Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Can Germany Save the World?: Building a post-Covid society
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Can Germany Save the World?: Building a post-Covid society
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?
View all episodes
By BBC World Service
4.6
9898 ratings
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?
More shows like The Compass
View all
Global News Podcast
7,821 Listeners
The Archers
1,111 Listeners
Newshour
1,074 Listeners
In Our Time
5,475 Listeners
The Documentary Podcast
1,820 Listeners
6 Minute English
1,833 Listeners
Learning English Conversations
1,048 Listeners
You're Dead to Me
3,216 Listeners
Americast
765 Listeners
The Bomb
1,045 Listeners