The Soul of the German Economy

Abstract

One of the lessons of the decade and a half following the reunification of Germany was that it could not thrive without a vibrant Mittelstand, and, moreover, that mid-sized German companies were most successful when they clung to the essential values and traditions that had made the economy strong since the nineteenth century. Bertelsmann, Daimler-Chrysler, and others had shown how slavish adoption of American business dogma often led to disaster. Germany could not thrive solely on service businesses, nor was it very good at software start-ups. Germans were at their best when they were making things.