German economy hits ten year high ...

[Bagpuss]

and to think we ran/rebuilt VW et al for them just after the war

[threaded]

and to think we ran/rebuilt VW et al for them just after the war

I think you'll find the Germans managed to do most of that themselves.

[BlasterBates]

Well they've hit a ten year high just after a fifty year low. Just to put things in perspective. 1998 till 2008 has probably been the worst decade for Germany.

[sasguru]

They may not be the main reasons but are contributing factors surely?

In that case the US should be the largest exporter in the developed world as it has about 250 million people as opposed to Germany's 80 mill. And as all economists will tell you German labour costs are far higher than the US.
Factors for Germany's success (based on my over 15 visits over there for work and play):

- engineering prowess is respected not despised. Quite a lot of CEOs are engineering PhDs
- Germany has a superb apprenticeship scheme for the less academic, hence the quality of it's products
- Germans are much more sensible economically, debt is despised
- houses are homes not get-rich-quick schemes

But perhaps the overall advantage is intangible: German culture values substance over form, the real over the fake.

[sasguru]

Well they've hit a ten year high just after a fifty year low. Just to put things in perspective. 1998 till 2008 has probably been the worst decade for Germany.

I've visited Germany every year throughout that period. I hardly think it was a bad decade for them. Or perhaps it seemed that way because they didn't fool themselves they were rich with a debt-fuelled boom

[Bagpuss]

I think you'll find the Germans managed to do most of that themselves.

The company owes its post-war existence largely to one man, British Army officer Major Ivan Hirst, REME. In April 1945, KdF-Stadt, and its heavily bombed factory were captured by the Americans, and subsequently handed over to the British, within whose occupation zone the town and factory fell. The factory was placed under the control of Oldham-born Hirst. At first, the plan was to use it for military vehicle maintenance. Since it had been used for military production, and had been in Hirst's words a "political animal" rather than a commercial enterprise, the equipment was in time intended to be salvaged as war reparations. Hirst painted one of the factory's cars green and demonstrated it to British Army headquarters. Short of light transport, in September 1945 the British Army was persuaded to place a vital order for 20,000. The first few hundred cars went to personnel from the occupying forces, and to the German Post Office.

By 1946 the factory was producing 1,000 cars a month, a remarkable feat considering it was still in disrepair. Due to roof and window damage, rain stopped production and steel to make the cars had to be bartered for new vehicles.

The car, and its town changed their Second World War-era names to "Volkswagen", and "Wolfsburg" respectively, and production was increasing. It was still unclear what was to become of the factory. It was offered to representatives from the British, American and French motor industries. Famously, all rejected it. After an inspection of the plant, Sir William Rootes, head of the British Rootes Group, told Hirst the project would fail within two years, and that the car "is quite unattractive to the average motorcar buyer, is too ugly and too noisy ... If you think you're going to build cars in this place, you're a bloody fool, young man". In a bizarre twist of fate, Volkswagen would manufacture a locally built version of Rootes' Hillman Avenger in Argentina in the 1980s, long after Rootes went bust at the hands of Chrysler in 1978—the Beetle outliving the Avenger by over 30 years.

Ford representatives were equally critical: the car was "not worth a damn". Henry Ford II, the son of Edsel Ford, did reportedly look at the possibility of taking over the VW factory, but dismissed the idea as soon as he looked up Wolfsburg on the map and found it to be too close for comfort to the East German border.

In Occupied Germany, the Allies followed the Morgenthau Plan, to remove all German war potential, by complete or partial pastoralisation. As part of this, in the Industrial plans for Germany, the rules for which industry Germany was to be allowed to retain were set out. German car production was set at a maximum of 10% of the 1936 car production numbers.

Thanks to the protection of British Army Major Ivan Hirst, Volkswagen survived the perilous times, and came to be part of the German economic miracle.

[BlasterBates]

Lets put it this way, whatever you do don't go into a German pub and say "hey what a great decade...."

[sasguru]

The company owes its post-war existence largely to one man, British Army officer Major Ivan Hirst, REME. In April 1945, KdF-Stadt, and its heavily bombed factory were captured by the Americans, and subsequently handed over to the British, within whose occupation zone the town and factory fell. The factory was placed under the control of Oldham-born Hirst. At first, the plan was to use it for military vehicle maintenance. Since it had been used for military production, and had been in Hirst's words a "political animal" rather than a commercial enterprise, the equipment was in time intended to be salvaged as war reparations. Hirst painted one of the factory's cars green and demonstrated it to British Army headquarters. Short of light transport, in September 1945 the British Army was persuaded to place a vital order for 20,000. The first few hundred cars went to personnel from the occupying forces, and to the German Post Office.

By 1946 the factory was producing 1,000 cars a month, a remarkable feat considering it was still in disrepair. Due to roof and window damage, rain stopped production and steel to make the cars had to be bartered for new vehicles.

The car, and its town changed their Second World War-era names to "Volkswagen", and "Wolfsburg" respectively, and production was increasing. It was still unclear what was to become of the factory. It was offered to representatives from the British, American and French motor industries. Famously, all rejected it. After an inspection of the plant, Sir William Rootes, head of the British Rootes Group, told Hirst the project would fail within two years, and that the car "is quite unattractive to the average motorcar buyer, is too ugly and too noisy ... If you think you're going to build cars in this place, you're a bloody fool, young man". In a bizarre twist of fate, Volkswagen would manufacture a locally built version of Rootes' Hillman Avenger in Argentina in the 1980s, long after Rootes went bust at the hands of Chrysler in 1978—the Beetle outliving the Avenger by over 30 years.

Ford representatives were equally critical: the car was "not worth a damn". Henry Ford II, the son of Edsel Ford, did reportedly look at the possibility of taking over the VW factory, but dismissed the idea as soon as he looked up Wolfsburg on the map and found it to be too close for comfort to the East German border.

In Occupied Germany, the Allies followed the Morgenthau Plan, to remove all German war potential, by complete or partial pastoralisation. As part of this, in the Industrial plans for Germany, the rules for which industry Germany was to be allowed to retain were set out. German car production was set at a maximum of 10% of the 1936 car production numbers.

Thanks to the protection of British Army Major Ivan Hirst, Volkswagen survived the perilous times, and came to be part of the German economic miracle.

So what? The fact that VW is a thriving business to this day is entirely down to them. Perhaps Major wotsisname should have concentrated on saving the British car industry.

[Bagpuss]

So what? The fact that VW is a thriving business to this day is entirely down to them. Perhaps Major wotsisname should have concentrated on saving the British car industry.

It's down to him that it survived the war, it's just ironic that we were helping speed up our own demise as a car manufacturer.

[threaded]

So what? The fact that VW is a thriving business to this day is entirely down to them. Perhaps Major wotsisname should have concentrated on saving the British car industry.

I think the point I'm making is, he couldn't of, but the German workers could.