Yet the country has been steadily falling behind in rankings measuring international competitiveness, especially due to a deterioration of its infrastructure. A decade ago it was ranked sixth; now it is 24th. According to a study, 20% of value-added activity is in danger of being lost.

KPMG has reported that digital infrastructure is worse than in surrounding countries as streets and bridges need renovations and bureaucracy is overwhelming. Only 58% of surveyed CFOs of foreign corporations in Germany consider Europe’s largest economy to be among the five most stable EU countries. Two years ago, the figure was 80%.

Looming above it all are high energy costs, making life especially hard for energy-intensive industries. A lot has been written about Germany’s suicidal energy policy, but nothing has been as devastating as a recent study showing that Berlin spent €500 billion on the “energy transition” towards renewables and barely has anything to show for it. If the funds had been spent on nuclear energy instead, Germany would have saved money, produced more energy, and decarbonised its electricity grid. Instead, the country wasted billions and — for the first time in 22 years — became a net importer of electricity.

Unsurprisingly, and not without justification, German voters are becoming increasingly disgruntled with the status quo. This was shown in the recent elections in Saxony and Thuringia where the Right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) won huge gains. Part of the AfD’s success can be attributed to its economic policy. It calls for an end to government subsidies that distort the market, an end to the country’s expensive green energy transition and, crucially, a reversal of the current deindustrialisation. If such moderate economic policy is abandoned by the centrists in power, then voters will look elsewhere. And Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition will be partly to blame for the resulting cultural and social division.

Germany’s manufacturing and industrial success must be the bridge that links its past success and future prosperity. It cannot suffer the fate of the bridge in Dresden.