Why is Germany (so unexpectedly) in decline?

Ten years ago, Germany didn't seem to be able to put a foot wrong. Now the country can't seem to get anything right. A search for answers...

Photo by Francesco Luca Labianca on Unsplash

It has been a decade since I moved to Germany.

In my first summer I experienced the Sommermärchen, when Germany’s football team triumphed at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. I watched on a screen in Munich as Mario Götze controlled the ball on his chest before volleying it into the back of the net to grab a late winner in the final.

The whole country erupted in ecstasy. Grown men and women held each other in their arms, looking like they just covered the length and breadth of several football pitches. And why not? This wasn’t just a victory for eleven very talented athletes, it was a triumph for Germany - a country that did things better.

It was Angela Merkel’s victory as much as it was Götze's. Appropriately, she celebrated in the dressing room with her boys afterwards. The squad was a microcosm of modern society: east Germans, Bavarians, Tunisians and Turks. Their style of play - emphasising the collective over the individual - was quintessentia…