It's cold and early and Detlef Fendt repeats a1
morning ritual, heaving himself onto the side of his 28-
year-old BMW motorbike and jumping with all his
might on the kick-start. It takes a few goes, but4
eventually the bike roars into life. After all, this is the
sort of solid reliable machine that makes German
goods a household name for quality. It's that good7
name that means Germany is the world's top exporter.
China may take the title soon, but for the moment
Germany is still a world-beater. 10
Detlef is part of that success story. For the last
40 years he's made machine tools for Daimler cars at
the Berlin plant. He started work when he was 16 and13
is now the plant's main union representative for IG
Metall. But this year, thanks to the world credit crunch,
he'll be getting an unwanted seasonal break from his16
early morning ritual. The plant is closing down for an
extra-long Christmas break, from mid-December to
mid-January, because of falling orders. 19
He tells me: "At the moment we are in a
distribution crisis — the automobile industry is not
selling enough cars and lorries”. 22
Consumer confidence was dented in Germany
long before the credit crunch, and despite his union's
recent deal it is not returning. 25
Germany is now in recession and the figures
have been worse than economists were predicting.
Equally bad statistics for the whole of the European28
Union are expected today. While consumers in America
feel cowed, while Asia is jittery, the rest of Europe
watches fearfully as the biggest economy in Europe31
continues to shrink.
Mark Mardell. Germany loses revs. BBC World News. At: <www.bbc.co.uk> (adapted).