November 18, 2020

Can Germany Save the World?: Building a post-Covid society

27 minutes

As governments around the world rethink their economies and societies after Covid, addressing the environment, towns and cities and the way we live, is it possible that Germany is closer to finding the answers?

In this programme, John Kampfner looks at where they’re getting it right, and where they are going wrong. The contradictions are many. Why is a country with one of the most powerful and longest-established green parties struggling to meet its climate emissions targets? Given their strength in engineering and science, why have they fallen behind on some of the basics of tech? And in spite of the emphasis on social responsibility, why have there been so many high-profile corporate scandals?

There’s another curiosity. It’s sometimes called 'entschleunigung' - work-life balance. But it’s more than that. Germans have generally shunned what they see as the sharp-elbowed culture of the Anglo-Saxon world. Where else would the disused Tempelhof airport in the centre of Berlin be kept for the enjoyment of local roller-bladers, cyclists and walkers rather than be developed into real estate? And what other capital city is toying with the possibility of giant property companies being forced to hand back private apartments to the state? Could this more eccentric form of communal capitalism present a model for the future?

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