Republic of Germany. Gauck’s main interest also determines his inaugural address: freedom.

2013 – Momentous flood. Rivers burst their banks in several central European countries after violent and persistent rainfall. Germany is

affected again, too, with water levels even rising above those of the “flood of the century” in 2002. The damage is enormous, especially along the Elbe.

2014 – Fourth World Cup win. Germany experiences a football summer fairytale in Brazil. Manager Joachim Löw’s national team win the Rio de Janeiro final against Argentina 1:0. It is Germany’s fourth World Cup victory after 1954, 1974 and 1990.

2015 – Living unity. Germany commemorates reunification 25 years ago. Frankfurt am Main is the location of the main festivities on and around 3 October. The city expects to welcome one million people during the three-day people’s festival.

People gather in front of the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the 25th anniversary of German reunification.

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German Unity

25 Years of German unity Red carpet for the ‘Stars of Unification’ CAMPAIGN

FILM

Claudia Schiffer, the German supermodel, was captured by Germany’s ace photographer Peter Lindbergh wrapped in black, red and gold – and nothing else. This was how “la Schiffer” promoted Germany as a top business location in 2006. You simply couldn’t miss her on the huge posters in the financial districts of New York, London and Tokyo.

But even when she was doing her normal fashion work, Schiffer was always also advertising her country. She appeared on the cover of Vogue for the first time when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. After that she graced the covers of the world’s most famous magazines over 500 times. The prettiest face of united Germany.

If you can make it here, you can even make it in Hollywood.

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck won over the 2007 Oscar judges with his first film, the very German GDR-Stasi drama The Life of Others. Actress Diane Kruger set her hopes on internationality – from Troy to Tarantino.

She abbreviated her name Heidkrüger to Kruger and became Germany’s most scintillating cinema star.

Prettiest face

Transatlantic careers

MUSIC

Anthem of the peaceful revolution Your ears ring if you think of the Scorpions, and it’s not tinnitus, it’s their greatest hit, Wind of Change. From September 1989 and throughout the whole year of reunification, the intro to this anthem of the political revolution resounded from radios everywhere, not just in Germany, entering the collective music consciousness. The band has been on a never-ending farewell tour since 2010.

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ART & CULTURE Spectacular ideas

Drawing international attention to united Germany: the Reichstag building was wrapped by Christo (right) and Jeanne Claude in 1995 and then seen by five million people. It has been world famous ever since. Britain’s top architect Norman Foster then created the new landmark of the Berlin Republic at the same site – the glass dome over the Reichstag building as a symbol of openness and democracy. On the art market, the paintings of Gerhard Richter (left), who was born in Dresden and has lived in Cologne for decades, garner the highest prices for works by a living artist.

TECHNOLOGY Ingenious inventor

If it were not for Karlheinz Brandenburg’s idea for a way to compress audio data, we would not have as much mobile music today: the electrical engineer and mathematician is considered one of the most important developers of the MP3 format. He and his team made their breakthrough in the 1990s. MP3 remains the most important format for storing and streaming music on computers, smart phones and the Web.

SPORT

World-class achievements Berlin is the fastest capital city: athletics world records have been set here over the shortest and longest distances. It was in Berlin in 2009 that Usain Bolt (above) from Jamaica was the first human being to run 100 metres in less than 9.6 seconds. In 2014, Dennis Kimetto from Kenya broke the world record in the marathon by finishing in 2:02:57 hours – with the Brandenburg Gate behind him. Manager Joachim “Jogi” Löw (left) led the German national football team across the Atlantic to win the 2014 World Cup. Courtesy: www.deutschland.de

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Economy

Investing in Germany’s future Despite a difficult international economic environment, the German economy is in good shape.

G

ermany’s economy continues to maintain its encouraging performance amidst difficult international economic environment. Economic growth is picking up speed again.

Employment is at a record level, unemployment is falling, and the good development on the labour market is creating scope for appreciable wage rises in real terms.

After two very weak years (2012 and 2013), economic growth picked up clearly in 2014, at a rate of 1.5%. This positive development is likely to continue in 2015. The German government is therefore again expecting economic growth of 1.5% in 2015.

Investment and innovation provide a key to higher competitiveness, lasting prosperity, and a better quality of life for people in Germany and Europe. The government has set itself the target of strengthening private-sector and public-sector investment in Germany and Europe.

A modern, efficient infrastructure forms the basis for future growth, as does investment in education, science and research.

At 42.7 million people in work, a new employment record was achieved for the eighth time in succession in 2014. This remarkably positive development is set to continue in 2015. This year, employment is expected to rise by a further 170,000 to an annualised figure of 42.8 million people.

For the first time since 1969, the federal budget did not taken on new debt in 2014. This shows that there does not have to be a contradiction between growth and fiscal consolidation. This approach is to be continued in 2015.

The German economy is facing the challenges of accelerated technological change and an ageing society. Also, the move to renewable energy sources must be designed in a way that strengthens Germany’s competitiveness. For this reason, Germany needs a substantial amount of additional investment in its future.

The Social Market Economy has worked well, and provides the platform for Germany’s future. A sustainable economic recovery in Europe is a crucial precondition for growth and employment in Germany.

Strengthening the social market economy Germany’s Social Market Economy is rooted in the understanding that, if a society is to enjoy lasting economic success, it needs to be open, competition-oriented and fair, and show solidarity. The Social Market Economy therefore needs a shared understanding of the balance between individual responsibility and solidarity. The Federal Government would like to further deepen this shared understanding

Euro symbol next to the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany. Frankfurt is the largest financial centre in continental Europe and hosts the registered offices of 63 national and 152 international banks (2010).

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via dialogue, transparency and broad opportunities for all citizens to participate.

Boosting investment Investment is a key to higher competitiveness, lasting prosperity, and a better quality of life for people in Germany and Europe. The Federal Government is taking a comprehensive approach toward achieving this. This includes: Maintaining and expanding public infrastructure,

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Boosting innovative capacities and backing German commerce, and particularly the industrial sector and small and medium-sized enterprises, in the context of the digital transformation,

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Continuing the energy transition in a successful and cost-efficient manner, creating a secure policy environment for investment, and setting incentives for businesses to invest in efficiency technologies,

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Investing more in education to ensure a supply of skilled workers, strengthening labour market integration and broadening the possibilities to participate, and

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Stabilising economic and monetary union in Europe.

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For this to happen, substantial efforts will need to be made in the field of public-sector investment in the next few years. From 20142017, the Federal Government is already providing an additional €5 billion for the maintenance and expansion of federal transport

infrastructure. From 2016-2018, it will provide a substantial amount of further funding, totalling €10 billion, for public-sector investment, particularly in infrastructure and energy efficiency.

Taking a systematic approach to the energy transition The energy transition is a project stretching across the generations and signifies nothing less than a comprehensive restructuring of Germany’s energy supply up to 2050: much of the future energy system is to be based on renewable energy and to be highly efficient.

If the ambitious targets are to be met, whilst Germany also remains a competitive base for economic activity, the energy transition needs to be a success not only in environmental, but also in economic terms. This will happen if it becomes a driving force for investment and modernisation for an innovative economy and contributes to growth and jobs. The overarching principle for the energy reforms is the “energy policy triangle” of a secure, affordable and environmentally compatible energy supply.

Strengthening the foundations for growth in Europe A sustainable economic development in Europe is a crucial precondition for growth and employment in Germany. Sustainable, balanced economic growth which opens up opportunities for economic and social participation for all citizens can also improve

Floor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It is the world’s tenth largest exchange by market capitalization and accounts for over 90% of the turnover in the German market as well as a very large share of the European market.

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Economy

Workers assembling an Audi, the premium brand of German car manufacturer Volkswagen, which overtook Toyota as the world’s largest carmaker by sales in the first half of this year. and safeguard the social situation of people in the European Union. In order to improve the potential for growth in Europe on a lasting basis, the Federal Government is relying on a triad of accelerated investments, ambitious structural reforms and pro-growth fiscal consolidation.

The Federal Government welcomes the European Commission’s investment initiative. In addition to investment in key areas like energy and digital infrastructure, the Federal Government believes that it is particularly necessary to bring about lasting improvements in the environment for privatesector investment - which accounts for the bulk of investment activity - in all EU member states.

Safeguarding the supply of skilled labour Together with the social partners, the Federal Government is developing strategies to counteract the effects of demographic change on the business sector and to maintain the performance of the German economy.

The Federal Government’s aim is firstly to strengthen and activate the potential pool of skilled labour in the domestic economy, and secondly to make Germany more attractive for qualified professionals from other countries.

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Workers at a Siemens turbines factory at Nurember, Germany. Siemens is one of the world’s largest producers of energy-efficient turbines and the market leader in offshore wind turbines.

Shaping the course of digitisation The digital transformation and the related rise in international networking is bringing about changes in almost all areas of society.

Digitisation is also creating new scope for innovation and new business models in the commercial sector. Here, Germany - and particularly its strong industrial sector and innovative SMEs - needs to take advantage of the new opportunities so that it will not fall behind the leading group.

In view of this, the Federal Government has adopted a comprehensive Digital Agenda 2014-2017, and it will continue to develop it and implement it on an ongoing basis together with commerce, science, unions and management, and civil society.

Economic situation in September 2015 The German economy is experiencing solid expansion.

Uncertainties about the economic development in China and in other raw-materials-producing emerging economies has returned the focus more to the risks. The global economic environment has become more difficult.

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Industrial output is pointing moderately upwards. Following a weak period in the spring, there are signs of a recovery in the construction sector.

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Making progress on pruning bureaucracy If companies are relieved of red tape, they have greater scope to add value, create jobs and generate innovation. On 11 December 2014, the Federal Government adopted key points for a further reduction in the level of bureaucracy affecting small and mediumsized enterprises.

These key points contain 21 measures, e.g. on tax and accounting law, on relief for start-ups and young entrepreneurs, and on reducing obligations to provide statistics and information.

In particular, the Federal Government will introduce the principle of “one in, one out” by 30 June 2015, so that in future any new regulations are balanced by a pruning of the same amount of bureaucracy.

Supporting start-ups and corporate growth Germany needs a new “age of entrepreneurship”. Germany has one of the world’s most innovative economies. However, the number of start-ups - especially in the high-tech sector - is continuing to fall. The Federal Government is therefore promoting a spirit of enterprise, entrepreneurial initiative and better financing conditions in order to boost entrepreneurial dynamism and to better develop the potential for small and medium-sized enterprises to grow.

The labour market is continuing to develop favourably, but at a somewhat slower pace.

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Germany’s economy is intact in the late summer.

Despite the external economic uncertainties relating to the financial market turbulence in some emerging economies, and only moderate global economic growth, the economic development in Germany is pointing upwards. Industrial output in July was positive again, following a decline in the preceding month. The latest indicators suggest that the construction sector has started growing again. Despite the fact that the volume of world trade fell in the first half-year, recent figures show a positive development in German foreign trade. The ongoing favourable situation on the labour market, a low inflation rate, not least due to the drop in the price level on the commodities markets, and positive income prospects are boosting consumer spending in Germany. The latest indicators of sentiment are pointing upwards, and suggest that, despite the uncertainty about how China will develop, the economy will develop favourably. The current hard indicators also suggest that the German economy has begun the third quarter well.

Improving international commerce and trade Successful integration into the global division of labour is essential for the open German economy so that prosperity, growth and employment can develop successfully and sustainably. The Federal Government is therefore advocating a further improvement in international economic relations.

It supports the resolute implementation of the WTO’s Bali agreement, and is also advocating free-trade agreements in order to improve market access for German and European companies in major countries outside the EU. The negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the USA commenced in 2013. The Federal Government is calling for their conclusion by the end of 2015. The aim is to open the markets further on both sides of the Atlantic and thus to foster growth and higher employment. Courtesy: www.bmwi.de

German cars ready for export. Germany’s automotive industry is one of the most successful in the world, with three out of four built in the country go to international customers.

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Economy

Handmade in Germany In international goods manufacture, products from German manufactories are unique.

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Made in Germany” is considered a hallmark of top quality the world over. Bucking the trend of global mass manufacture, products from German manufactories are enjoying increasing success both in the country itself as well as abroad, prompting experts to talk about a “Renaissance of the manufactories”.

German manufacturers and their products have a rich history: who knew that the pink Mendls’ box from the Oscar winning Film “Grand Budapest Hotel” was produced by FAPACK from Berlin or that Adam Clayton of U2 plays a bass guitar from Warwick, the guitar

manufacturer from Markneukirchen, Saxony? Who would have thought that Lady Gaga’s shoes were made in Parchim?

Historically, in the 18th century the manufactory (lat.: manus “hand”, lat. facere “to make, produce”) was the prototype of industrial goods production, marking the transition from traditional artisanry to the modern factory. Today the concept of the manufactory represents a new form of exclusivity that is synonymous with handcrafted, custom-made products of extraordinary value and quality.

The German Manufactory Initiative has set itself the goal of promoting on an international stage the significance of Germany’s manufactories and the positive influence they have on the country’s image. In fulfilling its mission, the initiative is keen to demonstrate the entire spectrum of what essentially characterizes Germany’s manufactories – from the highly specialized two-person manufactory to those that are renowned worldwide. Here are some examples: Berlin’s Burmester manufactory has been producing high-end audio systems since 1977. Their latest output includes the high-end surround-sound system for the new Porsche Panamera.

Burmester High-End Surround Sound-System in Porsche Macan.

Burmester has been manufacturing finest audio equipment since the end of the seventies.

“Handmade in Germany” is displaying masterpieces of 150 German manufactories, artisans and designers.

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Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie is among the future projects at Klais organ building manufactory. The company has been commissioned to produce the concert organ for the new philharmonic hall. Founded in 1882, the company can proudly look back on such outstanding assignments as producing the instruments for Cologne Cathedral and the two concert organs for the Petronas Philharmonic Hall in the Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur. By contrast, the Olympia organ in the Chinese city of Qingdao and the grand organ in Seoul originated at Waldkircher Orgelbau organ building manufactory in the Black Forest.

A painter puts finishing touches to products in the demonstration workshop at Berlin’s Royal Porcelain Factory (KPM).

KPM has been a leader in the development of porcelain design for 250 years.

The porcelain made at Berlin’s Royal Porcelain Manufactory (KPM), which Frederick the Great acquired in the 18th century, is a much-appreciated gift for politicians from a whole host of different nations – from Mikhail Gorbachev to Barack Obama.

Among other clients, Peter Bock manufactory supplies its nibs to writing instruments producer Visconti, whose pens were famously used to sign the summit declaration between NATO and Russia in May 2002.

Day of German manufacturers

These companies all have one thing in common: Craftsmanship, outstanding value and a love of detail turn their products into something very special. Simply “handmade in Germany”. Courtesy: www.handmade-in-germany.org

Beyond this impressive exhibition, which takes places in the context of the “Day of the German Manufactories”, visitors can expect countless surprises, such as chances to participate and test their own craftsmanship skills, or delicious handmade treats.

Every year on September 19, the Initiative of German Manufacturers organizes a unique exhibition of German manufacturers and their handmade products of the highest quality on the historical grounds of the Royal Porcelain Factory (KPM).

The event this year saw manufacturers from all over Germany take part in this one-of-a-kind look into the world of manufacturing.

“On the 19th of September visitors of the exhibition had the opportunity to experience ‘Handmade in Germany’ in Action and observe manufactures from all over Germany as they finish products”, said Michael T. Schröder, founder and Chairman of the Initiative of German Manufactories.

Alongside the members of the initiative, among them the Graf von Faber-Castell Collection, Burmester Audio-Systems, ROECKL and the Royal Porcelain Factory (KPM), several external manufacturers, such as the watch maker Rolf Lang Dresden and the tailor Regent, also took part in the event.

A handmade Rollerball pen made with exclusive amaranth wood.

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Foreign Trade

Germany’s trade ties with Asia Pacific Trade with the Asia-Pacific region makes up roughly 15% of all German foreign trade, and this proportion is rising.

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n the next 20 years, according to a 2014 global market prognosis, airlines from the Asia-Pacific region will require over 12,000 new passenger and cargo aircraft. That represents a 39% share of all the new aircraft that will be delivered worldwide during that period. It also means the region will overtake markets in Europe, North America and the Middle East. These impressive figures demonstrate once again the importance of the Asia-Pacific market – also for European industry.

Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer, has big market shares in the Asia-Pacific region. Over 27% of all its orders have come from the region. In 2013, Airbus further strengthened its position with 379 firm

orders. The company also delivered 232 new aircraft to customers in the region during the course of the year. That represents a 37% share of all the new aircraft delivered in the region.

The European Union recognised the importance of the Asia-Pacific market long ago. However, because negotiations on a free-trade agreement with ASEAN have been in abeyance since 2010, the European Commission is increasingly relying on bilateral free-trade agreements. The enormous potential they offer is shown by the agreement with South Korea that came into effect in 2011. In its first year EU exports to South Korea rose by 16.2% while EU imports from South Korea grew by 4.7%. The relatively low

growth in imports was solely due to a weak economy in Europe. However, it is now taking off again.

This trend is also reflected in the latest German trade figures with the Asia-Pacific region. After foreign trade experienced a slight downturn in 2013, trade flows increased again in the first half of 2014. Exports were able to grow significantly with a 3.7% increase compared to the same period in the previous year, which meant they rose more strongly than German exports overall. There was also a positive development in imports, which grew by 1.1%. In all, trade with the AsiaPacific region makes up roughly 15% of all German foreign trade, and this proportion is rising.

Workers at the production base of FAWVolkswagen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province of China.

China is the second biggest market for German exports outside Europe, after the United States.

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An aerial view of the German Port of Hamburg, with container ships moving in the harbour. In view of Germany’s ever soaring exports, its harbors, industry and delivery companies have asked for “a sustained upgrading and operational reliability for the Kiel Canal,” through which the Port of Hamburg operates.

The driving force behind German export business in the first half year was the People’s Republic of China, although economic growth in the People’s Republic has decreased slightly in recent quarters. German exports to Japan and South Korea have also shown upward movement. On the other hand, decreases were recorded in Germany’s foreign trade with India and the ASEAN countries. However, there are differences between the ASEAN countries. German exporters experienced strong falls, above all, in Indonesia and Malaysia, whereas GermanPhilippine trade presented a positive first half year. Remarkably, imports from Myanmar rose by 62.9% in the first six months.

The Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business (APA) aims to set new priorities at the Asia-Pacific Conference in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from 20 to 22 November 2014.

Its motto is “Understanding Trends and Perspectives”. The conference, which has been held in a different Asian metropolis every two years since 1986, has become the largest networking event outside Germany that attracts both political and business decisionmakers from Germany and the region, including the heads of the German Missions Abroad. It will be opened by APA Chairman Hubert Lienhard, CEO of German technology company Voith, and Federal Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel.

Above-average increase in trade German trade with the Asia-Pacific region is increasing – exports to one country experienced a surprising increase.

German imports from and exports to the Asia-Pacific region experienced aboveaverage growth in 2014 – imports increased by 4.5% and exports by 6.1%. The 11.3% rise in exports to China made a significant contribution to this positive development.

The volume of trade with the region increased by a value of 16 billion euros to a total of 319.7 billion euros. As a result, the AsiaPacific region’s share of German international trade rose from 15.2 to 15.6%. Trade relations with India remained roughly at the same level as the previous year. India therefore remains Germany’s fourth most important trading partner in the region after China, Japan and South Korea. German exports to Bangladesh increased most – a rise of 31.1%.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel with Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders during their commercial mission to China.

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Foreign Trade

775 years of Messe Frankfurt Messe Frankfurt is one of the world’s oldest trade fairs – and is profiting from digitization.

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he Expo in Milan is expected to attract more than three million visitors by the end of October. Hardly any of them will be aware that the much-talked-about German Pavilion comes courtesy of Messe Frankfurt – meaning that this Expo is also a showcase for Messe Frankfurt’s capabilities.

With its technicians, hostesses and security personnel, Messe Frankfurt is responsible for making sure that everything runs like clockwork in the German Pavilion.

Digitization gives trade fair sector a boost The Messe Frankfurt success story began back in the Middle Ages, officially on 11 July 1240 when Emperor Frederick II decreed by Imperial Privilege that the free Imperial City of “Frankenfurth” could term itself a trade fair city from that moment on. Even beforehand,

city’s town hall. It was not until 1909 that the new exhibition grounds at the Festhalle were established.

With a turnover of 550 million euros and in excess of 2,000 employees, Messe Frankfurt is one of today’s global players in the trade fair sector.

Represented in over 160 countries, it organizes trade fairs at more than 30 locations – the best-known exhibitions include the IAA International Motor Show, Frankfurt Book Fair and the Ambiente consumer goods fair at the Frankfurt exhibition grounds.

But are trade fairs still in line with the times in today’s digital age?

“Personal encounters generate personal relationships and trust. In an age of growing digitization, the need for this is actually greater than ever”, says Wolfgang Marzin, Messe Frankfurt’s CEO.

Trades Fairs in Germany With 150 international trade fairs Germany international is a key market for goods and commodities. About two-thirds of the world’s leading trade fairs for individual industries are held in Germany. The Exhibition and Trade Fair Committee of German Industry (AUMA) is the umbrella organization of the German trade fair industry. Its central task is to strengthen German trade fairs at home and abroad. AUMA coordinates the foreign trade activities of the German economy, including the approximately 230 annual export platforms supported by the Federal Government.

A bird’s eye view of the Messe Frankfurt fairgrounds with the Messeturmon the left.

Frankfurt had long been known as a city of trade and trade fairs thanks to its central geographical position on the trade routes of Europe.

One of the most important of these routes runs from Paris to Russia via Frankfurt and Leipzig, the latter two cities liking to quarrel about which of them was actually the world’s first trade fair city – certainly both can claim a very long trade fair tradition.

There was a boom in international long-distance trading, merchants meeting for centuries at trade fairs held at the Römer, the

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The Leipziger Messe GmbH exhibition grounds feature five trade fair halls spread out over more than 180,000 square metres of covered and open area exhibition space. It’s is the first German trade fair company to be certified by the Green Globe.

The latest bike trends Bike developers from Germany are banking on eco-friendly bikes made of bamboo and on smart cycling computers with more than a hundred functions.

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co-friendly bikes made of bamboo cane are the latest trend in the bicycle industry. Bike manufacturers have here drawn inspiration from the nineteenth century: the first bamboo bicycle was already presented to the public in 1894. Now the fastgrowing raw material has been taken up again and manufacturers such as My Boo in Kiel and Faserwerk in Bremen produce from it bike frames. They are nearly as stable as steel, but significantly lighter. Although bamboo bikes are still rare birds in the streets, the number of suppliers is increasing, as has been apparent for several years at German bike trade fairs.

Social engagement in Africa An important aspect is sustainability. My Boo manufactures bikes in Ghana, where bamboo grows wild. The cane is dried for months; then plugged together into frames and bound with resin-impregnated hemp rope. Up to 90 hours of manual labour are put into each bike. My Boo works together with the Ghanaian aid agency Yonso Project; the young Ghanaian bike builders have social insurance and receive fair pay. The bikes are then painted and refinished in Germany. The

Munich manufacturer Zuri Bike has a similar concept – with frame construction and social engagement in Zambia.

Digitalization of cycling Another bike trend of 2015 goes in another direction: the digitalization of cycling.

The Frankfurt start-up company Cobi wants to make the principle of connected drive, networked driving, available to everyone – with a bike computer based on current smartphones. The system consists of lights, navigation, smartphone holder with charging function, bell and bike computer, and links more than a hundred functions. It can be used as an alarm system or to listen to music. Through an acceleration sensor the app detects, for example, braking action and responds by making the backlight brighter.

An idea which in a crowd-funding campaign aroused so much enthusiasm that the goal of $ 100,000 worth of sales was achieved in only three days. The company has just been awarded the Frankfurt Founder Prize. This autumn the system will be on the market in five European countries.

The bicycle fair “Eurobike” took place from 26 to 29 August 2015 in Friedrichshafen.

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Innovation / Industry

Integrated industry The road to the “intelligent factory” takes you to Hannover Messe.

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hat do Lego bricks and a factory have in common? Unfortunately, not very much, some engineers would say. Why? Because the toy bricks are totally interchangeable and can be combined in an infinite number of ways, but you cannot do that with the machines in a factory. If you want to temporarily convert a production line because another variant of your product is suddenly in demand, you have to allow for a certain amount of time and effort, and probably even accept a brief halt in production. The ideal situation, on the other hand, would involve the kind of technology that developers describe as “plug and play”: all machines – not only in an individual factory, but outside it, too – are compatible and can be taken apart when required and put back together again in another way within a short period of time.

Plug and play – in other words, standardization – is only one of the many attributes of what is known as Industry 4.0.

This concept, which was coined as part of the Federal Government’s High Tech Strategy, describes a form of production in which all machines and products are digitally networked together. It was presented to a

broader public for the first time in 2011 at the Hannover Messe, Germany’s most important and the world’s leading industrial trade fair.

The question one therefore asks four years later, at Hannover Messe 2015, is: “How far have we advanced along this path?”

A considerable distance, says Henning Kagermann, President of the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). “There are already businesses successfully offering the components of Industry 4.0. And pilot factories exist too – for example, at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).”

Industry 4.0 potential showcased at Hannover Messe.

“Industry 4.0 is about nothing less than the global language of production. And this should come from Germany”, says Dietmar Goericke, chairman of the Mechanical Engineering research board at the VDMA, the German Engineering Association. Just how far industry has already progressed on the path towards digitized production could be seen at Hannover Messe. A study conducted

by corporate and strategic consultant firm PWC and Strategy reveals the potential that Industry 4.0 can offer German companies.

The most important findings are as follows: 40 billion Euros per year for Industry 4.0 applications The industrial companies surveyed by the study stated that they intend to invest on average 3.3 percent of their annual turnover in Industry 4.0 solutions over the coming five years. This is equivalent to almost half of all planned new investment in equipment. By the year 2020, this means that German industry will be investing roughly 40 billion Euros each year in digital solutions.

By 2020, 80 percent of companies will have digitized their value chains Two thirds of those companies surveyed are already working actively to digitize and network their value chains. A quarter of those companies surveyed have already achieved a high degree of value chain digitization. The study shows that eight out of ten companies will have implemented digital solutions in all key areas of their business by 2020.

20 percent efficiency gains thanks to digital solutions by 2020 The companies surveyed are confident that digitizing their value chains will allow them to increase efficiency by 3.3 percent per year on average. This means an 18 percent efficiency gain over the next five years. At the same time, companies expect to reap cost savings of 2.6 percent per year.

30 billion Euros of additional turnover per year from Industry 4.0 Increased digitization and networking of their product and service portfolio will allow the surveyed companies to drive up their turnover by an average of 2.5 percent per year. Applied to all industrial companies in Germany, this corresponds to over 30 billion Euros worth of additional turnover per year.

“Integrated Industry – Join the Network!” was the lead theme for Hannover Messe 2015, which aimed to convey the message that the key challenges of the fourth industrial revolution – such as achieving universal standards for machine-to-machine communication and maintaining data security – can be mastered only through collective endeavor in networks. Photo courtesy: Hanover Messe

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For the purposes of the study, 235 German industrial companies were surveyed from the automotive supply sector, mechanical and plant engineering, electrical engineering/electronics, process industry and the information and communications technology industry. Courtesy: www.deutschland.de

On the way to Industry 4.0: Siemens stand at the Hanover Messe 2015. The presentation aimed to show visitors how assembly line machines communicate with each other autonomously during the production process to increase operating efficiency. Photo courtesy: Hanover Messe

Industry 4.0 The term “Industrie 4.0� refers to the fourth industrial revolution. It originates from a project in the high-tech strategy of the German government, which promotes the computerization of manufacturing. The first industrial revolution was the mechanization of production using water and steam power. The second industrial revolution then introduced mass production with the help of electric power, followed by the digital revolution and the use of electronics and IT to further automate production.

The term Industrie 4.0 was first used in 2011 at the Hanover Fair. In October 2012 the Working Group on Industry 4.0 chaired by Siegfried Dais (Robert Bosch GmbH) and Kagermann (acatech) presented a set of Industry 4.0 implementation recommendations to the German federal government. On 8 April 2013 at the Hanover Fair the final report of the Working Group Industry 4.0 was presented.

One of Siemens electronics plants in Amberg, Germany. The Berlin and Munich based multinational conglomerate, the largest engineering company in Europe, is considered the poster child for Industry 4.0. Photo Courtesy: Siemens

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Innovation / Energy

Energy revolution - the time is now!

Germany aims to have an energy future without nuclear power.

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ature is the powerhouse of the future. Regenerative sources of energy provide us with a virtually inexhaustible supply, unlike nonregenerative sources such as nuclear energy, coal and other fossil fuels.

In Germany, energy revolution is the way towards an industrialized society that is committed to the concept of sustainability and responsibility towards future generations. By 2035, the German federal government aims to have “the renewables” like sun, water or wind deliver approximately 55 to 60 percent of all the electricity required in Germany. By 2050 the share of renewable energy sources in power production is aimed at 80 percent.

The Miracle of Wind Wind power is driving up the proportion of green energy.

39 percent more wind power

As the Freiburg-based Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) announced, green energy accounted for almost 33 percent of the total energy consumed in Germany in the first half of 2015, having surged from a figure of 27.8 percent at the end of 2014.

As a result, the German government’s targets could well be reached significantly sooner – its plan had been to expand the proportion of green energy to between 40 and 45 percent by the year 2025.

Mathematically speaking, this would not require 35 percent to be achieved until around 2020.

Wind power was chiefly responsible for the sharp rise in green energy production. Wind turbines produced approx. 40.5 billion kWh in the first half of 2015, which is roughly 39 percent more than in the first half of 2014. This was partly due to the gale force storms at the start of the year, and partly to the significant rise in the number of new offshore wind farms. Energy production in the North Sea alone was increased four-fold. Up to 30 June 2015, a total of 668 offshore wind turbines supplied Germany with 2777.8 megawatts of electricity, enough to power some three million households.

Photovoltaic array alongside wind turbines at the Schneebergerhof wind farm in the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz.

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Innovative Utilization of Excess Renewable Energy The Frankfurt energy supplier Mainova is testing and running storage systems for excess renewable energy.

The aim is clear: by the year 2050, 80 per cent of the energy that Germany requires will come from renewable resources, such as sun and wind. At the moment the proportion is a good 12 per cent. So huge efforts will still be needed to meet this ambitious long-term goal.

However, the major challenge is not so much a question of energy generation, because today’s solar and wind power plants are already producing more electricity than is needed. The problem lies in the areas of intelligent distribution and storage.

The energy supplier from Frankfurt is now spearheading development in these two areas and offering innovative solutions. A power-to-heat plant is already in operation. It functions like a huge domestic water heater by using excess renewable power to generate district heating. In this way the excess electricity can be utilized, the load on the grid can be relieved and carbon dioxide production can be reduced. During the summer the plant covers about one third of Frankfurt Airport’s heating requirements.

The gas grid as a battery for the future A power-to-gas plant is still in the test phase. This technique uses electrolysis to convert excess electrical power from solar and wind sources into hydrogen and temporarily store it in the gas grid.

Scientists are currently investigating whether it would be economical to go one step further and transform the hydrogen into methane which could then be injected into the gas grid. When the supply of renewable energies falls, the green gas can be transformed back into electricity and heat in highly efficient cogeneration plants, i.e. combined heat and power (CHP) plants. This means that the gas grid could become a battery for the future.

Micro Energy Harvesting

The latest trend in energy generation.

We’ve all been there – discovering our battery is dead just when we need to make an important phone call while on the way somewhere.

The fear of not being online when out and about, not being able to make a phone call, check e-mails or go on Facebook, is widespread – in fact, there is even a technical term for it: “nomophobia”, or nomobile-phone phobia.

Researchers, IT experts and companies around the world are busy developing new autonomous power sources for mobile applications and sensors. “Micro energy harvesting” (MEH) refers to a whole host of different ways to “harvest” energy, potential sources including motion such as that generated during walking or dancing, vibrations like those produced by shock absorbers in trucks or washing machines, and waste heat from engines and industrial facilities. Air flows, braking energy and sound and electromagnetic waves can also be “tapped”, generators of many different types being used.

As yet, the global MEH market – encompassing anything from bicycle dynamos and hand crank mini transistor radios to solarpowered parking ticket machines – is still small, turning over only a few hundred million euros per year, according to US industry analyst IDTechEx. All the same, there are increasing signs that a boom is imminent, latest forecasts predicting that 2.1 billion euros could already be generated in ten years. The lion’s share of this is likely to be attributable to entirely novel products – such as shoe inlays which supply power to charge mobile phone batteries, energy-producing jackets and trousers, wireless light switches without a battery, car lights which use the heat given off by car exhaust pipes, or selfsufficient vibration meters on bridges or high-rise buildings.

German energy harvesting projects In its “foresight process”, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research identified energy harvesting as one of the fields of technology which could become particularly important this decade

Energy harvesting eliminates the need for power supply wiring or re-charging the batteries in mobile devices. Equipment, machine or building vibrations, as well as differences in temperature between water lines, heating elements or valves and the surroundings can be used to create electrical energy to power small electronic systems. Photo courtesy: www.iis.fraunhofer.de – and should therefore be provided with greater funding. A number of German research groups and industrial companies are already working on concrete projects in this sector. A team at the University of Freiburg for example is developing pressure-sensitive trainers which can be used to run a pulse monitor or stopwatch, while the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology (FEP) in Dresden is dedicated to improving and miniaturizing piezoelectric systems which derive power from vibrations. Well-known companies like Bosch have also recognized the potential of MEH, however. Udo Gomez, head of R&D at Bosch subsidiary Sensortec, explains the strategy: “The goal is to design products such that they generate their own energy.”

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Innovation / Energy a complete modernisation or want to improve a building’s energy efficiency step-by-step, e.g. by installing a modern heating system or new energy-efficient windows; every single measure counts when making energy saving improvements to the home. They will not only result in lower costs for heating and hot water, but also in lower carbon emissions, thereby making a contribution to climate mitigation. This is why the “Energy-efficient refurbishment” funding programme run by KfW, a state promotional bank, will become even more attractive from 1 August 2015 onwards. Both the low-interest loan and the investment grant funding models will be improved.

A success story

Energy transition in German homes The Federal Government provides even more financial assistance for energy-efficient retrofitting measures.

Almost 40 per cent of Germany’s final energy consumption is used in buildings – mostly for heating and hot water. The bulk of Germany’s 18 million residential buildings were built before 1979 – which often means poor energy efficiency. But there is huge potential to save energy in these buildings.wLeveraging this potential is now becoming even more worthwhile for home owners thanks to improved public funding programmes. It does not matter whether you are planning

The KfW funding programmes for energy-efficient construction and retrofitting, funded by the Federal Government as part of its CO2 Building Modernisation Programme, have become part and parcel of the energy transition over the past few years. One in three retrofits and half of all new-builds benefit from these funding programmes, and go on to raise energy efficiency standards above what is legally required.

This is a real success story and can be seen in these impressive figures from 2006 to 2014: more than 3.8 million homes were upgraded in terms of their energy performance or were newly built using the funding programmes. Furthermore, in 2007, funding was awarded for more than 2,150 municipal and social service buildings in order to make them more energy efficient. A total of around 190 billion euros was invested to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, cutting carbon emissions by more than 7.6 million tonnes per year.

Germany sets new renewable record Europe’s biggest economy marches towards a greener future.

Aug 18 was a Sunday like any other in Germany. At 2 pm, the country’s renewable generation capacity peaked at 41 GW while demand was around 53.5 GW – meaning that renewables accounted for roughly 75% of generation capacity, a new record for Europe’s biggest economy.

At the time of the peak, wind capacity stood at 18.6 GW, solar at 13.5, hydro at 4 with approx. 4.9 from biomass. This meant that theoretically only 13.4 GW of conventional thermal generation was needed to serve the load. In reality, however, thermal plants were throttled back to 21.4 GW, either because they could not ramp down any further or for grid reliability reasons.

Germany routinely exports its excess generation to neighboring countries during such episodes, while importing power at other times to balance the network.

The 4 main network operators increasingly will have to improvise to maintain the reliability of the grid – a challenging task given the intermittency of the renewables.

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Germany invests heavily in alternative energy production.

Education

First-rate and diverse Your degree in Germany

With more than 400 universities, numerous international study courses and an outstanding reputation the world over, Germany offers students excellent conditions in research and teaching.

Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg is one of Europe’s strongest research universities. Established in 1386, it is Germany’s oldest university and one of the oldest universities in the world.

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Campus of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The elegant campus is home to the friendliest international program and offers the greatest number of English-led classes in Germany.

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By Clara Görtz

ne of the nicest times of your life is when you finish school and countless opportunities suddenly await you. One exciting challenge is a degree course: You spend several years studying a subject that interests you and acquire high-level skills that are important for your ongoing professional career. Would you like to study in a university system that enjoys an outstanding international reputation and that is well known for its excellent conditions? Then a degree course in Germany is the right choice. Of the 200 best universities in the world, as listed in the QS World University Ranking 2014, thirteen are in Germany. A degree in Germany can open doors to working in a German company – for example as an intern. Academics from various subject areas, particularly the natural sciences, are currently much in demand in the German labour market.

semester contribution and the cost of rent, local public transport etc. to be paid.

The best conditions Over the past few years, the study courses at German higher education institutions have been reformed: as part of the so-called “Bologna Process”, Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees were introduced.

These are internationally compatible and have largely replaced the old “Diplom” and “Magister” qualifications. The good conditions at German universities are drawing ever more students from abroad. In 2013 they numbered around 282,000 – 16,000 more than the previous year.

Colourful education landscape No matter what subject interests you, in Germany you have an unbelievable number of options. You can choose between more than 400 institutions and three different types of university. Which one suits you best depends on what is important to you. If you are interested in a very academically oriented course, then a classic university is a good choice for you. If practical knowledge is more important to you, a university of applied sciences is ideal. And people with artistic talent are best suited to an academy of film, art or music. German higher education institutions offer a total of almost 17,000 courses, of which more than 1,300 have an international focus.

Low fees Education is a key issue in Germany: over the past few years the budget has gradually been increased. In 2014 public spending in this area rose to a solid 120 billion Euros. You yourself, however, spend comparatively little money on a degree course in Germany. Generally study fees are not charged at public universities, leaving only the

Parabolic slides in the math and computer science Research Center of the Munich Technical University.

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Education

In global demand

vocational training in Germany Good career opportunities and a great deal of practical experience – a vocational training course in Germany opens up new prospects for your professional future.

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By Clara Görtz

hat a great feeling! You’ve finished school, now you are free and can decide what to do next. Lots of young people in Germany opt for a vocational training programme at this stage in their lives. Maybe this is also exactly what you are looking for! Trained specialists are urgently needed in Germany, which is why numerous companies are currently looking for young, enthusiastic people from abroad.

Simplified entry The labour market has developed well in recent years – Germany has the lowest rate of youth unemployment in the European Union.

If you are an EU citizen, you don’t need to worry about entry conditions and residence permits at all, because you can move around freely within the EU. And for people from so-called third countries it has also become easier to work in Germany.

The German job market is very diverse – you are sure to find a training programme that suits you perfectly. There are more than 350 recognized professions requiring vocational training in Germany. Visit http://berufenet. arbeitsagentur.de to get an overview; you will also find the official names of the occupations here.

Dual training a success factor The dual training programme, which combines theory and practice, is a special feature of the range of options in Germany.

Ever more countries are adopting it, because it is so successful. Numerous German firms have even established the dual training concept at their facilities abroad and as such, alongside their products, are busy exporting training to other countries.

Depending on the occupation in question, a dual vocational training programme lasts

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2-3.5 years. It is very varied, as you are both student and employee: On one or two days a week you attend a vocational college, studying subjects such as German, English and social studies and in particular material you will need for your later job. The remainder of the week you spend at the company with which you have signed your training contract.

There, experienced colleagues teach you what you need to know and be able to do in this profession step by step. You then demonstrate everything you have learned in theory and practice in an intermediate exam and at the very end of the programme in a final examination.

Most training programmes begin on 1 August or 1 September. Larger companies often announce their vacant traineeships a whole year in advance. It is a good idea to apply as soon as possible.

Attending a vocational college There is an alternative to the dual vocational training programme however.

Particularly in social, care, business or technical areas you can learn all the material at special schools, known as vocational schools or colleges. You get a taste of daily

working life during several internships.

Some vocational colleges charge tuition fees.

Worried about whether your schoolleaving certificate or other qualifications will be recognized in Germany? A schoolleaving qualification from your country can be equated with a German school-leaving qualification under certain circumstances.

You also need to be able to speak good German, because tuition and examinations will be in German and German is spoken and written at most companies. You can however complete language courses before you start your training programme – there are numerous funding and support options here.

And remember, you must apply for a place on a training programme – it won’t be allocated to you.

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Education

Career for the future: solar expert The Berlin Renewables Academy (RENAC) offers training in the installation of renewable energy technology worldwide. An example from Malaysia.

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alaysia averages six hours of sunshine a day. This also means six hours of energy that can be supplied to large numbers of people. This energy has hardly been harnessed up to now – photovoltaic systems are still rare on the ground. Electricity is mainly generated by coal-fired power stations and – especially in remote areas far from the general power grid – diesel generators. However, these are expensive and also harm the environment. Photovoltaic systems would be not only an inexpensive alternative, but also a sustainable one. Solar panels could be installed on roofs or other surfaces within a very short space of time. This technology is now available worldwide – and at reasonable prices.

with the technology and can plan, install, repair or maintain the systems.”

Jens Altevogt, who is project manager at the Berlin Renewables Academy (RENAC) and the person responsible for solar energy courses at this private educational establishment, says: “Apart from sunlight, people are the most important resource for the success of solar technology.” Interest in alternative energy sources has beenrising for some time in Malaysia. However, Altevogt explains the problem: “There are still very few people in Malaysia who are familiar

What material and what kind of knowledge do the trainers need?

What is the best way to set up a craft-oriented training centre?

What are the laws and standards governing photovoltaic systems in Malaysia? How do you give a good lecture? Altevogt and his Berlin colleagues answered these and other questions in the 2013 “Train-the-Trainer” project. The aim now is for the new trainers to get photovoltaics established in Malaysia as quickly as possible.

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For a long time there were no special training opportunities for the new careers that are emerging in the energy industry. But that is set to change. The Selangor Human Resource Development Centre and its project partner, the Aachen Chamber of Crafts and Trades, has asked RENAC to train solar trainers in Malaysia, giving them a wide range of solar know-how. They can later themselves pass this knowledge on to local tradesmen, largely applying German standards in vocational training for solar technology specialists.

The Berlin Renewables Academy (RENAC) has been offering training courses and services for public institutions, businesses and organizations worldwide since 2008. The participants learn all about renewable energies in online courses, workshops and seminars. Apart from the technology, the topics studied include project management, finance, law and standards. The independent academy collaborates with numerous institutions, such as chambers of crafts and chambers of foreign trade, and would also like to expand these forms of cooperation in the future.

solar modules, for example. At these classroom sessions they work together independently of institutional or geographical borders and benefit from the experience of the other participants. “I’m so often surprised at the kind of synergies that emerge,” the RENAC boss says. Courtesy: deutschland.de

Furthermore, RENAC offers two master’s degree programmes in cooperation with Berlin’s universities. In addition to the project in Malaysia, RENAC’s 24 members of staff in Berlin are involved in numerous other initiatives relating to alternative energy sources. They are found in 134 countries and have a total of 3,400 participants.

“Our aim is to spread knowledge about renewable energy and energy efficiency all over the world, ensuring that this knowledge is tailored to the different target groups and taught in the relevant languages,” explains Berthold Breid, RENAC’s chief executive.

When he founded the academy, there was no comparable institution anywhere – neither in Germany nor internationally. Yet the demand for vocational training in this field was great. Breid knew this, because he had previously run projects to promote the photovoltaic and solar thermal sectors in Berlin and worldwide for the German Energy Agency and the European Union. “Technological progress in the energy sector requires new approaches to training, but these were hardly developed in 2008.” Today the participants enroll for online courses and meet for practical courses, where they learn to install

Participants of a seminar titled Grid-connected and Off-grid Photovotaics organized by RENAC in Berlin. Photo courtesy: www.renac.de

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Research

Research in Germany Researchers can write fascinating success stories when they have access to the best equipment.

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ermany’s achievements in science and technology have been significant and research and development efforts form an integral part of the country’s economy. The country has been the home of some of the most prominent researchers in various scientific disciplines, notably physics, mathematics, chemistry and engineering.

Scientific research in Germany is supported by industry, by the network of German universities and by scientific state-institutions.

German companies are leaders in developing innovative products. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is Europe’s largest researchfunding organization and supports roughly 30,000 projects a year.

Above the clouds

The world of supercomputing

Recently, spectacular images have sprung to mind whenever anyone mentions the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

On 12 November 2014, for example, the Philae lander touched down on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko 510 million kilometres from Earth and amazed not only the space community, but the whole world. People had just taken the charming little probe to heart when Philae’s battery failed after 56 hours of breathtaking signals. Since then experts at the DLR Lander Control Center have been waiting for signs of life from the small apparatus on the distant comet. There is still hope, however. The lander needs additional energy, which can only be generated as Churyumov-Gerasimenko moves closer to the sun.

Whether researchers are focusing on global climate, brain research or the energy supply of the future, supercomputer simulations are now an essential element in understanding complex processes. The more realistic simulations become, the greater the data-processing power involved. One of the supercomputers that is enabling research to enter new territory is JUQUEEN. With 458,752 processing cores and a top performance of 5.9 petaFLOPS, an amazing 5.9 quadrillion calculations per second, in 2014 it reached eighth place in the TOP500 global ranking of supercomputers. Forschungszentrum Jülich operates JUQUEEN as part of the Helmholtz Association’s supercomputing research programme. In 2013 alone, 15 European projects were able to use the extraordinarily energy-efficient JUQUEEN supercomputer within the framework of the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe. Researchers also need its concentrated processing power for the ambitious work of the Human Brain Project. This billion-euro European Union flagship project aims to bring together all the knowledge about the human brain and model it with the aid of computer software and simulations. Over 80 European research institutions from 23 countries and a number of other international partners are involved in this major project.

European Space Agency’s Astronaut Alexander Gerst By contrast, German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst remained in constant communication with Earth as he sped through space in 2014.

His extraterrestrial social media messages inspired people even more than his spectacular walk outside the International Space Station.

During his nearly six-month stay on board the station, Astro-Alex tweeted with dozens of school classes, congratulated the German national football team on their World Cup victory and posted countless photographs on Facebook as part of his Blue Dot mission.

A third image illustrates a less spectacular, but otherwise equally ambitious scientific project: the DLR operates the unique new HALO research aircraft that has been researching the formation, development and properties of tropical clouds over the rainforests of Brazil.

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JUQUEEN at Forschungszentrum Juelich is the first supercomputer in Europe to reach a maximum compute performance of 5.9 Petaflop/s – equating to almost 6 quadrillion operations per second. Photo courtesy: Forschungszentrum Jülich

The search for elementary particles

Elementary basic research

The Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, or simply DESY for short, is one of the world’s premier addresses for particle acceleration. Researchers use DESY equipment to explore all facets of the microcosmos – from the interaction of the smallest elementary particles and the behaviour of new nanomaterials to the complex processes that occur between biomolecules. Both the accelerators and their detectors can rightly be described as superlative: experts regard the PETRA III large accelerator as the world’s most brilliant storage ring based X-ray source, while the FLASH free-electron laser delivers ultrashort flashes of “soft” X-ray light that enables unique experiments. Researchers at the DESY campus are now already excitedly looking forward to 2017, when the European XFEL X-ray laser will begin operating and create the most intense X-ray flashes ever produced. Every year, over 3,000 visiting researchers from more than 40 nations work at the two DESY sites in Hamburg and Zeuthen near Berlin. They highly appreciate the almost infinite opportunities offered by these large high-tech facilities. DESY is part of the Helmholtz Association.

Anyone who wants to expand the horizons of knowledge in heavy ion research will find it practically impossible to pass by the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt. The accelerator facility that is used by roughly 1,250 international scientists a year is considered absolutely unique. GSI research teams attempt to create previously unknown chemical elements in the laboratory. So far they have succeeded in doing this in their experiments six times; they are responsible for discovering all the elements with atomic weights from 107 to 112. Last year, they caused yet another sensation: according to the highly influential American Physical Society, the discovery of chemical element 117 in experiments at GSI was one of the ten most exciting research successes of 2014 in physics.

Scientists in Darmstadt are expectantly looking to the future. After its completion in 2018, the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), one of the largest projects in physical basic research worldwide, will offer some 3,000 researchers from 50 countries the opportunity to conduct research into the basic building blocks of matter and the development of the universe. FAIR is being funded by Germany and nine other partner countries.

FLASH (Free Electron Laser in Hamburg), is the world’s first FEL designed and constructed for the extended ultraviolet and soft X-ray spectral range (XUV) by the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, Germany.

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Research

RV Sonne is a multipurpose working platform equipped to cover a wide spectrum of ocean research.

Sonne is one of more than 25 German research vessels currently operating around the world.

Floating high-tech laboratories

Investigations in the eternal ice

Not only the smallest elementary particles continue to hold mysteries. The sea still contains an infinite number of secrets. It was Elisabeth Mann Borgese, the grand dame of marine biology, who postulated the idea that the surface of the moon has been more thoroughly investigated than the largest habitat on our planet. The German research ships Polarstern, Meteor, Sonne, Maria S. Merian, Poseidon, Alkor and Heincke have been specially designed for marine research and offer floating laboratories for biologists, geologists, geophysicists, glaciologists, geochemists, oceanographers and meteorologists. The latest proud addition to the fleet is the research ship Sonne. Launched in July 2014 by Federal Chancellor Merkel, the 116-metre-long vessel aims to throw light on the depths of the Pacific and Indian Oceans and study the protection of marine ecosystems and the use of marine resources. The Dominican Republic was the destination of the first major voyage of the world’s most modern research ship. In addition to research on the Puerto Rico Trench and the deep-sea organisms that live in it, the 40 or so researchers on board were also kept busy surveying large parts of the Atlantic seafloor.

Accessibility is not its strong point. Anyone who spontaneously decides to get in touch will probably find it difficult. Visits are impossible and so are telephone calls. Of course, you can contact the nine members of the overwintering team at 70°40´S, 008°16´W by radio, but how many people have radio equipment at home.

Apparently, if you ignore the icy cold and the stormy darkness of the nine-month Antarctic winter, you can live rather cosily at NeumayerStation III, the German Antarctic research facility on the Ekström Ice Shelf. It has everything you need: in-house snow-melting equipment, great snow vehicles and even its own icebreaker, Polarstern, which makes regular appearances nearby. It is only 16 kilometres to the edge of the ice shelf, from which supplies have to be brought every so often. When the working day is over, you can go out whale watching – however, only in good weather, which is rare – or read. The library stocks three copies of Sten Nadolny’s bestseller: The Discovery of Slowness. Since the early 1980s polar researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute have worked here in international interdisciplinary teams that have made an important contribution to climate research.

They maintain several observatories to measure radiation and climate – and prove with each mission to the Arctic or Antarctic that research is above all a matter of passion and commitment. Otherwise no one would come here. Courtesy: mcdeutschland.de

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Giants of German research Germany boasts an excellent position in the fields of science, research and development, by both European and international standards.

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or most of the 20th century, Germany had more Nobel Prizes in the sciences (physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine) than any other nation. The raw output of scientific research from Germany consistently ranks among the world’s best. Here are some of the leading research organizations in Germany.

Helmholtz – Germany’s largest research organization Some 15,000 researchers and 7,000 PhD students conduct research for the Helmholtz Association in 18 centres.

Over 15,000 researchers and 7,000 PhD students work for Germany’s largest research organisation. It began life in 1958 as a loose working group of a few relatively new institutions active in the field of nuclear energy, which was then considered a fascinating subject. Today, the Helmholtz Association consists of 18 independent research centres, including the German Aerospace Center (DLR) which alone has 16 different sites in Germany.

Research at Helmholtz Centres aims to contribute towards answering major and urgent questions facing science, society and industry. In the process, Helmholtz researchers concentrate on highly complex systems that affect humans and the environment. Research teams are examining how to keep the environment intact for future generations and developing new therapies for previously incurable diseases. Helmholtz research projects often involve the use of spectacular large machines.

Leipziger KUBUS, the conference centre of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). Photo Courtesy: www.ufz.de

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Leibniz Association – outstanding diversity The Leibniz Association brings together 89 research centres covering subjects from natural sciences to the humanities.

The Leibniz Association brings together 89 independent research institutions covering a broad range of disciplines from natural, engineering and environmental sciences to economic, spatial and social sciences and the humanities.

A shared goal of the association’s 8,800 researchers lies in knowledge transfer to politics, industry and society as a whole. Leibniz Institutes maintain a wide range of cooperative partnerships with universities, industry and other partners in and outside Germany. The Leibniz Association would like to attract the world’s best minds for its research. As a result, the proportion of foreigners among its junior researchers under 36 years of age is already gratifyingly high at 23.3%.

DWI Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials is one of the Association’s 89 research centres.

The “jewels” in the organisation’s crown include not only the German Museum in Munich, the Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam, the Institute for Catalysis in Rostock and the Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics in Freiburg, but also the Peace Research Institute in Frankfurt.

Humboldt Foundation – networking excellence The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s network of researchers spans the globe.

University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg in Frankfurt.

The library possesses an inventory of more than five million books and magazines.

For the palaeontologist at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, cooperation with his colleague at Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand, on the other side of the globe, is perfectly normal. This is true for most researchers in Germany these days.

Nothing much happens without international cooperation, and this form of collaboration works best when you personally know important colleagues in the other country. That is something that the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn supports. Every year, over 1,000 outstanding researchers receive scholarships for research stays. They can choose the project and host in Germany themselves. When the scholarships holders return home afterwards, they usually remain in close contact with their colleagues in the “Humboldt family”. Over 26,000 of these Humboldtians now also receive frequent research visitors from Germany. Grants are also available for this form of network development.

Max Planck Society – seeking knowledge The Max Planck Society’s experts in basic research are among the world’s most renowned scholars and scientists.

It is neither the largest nor the oldest research organisation in Germany, but it is the best known: the Max Planck Society (MPG) is “the” centre for basic research in the natural sciences, biological sciences, social sciences and the humanities outside the universities.

Some 5,500 researchers at 78 Max Planck Institutes in Germany and five other centres in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy and the USA can devote all their attention to their subject without the obligation to hold lectures.

Registered as a charitable association, the organisation plays in the Champions League of international research. Since 1948, 18 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to MPG researchers. It ranks second – and is the only European research institution – among the top ten in the global ISI Citation Index of the most frequently cited research works

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The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPICBG) is a biology research institute located in Dresden, Germany. in 22 fields. Only recently, in autumn 2014, Nature Index 2014 ranked the MPG top in Europe. It should therefore come as no surprise that the MPG is considered Germany’s most attractive employer for researchers.

The Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR in Bonn is one of 60 institutes of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

Its conspicuous characteristic is the Kugel (ball), which with a diameter of 49 metres is the world’s largest radome and houses the space observation radar TIRA. Courtesy: www.radarsummerschool.fraunhofer.de

Fraunhofer – patent forge Fraunhofer’s expoerts in application-oriented research work closely with industry.

Following the maxim “We invent the future”, the FraunhoferGesellschaft has become Europe’s largest application-oriented developer of new technologies. Founded in 1949, the organisation with 23,000 employees and 66 institutes is developing virtually all the technologies that will enter private households and industry in the near future.

Projects range from contactless charging stations for electric cars and redox flow batteries to storage systems for wind and solar electricity and industrial robots with a soft grip that can hold ripe tomatoes without damaging them. Fraunhofer Institutes produce an average of three new inventions every working day. One highlight was the mp3 coding format for compressing audio data. Because it requires minimal storage it has conquered the Internet. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is active worldwide with subsidiaries, offices and joint ventures in nine European, two North American, two South American, seven Asian and three African and Arab countries as well as in Australia.

Leopoldina and Council of Science and Humanities The German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the German Council of Science and Humanities provide social and research policy advice.

The German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in Halle has been the national academy of sciences since 2008. However, its history goes back much further: the world’s oldest continuously existing academy of natural sciences and medicine was founded in 1652. It currently has 1,500 members, who include outstanding researchers from 30 countries. They regularly contribute to important social and political debates – for example, on climate change, the energy transition or demography.

The German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina is the oldest continuously existing academy of sciences and medicine in the world.

Research policy advice is also a major area for the German Council of Science and Humanities, which is funded by the Federal Government and 16 State Governments. The 32 members of its Scientific Commission are appointed by the Federal President.

Together with the 22 members of the Administrative Commission, they draft recommendations on the development of higher education, science and research in Germany.

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Health Tourism

Health tourism in Germany With over 70,000 health travelers visiting the country, Germany stands in the fourth place among the leading destinations for health tourism worldwide.

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Germany also offers a pocket-friendly alternative to medical tourists from countries where healthcare is on the higher end of the pricing scale. Medical treatment expenses here are about 50 percent of that in the US.

German medical tourism has carved a niche for itself in the healthcare industry by successfully treating many diseases. The healthcare officials here have years of experience in the fields of gastroenterology, prosthetics, cardiology, artificial insemination, and cosmetic surgery.

Health travelers also get to unwind amidst Germany’s untouched natural beauty and in its healthy climate, which can make way for a speedy recovery! From partaking in carnivals in Cologne to a peaceful getaway in Heidelberg’s picturesque landscapes, a visit to the Bavarian Alps or the Dresden State Art Collections, medical tourists have much to look forward to on their trip to Germany.

ermany’s healthcare system has lodged itself in a commanding position all over the world. The country owes its success in the healthcare industry to the advanced collaboration it sees across scientific, research, medical and industrial spheres, guided by the generous support of its governmental bodies.

Radiation treatment in the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center (HIT) of Heidelberg University Hospital.

This is the first therapy center in Europe in which malignant tumors can be treated with both protons and heavy ions. Photo Courtesy: www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de

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Why Germany for your healthcare needs Every year Germany sees over 70,000 medical travelers visiting the country. It stands in the fourth place among the leading destinations for medical tourism worldwide, according to a market study. In fact, the healthcare system in Germany is considered to be among Europe’s best. All these facts have made Germany serve as a hotspot for healthcare tourists from around Europe for centuries now.

Germany prides itself as one of the best healthcare systems around the globe. Munich’s medical institutions are considered to be some of the best around the world due to their proficiency in timely diagnosis and effective medical treatment time.

Germany is one of the leading EU countries to invest a significant portion of its financial resources solely in the development of the healthcare industry. These financial resources have ensured that the healthcare industry has all the means to consistently maintain its standards in par with the global healthcare industry’s other leading players.

Typically, it is patients from Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, the US and the UK, who can furnish the required financial resources and travel to Germany for its high-standard medical care. The reputation and expertise of German medical practitioners has made many Arabian Gulf patients travel to the country for medical care as well.

The Charité – University Medicine Berlin’s Campus Benjamin Franklin (CBF). Charité is one of the largest teaching hospitals in Germany, affiliated with both Humboldt University and Freie University Berlin.

Neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, cardiac surgery, fertility treatment, oncology, rehabilitation, ophthalmology and nephrology are common treatments for which medical tourists travel to Germany.

Hospital and doctor standards Germany is fondly referred to as the “Hospital of Europe”, owing to the impressive doctor/patient ratios and the quality of medical care.

German medical facilities are expected to go through well-established surveillance programs under the guidance of governmental bodies to check their standards. Institutions are accredited and certified by the Cooperation for Quality and Transparency in Healthcare, the Telemedicine for the Mobile Society and the German Institute for Standardization.

Center for Injuries and Disease in the Head/Neck Area at the University Hospital Heidelberg.

German medical facilities enjoy the advantage of having various pharmaceutical and healthcare giants operating in the country, as it gives them access to groundbreaking technology and equipment even before it is unveiled to the rest of the world. Practitioners here are well-versed with use of the latest technology and equipment before it is incorporated or even approved in other facilities worldwide.

Furthermore, the technology and equipment in these medical

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institutions are regularly updated once in every three to five years, to fine-tune them with research advances and the requirements of the industry.

Physicians in Germany are made to go through tedious training programs before they start their practice. Medical students are typically a part of university training that involves a preliminary scientific study, followed by hands-on study. On its completion, they are expected to train in their field of specialization for 5-7 years.

Key strengths of German healthcare system Well-trained medical practitioners and high doctorpatient ratios Medical professionals in Germany go through well-rounded training processes before they begin their practice. The exceptional medical education and training standards ensure that only the best professionals practice in healthcare facilities.

Furthermore, Germany boasts of about 380 physicians for every 100,000 people on an average. These numbers exceed the average ratios of both Canada and the US. Western medical tourists choose Germany for this reason as it considerably brings down their waiting time, while also giving them access to high-standard medical care that matches up to the standards of healthcare facilities back home.

The Greifswald University Hospital is a teaching hospital for the University of Greifswald’s medical school.

High-quality medical care and after-care provisions The quality of Germany’s healthcare system has made it a reliable medical tourism destination for patients around the world, while it also offers some complex medical treatments that patients may not have access to. Medical facilities in Germany are subjected to certification and accreditation processes under the surveillance of governmental bodies, that helps pit them against international-standard medical institutions.

These facilities are equipped with state-ofthe-art equipment that allows doctors to perform complex medical care procedures efficiently and pay special attention to the after-care of patients. There are several rehabilitation and physical therapy centers across Germany that cater to patient after-

care, allowing for a speedy recovery in a relaxing environment.

Access to medical equipment from leading manufacturers Europe’s largest medical device manufacturing market is in Germany.

Siemens, Drager and Bayer are some leading players in the healthcare industry who are established in Germany. The presence of these healthcare giants allows Germany to enjoy the benefit of accessing cutting-edge medical technology and equipment before it is released elsewhere. Germany also has a wealth of medical universities that spearhead global medical research and ensure that the healthcare industry stays abreast with advances in the medical field.

Leading in Integrative Medicine approach Traditional medicine may be combined with alternative medicine and holistic wellness therapies while treating patients in Germany.

The country has over 350 spa and health resorts that combine conventional medical practices with naturopathic treatments that make use of thermal springs, mineral water, mud wraps, Kneipp hydrotherapy, Schroth treatments to enhance the overall health of the patient. The holistic treatment approach addresses the exercise, nutrition and relaxation requirements of the patient while treating medical conditions.

High standard of medical treatments with value for money

The German Heart Centre in Munich is a special clinic at the Technical University of Munich and one of Germany’s leading centers for cardiovascular diseases.

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The treatment costs in Germany are higher when compared to other medical tourism destinations like Eastern Europe or Asia. However, the quality of treatment is in a different level, which justifies the associated medical expenses. Even so, the medical treatment cost in Germany is about 50 percent its cost in the US. Courtesy: mymedholiday.com

Naturopathy

The land of natural remedy Germany’s health resorts and spas specialize in combining timehonoured naturopathic treatments with state-of-the-art medical treatments.

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t’s the wide choice of natural remedies that makes Germany so popular with health-conscious travelers. More than 300 approved health resorts and spas help you to prevent and treat illnesses or simply to rest and relax. Alongside the alternative philosophies of Kneipp, Felke and Schroth, they draw on nature’s plentiful resources – from thermal springs, seawater and nourishing peats to ‘health mines’ and the very air that we breathe.

‘Health mines’ and radon therapy Healing powers from the depths of the Earth – Heilstollen therapies take advantage of the purity of air in disused mines, while the noble gas radon draws its healing properties from the depths of the Earth.

Here are some of Germany’s most popular spas, health resorts and naturopathy centers.

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Naturopathy

Aalen – health mine resort in the Swabian Alb Visitors to the foothills of the Swabian Alb can enjoy the delightful countryside, discover the benefits of the health mine and unwind in the Limes thermal baths in Aalen. The Tiefer Stollen in Aalen is not only a visitor mine but also a therapeutic geological cave in which the air is purer than in the mountains or by the sea. Health mines have scientifically proven benefits and are ideal for alleviating asthmatic illnesses. In Aalen patients receive traditional respiratory tract therapy underground. Inside the cave the air is virtually free of dust and

complaints for 100 years. This state-approved spa resort lives and breathes spa treatments and tourism. Day-to-day life and culture are seamlessly blended with the high standards of a spa and holiday resort. Visitors come here to build up their defences, to stave off illness or to convalesce. In Bad Kreuznach guests can experience the natural benefits of radon gas, which has been used in safe concentrations for a century to treat rheumatism and inflammations. Bad Kreuznach first pioneered the use of radon therapy in an underground quicksilver chamber where the air is dry and almost completely free of dust. For one hour patients inhale safe concentrations of the radon gas that appears naturally in the air. This inhalation therapy is eminently suitable for the elderly and those with unstable circulation. A variety of leisure and relaxation options can be found within a few minutes’ walk and an enchanting river and forest landscape is right on the doorstep. Visits to the many museums and monuments in and around the town can be combined as an itinerary for a delightful walk or a stroll.

Bad Schmiedeberg –mud, mineral and hydrotherapy spa resort

allergens, which soothes respiratory ailments and disorders of the skin.

Comfortable loungers are provided so that patients just lie back and let the air get to work. The perfect complement to a health mine treatment session is a visit to the Limes thermal baths in Aalen, a Roman-themed wellness oasis where the water is 36.4°C and contains fluoride, calcium, sodium and sulphate – perfect for unwinding in the style of the ancients. Fachsenfeld Hall and many other attractions are within easy reach. The centre of Aalen is a maze of rambling lanes where visitors can admire timber-framed buildings and wonderful views of the mountains.

Bad Kreuznach – spa and holiday resort Bad Kreuznach is widely regarded as one of Germany’s finest health spa resorts. Here radon therapy has been used to relieve

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Bad Schmiedeberg is located in the heart of Düben heath nature reserve. The diverse countryside creates an exceptional backdrop for this resort which provides a broad spectrum of leisure and fitness breaks. The town’s history is closely linked to spa resort medicine. Bad Schmiedeberg’s tradition as a spa resort began with the opening of the municipal ferrous mud spa in 1878. Since then orthopaedic, rheumatic and gynaecological conditions have all been treated here with natural therapies. Bad Schmiedeberg is one of the few places in Germany to have not one but three natural healing resources: mud, spring water and radon. For the past 133 years the natural healing properties of mud have been used to treat rheumatism, osteoporosis and gout. The curative waters are prescribed as a drink and are also used for bathing

treatments. Bad Schmiedeberg’s Kurfürstenbrunnen mineral spring is a conduit for radon and is used by bathers undergoing radon therapy.

The resort has also built up a reputation for successfully treating illnesses using the Kneipp cure.

Bad Sobernheim – Felke spa resort between the Rhine and the Moselle Germany’s only Felke spa resort, which is set among vineyards, meadows and forests, attracts many visitors and spa guests to this holiday region. Bad Sobernheim is associated with unspoilt nature, history and the arts but first and foremost it is known for its Felke treatments, which use curative loam and were discovered by Emanuel Felke. Away from the big-city hustle and bustle, visitors can replenish their energies in the newest official spa resort (1995) in Rhineland-Palatinate. The Felke cure, an active, holistic therapy for joint pain, obesity and high blood pressure is used successfully to treat

of wellbeing. There are monuments to Sebastian Kneipp in various locations around the town. His teachings and his successes as a spa physician can be admired in detail at the Kneipp Museum.

Göhren – seaside and hydrotherapy resort on Rügen Island

patients at three health and wellness centres. Based on the four Felke elements of air, light, water and loam (‘healing earth’), it is combined with physical exercise and a whole-food diet rich in vital nutrients, or therapeutic fasting, to create an effective therapy. The treatments feature Bad Sobernheim’s curative loam in the form of loam packs, loam baths and Rasul baths, which aim to detox, purify and restore balance to the body.

Anyone in search of relaxation will enjoy the fresh sea air and health-boosting hydrotherapy treatments in Göhren, the third-largest resort on the island of Rügen. The traditional Baltic seaside resort of Göhren is located on the easternmost tip of Germany’s largest island, Rügen. Göhren is quite unique in Germany, as it is both a state-approved seaside resort (since 1878) and an official Kneipp hydrotherapy health resort (since 2007). The glorious natural scenery and the northern beach, which stretches for miles, not only attract spa guests but also families. In fact, Göhren was given an award in 2008 for being particularly family friendly. As well as all the usual treatments, the resort focuses on the holistic health concept developed by Sebastian Kneipp. Kneipp’s treatment was founded on five pillars of equal importance – hydrotherapy, herbalism, exercise, nutrition and spirituality – although it was the hydrotherapy component that made the Kneipp cure famous. As Germany’s only hydrotherapy health resort situated right by the sea, Göhren is an ideal place for visitors to do wading sessions, barefoot walks and other Kneipp therapies. The natural healing qualities of the sea air and the salt water also reinforce the effects of thalassotherapy. Text & photo courtesy of www.germany. travel

Bad Wörishofen - a traditional Kneipp spa resort 120 years ago Sebastian Kneipp made Wörishofen the talk of Germany with his unique Kneipp spa treatments and this timehonoured spa resort in the Allgäu has been a popular holiday destination ever since. Bad Wörishofen is situated 635m above sea level. The mountain air and the spring water, which contains fluoride and iodine, provide the ideal ingredients for health breaks based on Kneipp treatments. These are available in more than 165 clinics and hotels in Bad Wörishofen. Other facilities include a Kneipp forest trail, more than 250 kilometres of cycle trails and footpaths, tennis courts and golf courses. Top of everyone’s list in Bad Wörishofen are the thermal baths, a 5,000m² South Sea oasis beneath a glazed dome.

Eight different pools with water rich in sulphur, iodine and salt help to alleviate chronic joint pain, circulatory disorders and gynaecological complaints. Chromotherapy, a Kneipp trail and a new 2,000m² sauna paradise offering 15 steam and sauna attractions also promote feelings

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Culture

The digital Bauhaus The Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe has been leading the classical arts into the digital age for 25 years. It is a globally unique cultural institution.

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here ammunition was once produced for weapons, society is today being armed for the future.” These were the words Frank Mentrup, the Mayor of Karlsruhe, once used to sum up the history of the Center for Art and Media (ZKM). This globally unique cultural institution covers all media and genres, both analogue and digital, and offers a home not only for spatial arts like painting, photography and sculpture, but also for time-based media such as film, video, media art, music, dance, theatre and performance. To date, more than four million visitors have shared the ZKM’s visions in Karlsruhe in about 300 exhibitions and performances.

From the outset, the key question was how are art and society changing as a result of the emerging new information and communication media? At an early stage, Heinrich Klotz, the founding director, gave the centre the honorary title of “digital Bauhaus” – a reference to the Bauhaus, the art school that was founded in Weimar in 1919 and later moved to Dessau. The Bauhaus realigned the arts from the craft perspective to the machine perspective for the first time. By contrast, the ZKM – in line with the technological possibilities of the 21th century – uses digital technologies to present the arts, without falling into blind media euphoria in the process. It houses institutes and

As a cultural institution, the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) holds a unique position in the world.

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Car Building by Hans Holleinduring, during the exhibition Car Culture in 2011. laboratories where research and development are conducted. It not only preserves art in archives and collections in the classical museum tradition, but actively helps in the production of art.

In 1985 the MIT Media Lab was launched in Massachusetts as a think tank for the new digital age. However, a year earlier the then head of the Karlsruhe City Culture Department, Michael Heck, had already put forward an initial proposal for setting up an “interdisciplinary

As a platform for experimentation and discussion, ZKM offers a spacious ambience where visitors can enjoy events and tours and view public exhibitions.

centre for research, teaching and artistic activities”, which was then implemented in 1989. In the early days, the ZKM was spread over several sites in Karlsruhe, but in the autumn of 1997 the new haven for the media arts found its final home in the historic warehouse of a former industrial engineering company. In the 1920s this factory had initially manufactured civilian utensils like tins and milk cans, but the focus switched a few years later to the large-scale production of ammunition and weapons components. The Austrian artist and media theorist Peter Weibel, who followed Klotz as director in 1999, explains that the ZKM has successfully driven the evil spirit out of these walls in two ways: “First, by the transformation of a war factory into a culture factory and, secondly, by turning implements of war into works of media art.” For example, the Hungarian artist Kata Legrady recently decorated Kalashnikov rifles with Smarties, simply smiling away the former killing machines.

Its geographical location at the intersection of major transport links, its close proximity to France and its numerous collaborations with European partners, such as the Steirischer Herbst festival in Graz, the Media Center d’Art i Disseny in Barcelona or the IRCAM in Paris, all make the ZKM an ideas hub for all parts of Europe. But here, too, the motto now is: “Think global, act local!” A four-million-euro exhibition entitled Globale is to open in June 2015 depicting the cultural effects of globalisation and the mutual influences and challenges of different concepts of culture. The ZKM need not worry about its long-term viability in the context of such ambitious programmes. For, to quote what Adam G. Riess, 2011 Nobel Laureate for Physics, said in a video message called “On the Future of the Universe” marking the ZKM’s 25th anniversary: “Don’t panic – the ZKM has another 35 billion years ahead of it yet.” Courtesy: www.zkm.de.deutschland.de

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Culture

The Volksbühne theatre at Rosen-Luxemburg-Platz. With its political, engaged and spectacular theatre, it has been helping to convey to the world the message that Berlin’s centre is a stage for tireless experimentation.

Berlin – a creative laboratory Since reunification, Berlin has grown out of the east and west question – to become an international creative laboratory where the future feels almost close enough to touch.

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ST. The three giant letters on the roof of the Volksbühne theatre at Rosen-Luxemburg-Platz spell out the German word for east, and are deliberately confusing. There has been no “east” in Berlin’s central Mitte district for years, and the Volksbühne is not entirely blameless in this. Over the past 25 years, the boundaries of theatre have been explored here time and time again. Besides the classic works of director’s theatre, which have been reinterpreted at the Volksbühne, Christoph Schlingensief and René Pollesch celebrated their early successes here. The Volksbühne made political, engaged and spectacular theatre, thereby almost incidentally helping to convey to the world the message that Berlin’s centre is a stage for tireless experimentation. It was thus only logical that the thunderous rumblings in the world of theatre which accompanied the question of who would succeed Frank Castorf, who has been the theatre’s artistic director

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since 1992, were to be heard all over Europe. These days Berlin Mitte is a world-class location, a place in the world for which “east” is at most a geographical reference.

Chris Dercon, director of the renowned Tate Gallery in London, won the race for the post of artistic director. When talking about Berlin, he speaks in euphoric, superlative terms rather than resorting to understatement: “Large numbers of artists also come to London.

But London’s development is in a rut, whereas Berlin is in a state of constant flux.” For Belgium-born Dercon, the Volksbühne with its more than 100-year history is the place where “the future of theatre” in the 21st century will be produced. Berlin has long compared itself to London and New York but has now overtaken both – so at least believes Chris Dercon.

If we take a stroll through the epicentre of the new Berlin from Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, we will find that the question of what is east and what is west has long since become irrelevant. It is no longer sensitivities concerning the former parts of Germany that are debated in Berlin Mitte, but international issues in which the word “future” will inevitably feature. As indeed it will at the Babylon cinema, which is all about the future of film – and which, it goes without saying, is equally international. After its triumphal debut in Los Angeles, this is where Ida, the Polish movie that won the Oscar for best foreign language film, was first screened. A drama about a Jewish girl in post-war Poland, it also opened the Film Polska festival which, as its curator Kornel Miglus likes to emphasise, is the largest festival of Polish cinema outside Poland.

If we then proceed along Rosa-Luxemburg-Strasse towards Alexanderplatz, we will inevitably arrive at Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse. If street names are seen as preserving urban memories, this one has a very East German ring to it, and one that seems determined to uphold socialist traditions. Little in the way of such tradition remains here apart from the complex of prefabricated concrete tower blocks on Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse, as most of the buildings which stood as a testament to socialist-style urban development were knocked down after German reunification. The idea was to rebuild the “new Berlin”, and indeed – with a touch of postmodern irony – the Prussian City

Palace, at the heart of the city. Many East Berliners considered this to be a sacrilege, as did young architects and urban activists. Was the plan suddenly to celebrate the past glory of the Hohenzollern monarchy at the centre of a reunited Berlin? To celebrate the 19th rather than the 21st century, the spiked helmet rather than the woolly hat, fine ashlar masonry rather than glass?

The criticism has meanwhile died down, as the reconstruction of the City Palace, which celebrated its topping-out ceremony in the spring of 2015, is only a shell for the Humboldt Forum, the “most important cultural project of the Federal Republic of Germany”, as State Secretary for Culture Monika Grütters stresses. With the collections of the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art, the Humboldt Lab of the university of the same name and the World.

City.Berlin exhibition of the Stiftung Stadtmuseun, Berlin’s Mitte is bringing the whole world into the palace. The founding director of the Humboldt Forum is the British art historian and museum director Neil MacGregor who, when he was first presented, stated with conviction that: “Europe is being rethought in Berlin.” Previously MacGregor ran the British Museum in London. Given such concentrated internationalism, might there not be a shortage of local colour? It is certainly the case that English, Spanish or Italian are more likely to be heard than German, let alone the local Berlin dialect, along Berlin’s Unter den Linden boulevard, which is the continuation of

The Platoon Kunsthalle, a hipster favela made by piling up a number of containers on Schönhauser Allee.

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Culture

Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse, as well as in many of the bars and cafés in Mitte, Kreuzberg or Friedrichshain. Local colour is provided at the end of the boulevard, however, in the form of Berlin’s famous landmark, the Brandenburg Gate. Pictures of people celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall here on 9 November 1989 were beamed around the world. Ever since, this Elbe sandstone gate that was completed in 1791 has been an iconic symbol of the city – appearing on countless tourist photographs as well as serving as the backdrop for major events.

When Germany hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2006, images of the “Fanmeile” fan fest at the Brandenburg Gate were seen all over the world – the colourful celebrations in Berlin coming to symbolise a new, tolerant and open Germany. The pictures certainly had the desired effect – tourist numbers are rising every year, and Berlin has long been one of Europe’s three most popular tourist destinations alongside London and Paris.

Talking about Berlin Mitte in superlative terms naturally raises the question of what its

problems might be. With an unemployment rate of nearly 14%, Mitte is one of the Berlin districts – alongside Spandau and Neukölln – facing the biggest social challenges. This is because it comprises not only the former centre of East Berlin, but also the one-time working-class neighbourhoods of Moabit and Wedding. And at times, the glamorous face of Berlin is but a stone’s throw away from its darker sides, something which the German capital also has in common with other major cities nowadays: the poor and the rich living in close proximity. What is more, it is not infrequently the case that the “poor” districts are the breeding ground for precisely the sort of creativity that is then celebrated on the “catwalk of Mitte”.

Walking away from the Brandenburg Gate, we follow Wilhelmstrasse, once the centre of German statehood and National Socialist tyranny, via the river Spree, along whose banks one after another of the insignia of the “Berlin Republic” – the Chancellery and Reichstag, the seat of the German parliament – are to be found, to Friedrichstrasse. In the past a symbol for vibrant metropolitan living,

The World Time Clock on Alexanderplatz in Berlin.

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it has now been able to re-engage with its history between Checkpoint Charlie and the railway station. North of Weidendamm Bridge it merely forms the backbone of a very ordinary neighbourhood, however, with shops, apartments and a few offices. Berlin was once a laboratory here, too: just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, artists occupied the ruins of a department store – known as the Tacheles Art House, it soon came to symbolise the wild 1990s. The site has now been acquired by a financial investor.

The Postfuhramt on Oranienburger Strasse experienced a similar fate: built in Moorish style, the post office building was the base for numerous art initiatives post-1990. Soon, the plan is for very ordinary people to work in very ordinary offices here, hidden away behind the exciting facade. Does this mean that Mitte – this Berlin, German, international laboratory – will soon be very ordinary too? Will the Volksbühne at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and the Humboldt Forum soon be but beacons in the otherwise flat and unspectacular landscape of urban existence?

Berlin would not be Berlin if it did not ask precisely these questions itself. But are the answers always the right ones? Not far from Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, a number of containers have been piled up to create a kind of hipster favela. Known as Platoon Kunsthalle, this makeshift building has been on Schönhauser Allee for three years now.

Platoon, a worldwide network which set up its first “Kunsthalle” (or art hall) in the South Korean capital Seoul in 2000, wants “to build a bridge between the key players in the cultural scene: between artists and creative individuals on the one hand and brands and institutions on the other”. Although Platoon has made some useful contributions in this context, the pendulum nowadays seems to be swinging clearly in the direction of commercial goals. Which makes the message that Chris Dercon sought to convey when he was presented as the Volksbühne’s new artistic director all the more important. After all, the theatre is supposed in future to be a planet orbited by several moons. One of the venues to be used is a hangar in the city’s disused Tempelhof Airport, while the Prater on Kastanienallee – a forum for theatrical experimentation – is also to be preserved.

The Babylon cinema is to be added to the Volksbühne cosmos. “Theatre is a real and a symbolic place which creates an open situation of people for people,” Dercon explained to the art magazine Monopol.

“It should not be afraid of opening up even more.” He could equally well have been talking about creative Berlin.

Courtesy: mcdeutschland.de

Architecture

Heidelberg A magnificent view of the southwestern German town of Heidelberg, with the Old Bridge over Neckar River in the foreground and the Heidelberg Castle in the background.

Heidelberg is well known for its baroque architecture, as well as its distinguished 14th-century Heidelberg University, which is one of Europe’s oldest universities, and other institutions of higher education.

Heidelberg is a popular tourist destination due to its romantic and picturesque cityscape, including the famous Old Town and the well-preserved Heidelberg Castle.

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Environment

A waste sorting facility in Germany. Courtesy: azthesmudger / Fotolia.com

A new trend to waste prevention Germany leads Europe in recycling. Now there is a new trend towards waste reduction: precycling.

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ometimes clichés and reality coincide.

Waste separation is considered typically German, and a glance at European waste statistics shows that, when it comes to recycling waste, Germany is in fact number one, followed by Austria and Belgium. In Germany, according to Eurostat waste statistics, 65 per cent of waste is recycled.

The German recycling rate is 47 per cent and the share of composted waste 18 per cent.

This is an important achievement, contributing to climate and resource protection.

Yet the world still produces too much waste, with devastating consequences for the environment. According to a new projection made by scientists in California, more than five trillion bits of plastic, with a total weight of nearly 270,000 tons, are floating about in the world’s oceans alone. This is considerably more waste than could fit into 38,500 bin lorries, write the authors of the study, which

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was published at the end of 2014 in the science journal Plos One.

Precycling in Berlin In the matter of waste avoidance, there is also still much to be done even in the leading recycling land, Germany. For the best waste is the waste that never even arises. This is also the idea of the founders of the first German supermarkets without piles of rubbish. In the autumn of 2014, the midst of the trendy Berlin district of Kreuzberg, two young women opened their start-up. It works like this: customers bring their own containers.

The jars, cans or bags are weighed and only the net weight of the purchases is paid. So far the range of goods comprises some 400 products: whether tofu or baking powder, body lotion or toothpaste tablets, everything is sold in bulk.

The philosophy of waste prevention applies not only to the end user, but also to the entire supply chain. There are similar initiatives such as “Original Unpacked” in London and Austin, Texas. The Berlin start-up has generated even an international echo; signs of this are the entries of more than 50,000 Facebook fans and franchise enquiries from South America and Australia.

The concept, known in professional circles as “precycling”, has two advantages, explained “Original Unpacked” founder Milena Glimbovski in a newspaper interview: first, it largely avoids packaging waste in shopping, and secondly, people buy only as much of a product as they really need.

Waste management in Germany For Germans, waste collection and disposal are self-evident. However, this is the

result of a long development in the field of waste management, waste technology and waste regulations.

The legal framework for waste management in Germany had its beginnings in the early 19th century, when a few regions began adopting waste disposal laws. Germany’s first uniform national waste disposal law, the 1972 Waste Disposal Act, has been amended and adjusted from time to time, and is now our current Waste Management Act. Waste management has changed tremendously since these early days, from mere disposal management to full-blown waste management – a process that constitutes a veritable paradigm shift. In Germany, waste management now aims to conserve natural resources and manage waste in an environmentally sound manner, whereby sustainable strengthening of environmental and climate protection measures, as well as resource efficiency, play a key role.

The centrepiece of Germany’s Waste Management Act is a fivelevel waste hierarchy that lays down a fundamental series of steps comprising waste prevention, reuse, recycling, and other elements besides, including energy recovery, and finally waste disposal. In any given instance, the best option from an environmental protection standpoint always takes precedence, whereby ecological, technical, economic and social effects are to be taken into account as well.

Thus waste management practices in Germany systematically aim to minimize waste generation and maximize recycling, while at the same time ensuring that the remaining waste is disposed of in a manner consistent with the common welfare.

The various types of waste have to be collected separately at source so as to maximize the recycling potential of the various waste streams. Separate collection of the various types of waste is necessary in order to maintain waste-stream specific quality standards

A waste incineration plant. Waste incineration plants generate electricity and heat in the thermal treatment of wastes. Courtesy: Bernd Engelmann / Umweltbundesamt for recycling. Under the Waste Management Act, beginning in 2015 separate collection of all of the various waste streams comprising paper, glass, plastic and household organic waste will be mandatory.

The instrument of product responsibility promulgated by the Waste Management Act defines responsibilities along the product life cycle, as well as incentives for manufacturers to make durable products that generate a minimum amount of waste. The principle of product responsiblity is also intended to ensure environmentally sound recovery and disposal of end-of-life goods. Courtesy: deutschland.de & umweltbundesamt.de

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Environment

German state studs Sites of living cultural heritage

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he German Principal and State Studs date back to the time when horses were essential for transport, agriculture and the military. The great European rulers made every effort to support horse breeding because the quality of the horse determined victory or defeat in the war, often even determining life or death. In order to improve state horse breeding, the land owners founded state studs that offered private breeders high-quality stallions at reasonable prices. Unlike these “stallion depots”, the principal studs also have their own herds of mares and rear foals with the aim of producing stallions for state breeding.

Together, the state studs overcame military conflicts, economic crises and social upheavals. The motorisation of agriculture and transport produced major changes. Deprived of their livelihood, the breeding stations, even those with a long history, were forced to close their gates. The studs that did manage to survive had to switch from breeding heavy warmbloods to breeding modern sports and leisure horses. Today, the state studs are sites of living cultural heritage which continue to evolve while maintaining their traditional values and natural charm.

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Preserving culture and bringing it to life For centuries our studs have shaped the landscapes and economic conditions of their regions. We impart identity and are important factors for sustainable regional development.

We uphold and enliven traditions, conserve unique historical studs, cultural landscapes and living cultural heritage. We maintain traditions and preserve skills and careers that elsewhere have long since been lost.

Our state studs are committed training establishments. In affiliated riding and driving schools, classical riding and driving is taught with the aim of harmony between man and horse. Through collaboration with universities, the studs are also scientific facilities.

As sites of living cultural heritage, we are ambassadors of the hippological culture of our state. At our studs, visitors can take a journey through time. More and more people are fascinated by the proud horses, atmospheric premises and the panache of centuries of tradition.

Top stallions with comprehensive breeder service The German state studs are modern service providers with tradition and character.

They are centres of excellence for horse breeding and equestrian sport. Our collection of stallions includes proven sires as well as promising young stallions. Since the beginning of modern equestrian sports, state sires and their offspring have featured in the highest tournament classes. They have been successful in the German Championships, World Championships and Olympic Games.

Numerous state sires are in the top 1 percent of German sires, and it is a state sire that has for years held the highest breeding value ever given in Germany.

Our comprehensive breeder service ranges from advice regarding stallion selection to rearing and training through

this list of endangered domesticated animal breeds. They have the state studs to thank for their survival: these studs provide the limited, but very passionate breedership with enough stallions to ensure the continued existence of these horse populations. By preserving the different breeds of horses, the breeders and state studs are making a significant contribution to the protection of biological diversity.

Heavy horses are currently enjoying increasing popularity again in the forestry sector, as leisure partners and in hippotherapy. The “heavies” delight audiences at stallion parades year in year out.

Heavy warmbloods like the “Moritzburg black horses” and the “Altwürttemberger” have established themselves as excellent driving horses.

The German state studs are home to special hippological treasures. For example, with the Weil-Marbach purebred Arabian, the Principal and State stud Marbach is preserving the heritage of Württemberg’s King William I, who founded the first Arabian breeding facility in Europe in 1817.

Warmblood breeding in the State Stud Prussendorf serves to preserve the valuable old mare families of the former Principal Stud Radegast.

to marketing the offspring. Equipped with covering facilities and insemination stations, the state studs offer competent service on site during the breeding season. Usually, stallions from all the major bloodlines are offered to breeders at affordable covering or insemination fees.

The motorisation of agriculture and transport resulted in many cold blood breeds and heavy warmbloods losing their original purpose in the 20th century. These “cultural horses” have since found themselves on

The German state studs are indispensable for modern breeding of sport horses.

We encourage special combinations of bloodlines and ensure wide genetic potential.

The character and specific qualities of the different bloodlines are values that passionate breeders appreciate and we have made it our task to preserve them. By preserving good stallion lines and maintaining valuable mare families, we offer reliability at the highest level.

Modern horse breeding with proven lines that are not dominated by fashion stallions. Courtesy: www.die-deutschen-landgestuete.de

Genetic diversity The state studs help to preserve the living cultural heritage that is the “horse”. For centuries, specific breeds and types have been bred for the changing needs of people, for use in agriculture and forestry, as a means of transport, for the military or representation, as partners for sport and leisure.

In addition to modern riding horses, cold blood breeds like the Altmärker, RhenishGerman, Saxon-Thuringian, South German and Black Forest Cold blood can also be found in the state studs as well as heavy warmbloods, riding pony stallions and Haflingers. Their names reveal the regional bearing of the horses, which are as diverse as the landscapes from which they originate.

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Tourism

Beautiful beaches and serene lakes in Germany The North Sea, the Baltic Sea and numerous lakes invite you to swim and sunbathe all over Germany.

Sylt Sylt, Germany’s northernmost island, is dubbed the “Queen of the North Sea.” Famous for its beaches, thatched-roof houses and spectacular dune landscape, it often makes the headlines because of its prominent visitors. But there is room for everyone to find a pleasant spot on almost 40 kilometres of sandy beaches. For instance, at the section of the beach called Buhne 16 at the seaside resort of Kampen.

This is where the CEO can be found sunbathing next to the plumber, the extended family next to the top model.

Bay of Lübeck This Baltic Sea bay is famous amongst sailing fans, especially because of the Travemünde Week which is the world’s second largest sailing ship event. But whether or not the wind is blowing,

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the wonderful beaches in Scharbeutz or Timmendorf, Grömitz and Pelzerhaken are still just as attractive. In fact the beach at Sierksdorf is a perfect dream for romantics who love coastal cliffs and nostalgic thatched cottages.

Usedom Elegant spa resorts, such as Heringsdorf and Ahlbeck, or maybe the lively seaside towns, such as Trassenheide and Zinnowitz? The choice of beaches on Germany’s sunniest island Usedom in the Baltic Sea is simply a matter of personal taste. The 45-kilometre-long beach with its wonderfully fine sand offers

plenty of room for all of the sunseekers. And with a little bit of luck you might even discover a piece of amber on the beach - the “gold of the Baltic Sea”.

Wannsee Once upon a time at the beginning of the 1950s, Connie Froboess sang the hit “Pack

your swimsuit”, a cheery tune about a group of children going swimming on a hot summer›s day at Berlin’s famous lakeside beach, the Strandbad Wannsee. Located on the eastern shore of the Wannsee, it is Europe’s largest lakeside bathing facility and was founded in 1907. On a hot summer’s day up to 12,000 visitors can be found enjoying themselves and relaxing on the sandy beach that is over one kilometre long.

Chiemsee Bavaria’s largest lake, also nicknamed the Bavarian Sea, offers many commercial beach facilities for water lovers, as well as open beaches that are free for all to use.

For instance, the Strandbad Übersee on the south. Courtesy: deutschland.de

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Tourism

Camping in Germany Camping is popular in Germany. More and more people are setting off on holiday with their caravans, mobile homes and tents – though not all of them sleep outside.

“

Yes we camp!” is what more and more people are saying when it comes to choosing their holidays. The camping industry is enjoying steady growth, and the German Tourism Association recently recorded 26 million overnight camping stays in Germany. This outdoor trend has long become an economic factor, partly because Germany’s more than 2,800 campsites are investing hugely in their facilities and leisure activities. There are luxurious sites with spas and tent lodges, as well as sites for golf players, horse-riding enthusiasts, city tourists and nature-lovers. Here are some examples of camping in Germany:

Award-winning – Camping Hopfensee in Bavaria One of the best campsites in Europe is the Hopfensee campsite in the Allgäu region. Situated right next to one of the warmest lakes in the Alpine foothills (and close to Neuschwanstein Castle), this awardwinning five-star camp site offers nature and luxury, for instance in the form of a spa with Swiss pine sauna and special facilities for golfers.

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Sanssouci, the former summer palace of Frederick the Great

Royal – Camping Sanssouci in Potsdam It is rare to have the opportunity to camp in the grounds of a royal palace. The Sanssouci campsite is situated in the former hunting grounds of the Prussian kings, which were transformed into a park by landscape gardener Josef Lenné. The campsite, which will be celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2015, is the ideal place to stay for people wishing to visit Potsdam and Berlin.

Indoor – Hüttenpalast in Berlin The Hüttenpalast in Berlin is the perfect place for anyone who wants to stay right in the heart of the German capital, does not trust the weather

but wants to enjoy the camping vibe all the same. Rain, storms and freezing weather are no problem, as the caravans are housed in an old factory building. The only thing that is not possible here is to pitch one’s own tent.

Close to nature – Camping on the river Elbe near Hamburg The campsite at Stover Strand offers a classic camping experience.

Holidaymakers can relax while watching the changing of the tides on the Elbe – while anyone needing a bit of city life after all this nature can be in the Port of Hamburg in just 30 minutes from Geesthacht.

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Tourism

Wild way of viewing German forests From the Baltic coast to the Alps, treetop paths offer unique views of Germany’s forests and are an outdoor trend between Rügen and the Allgäu

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Eagle’s view of the Baltic Sea - Rügen Heritage Centre The viewing tower of the treetop path in Rügen is designed to resemble an eagle’s eyrie. At 82 metres above sea level it offers a clear view of the Baltic Sea and the island beyond the trees. Like most of Germany’s treetop paths, this one is suitable for wheelchair users and for families with prams.

Between castle and trees – Bad Harzburg Lower Saxony’s first treetop path is currently under construction in the Harz Mountains. It takes visitors on a walk 25 metres above the ground, through the treetops of an old mixed forest and beneath the castle rock of Bad Harzburg. It is scheduled to open in 2015.

Discover the jungle – Hainich National Park in Thuringia The treetop path in Thuringia is probably the most well-known one in Germany. It offers stunning views of Hainich National Park. The park is Germany’s largest cohesive deciduous forest area and the beech forest is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Record holder – Neuschönau in the Bavarian Forest The spectacular 1,300-metre-long walkway in the Bavarian Forest is advertised as the “world’s longest treetop path”. It offers an endless view across the pure wilderness as far as the Alps.

Sky high – Scheidegg in the Allgäu The skywalk in the Allgäu provides visitors with a fantastic panorama of Lake Constance, the Alps and the Alpine foothills. Suspension bridges wend their way through the tree tops, and the viewing platform also has a lift for visitors.

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Tourism

The Town of Creeks A beautiful evening in Cochem, the seat of and the biggest town in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With under 5,000 inhabitants, Cochem is Germany’s second smallest district seat. Emptying into the Moselle in Cochem are the creeks of Kraklebach, the Ebernacher Bach, the Sehlerbach, the Falzbach, the Märtscheltbach and the Enthetbach. Near the town is the well-preserved Cochem Castle.

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