Danged if the hits don't keep coming, but that's never stopped the Germans' determined march to self-destruction and complete deindustrialization so far.
Who thinks it will now?
PFFFT
I wouldn't bet on any changes. They are a stubborn lot, even with news this gruesome.
German industry in freefall as automotive sector hits record lows.https://t.co/re9s1FO5jO pic.twitter.com/aBSUwcmpVa
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) November 20, 2025
Most rational folks would consider this to be foreboding news. Maybe even a little panic would set in.
At the end of the third quarter of 2025, the automotive industry employed more than 48,700 fewer people than a year earlier, a decline of 6.3 percent — the steepest drop among all major industrial sectors with more than 200,000 employees.
With 721,400 people employed, the sector’s headcount has fallen to its lowest level since the second quarter of 2011, when it stood at 718,000. Despite the contraction, the automotive industry remains Germany’s second-largest industrial employer, behind mechanical engineering, which counted roughly 934,200 employees at the end of the third quarter.
Across the manufacturing sector as a whole, around 5.43 million people were employed — a year-over-year decrease of 120,300, or 2.2 percent.
There have been relatively few, if any, measurable economic gains...
..."The prolonged recession in industry is clearly reflected in employment trends," said Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank.Nevertheless, the car industry remains Germany's second-largest manufacturing sector in terms of employment, after mechanical engineering, which counts around 934,200 people as staff.
...going back as far as 2019 with basically a flat GDP.
🇩🇪 German Chancellor Merz sees his approval rating crash to record low (25%) amidst the country's economic crisis. Germany's GDP has grown by 0% since 2019, compared to a ~5% increase for the UK and France, and a ~15% increase for the US.
— World of Statistics (@stats_feed) November 15, 2025
Image source: The Economist pic.twitter.com/O9rHYh91D6
The pressure never lets up, and the self-inflicted injuries are often the most costly. Which is what's occurring once again to choke the life out of German industry - that rare phenomenon known as 'it's cold in winter.'
The predicted set-up is for a bout of polar vortexy-type Arctic cold (Ebola assures us it's already been 'tre chillay' in England)...
Rejoice!
— Latimer Alder (@latimeralder) November 19, 2025
We have beaten Global Warming!
No need for Net Zero at all... pic.twitter.com/bSiBLUZdbG
...to soon be sweeping onto the continent.
What that is currently doing is driving fossil-fuel-generated electricity prices to nine-month highs, straining supplies, and industrial budgets under assault. And the cold COLD hasn't hit yet.
Well at least Germany didn’t close all its unclear power stations in a mindless panic.
— Francis Harris (@fharris2011) November 20, 2025
Oh, it did?
...Prices for late Friday afternoon delivery jumped to €313.27 per megawatt-hour in the Epex auction – up 58% from Thursday’s level – as traders scrambled to secure enough power to meet demand
Electricity prices jumped 58% in one day, with further price spikes being predicted due to the anticipated arrival of the polar visitor, whose frigid temperatures could then stick around for nearly a month.
Big Polar Plunge across Europe as the jet stream takes a nose dive! Temps 10-20C below normal! Lots of snow in the mountains!! pic.twitter.com/hW0QuI2ryH
— Jeff Berardelli (@WeatherProf) November 19, 2025
A country that is so dependent on renewable power, to which Germany has foolishly tethered its fortunes, is at the mercy of nature and what back-up generation they've managed to keep online. As Germany has also cut its own nose off to spite its Teutonic profile by shutting down perfectly operational nuclear reactors in favor of wind farms... c' est la vie.
...Europe’s power markets could tighten further as meteorologists flag the increasing risk of a Sudden Stratospheric Warming event later this month. The atmospheric event can disrupt the polar vortex, sending waves of Arctic air into northern and central Europe. It’s unusual in November, and the resulting cold spell likely wouldn’t arrive until December when it would drive up heating demand and electricity prices.
German power price spikes are also likely to occur next week, according to forecasts from Kpler.
The surge in fossil-fuel usage underscores how sudden weather changes can challenge renewable power systems, prompting utilities to turn to conventional sources of generation to meet higher demand. It also highlights Germany’s continued reliance on fossil fuels since the 2023 nuclear phase-out, which removed a major source of stable, low-carbon power from the country’s energy mix.
There's been little wind in November, and the forecasts are that the situation will continue.
...For next week, average wind generation is forecast at around 12.2 gigawatts, compared with the 2020–2024 average for this time of year of 18 gigawatts, according to Bloomberg models and historic data from the European Energy Exchange AG.
Last year, they were also in a deep November dunkelflaute that lasted for months and caused widespread panic.
Nothing ever changes, though. No adjustments are ever made, and every year it seems to be the same drill.
It's not only the Germans' ruinous Green transition causing issues that impact the industrial bottom line, although that is the main culprit. Their immigration catastrophe is having an impact on production and labor.
I think it's not just about the total of hours worked; most of the millions of "new Germans" (from (North-)Africa and the Middle East) have hardly any schooling and will significantly drive down average productivity in the coming decades."
— Winston (@wroelofs_) November 15, 2025
'Structural' problems, not cyclical.
Europe’s industrial heart is under real stress. Germany’s slowdown is no longer cyclical, it’s structural. The EU must rethink how it competes in a world defined by China’s speed and America’s scale.
— James CHEN (@chencyjames) November 20, 2025
And what cannot continue will not. It becomes a question of when it crashes.
...Although the country is not technically in recession currently — this requires two consecutive quarters of growth contraction — business leaders have sounded the alarm and called for radical measures from the CDU-led coalition government to arrest the crisis.
In August, Germany’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) sent a serious warning to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, arguing that “things cannot go on like this.”
“The German economy is deeper into the crisis than many people want to see,” CEO Helena Melnikov wrote.
“As before, it cannot go on. It is crucial that productivity and economic performance grow faster than social spending,” she warned.
According to her, “this cannot be achieved through tax increases, but only through structural reforms. In a situation where billions in loans are already being taken out, the tax increase is a completely wrong signal.”
Unemployment and bankruptcies are at ten-year highs, and industrial steel production has fallen 12%.
This situation should be a warning to Mid Atlantic states like New Jersey and New York, as well as New England climate cult lunatics like Massachusetts.
...Adjusted for population size, that’s as if in six months every single factory worker in North Carolina lost their job.
All while headlines boast about the “Energiewende” and “green leadership”—right up until the next gas shortage, blackouts, or export collapse.
In America, this would be headline news with cabinet meetings called in a panic and labor unrest on the streets. In Germany, it’s just another week of polite consensus, wind-power pressers, and a government ready to add another €40 billion in promised “energy cuts” for business—which everyone knows will come far too late.
The Germans thought they could run a post-industrial society on hope, regulations, and a few clouds of solar panels—but you can’t repeal the laws of economics, any more than you can run a steel mill on good intentions. Now the bill is coming due.
But it won't be.
People ask: Who killed German manufacturing?
Answer: Look to the bureaucracy, the climate alarmists, the energy planners, and the eco-consultants. And remember:
Europe’s lesson today is your problem, tomorrow.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz is a waffling, weak flower if ever there was one, and seems more intent on being seen as the leading bad boy of NATO and the EU's emerging security posture than on attending to his very sick country.
It's the easier job.
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