6 August 2025: Germany: Eleven Things

 1.  The head of the Bavarian Hotel and Restaurant Association has said that there's a massive shut-down coming of a number of pubs/bars in Germany....over losses.

Part of this is the mess left from Covid.....part going toward a lack of employees.

2.  Can of Espresso coffee beans now going for 20 Euro?  Yeah.  It's getting awful  expensive to even brew your own espresso.

3.  Number of RVs/camping trailers....now doubled in Germany since 2017.

4.  I sat reading a piece on Focus yesterday, and they noted from a national survey....ONLY TWO percent of Germans live what is a completely health-conscious lifestyle.  Meaning?   98-percent eat a unhealthy food situation, drink badly, fail to exercise at the right level, and have stress of some type.

5.  The Stuttgart-21 project (taking years to complete) has a fair amount of financial pain left, and the Bahn folks are being handed the final bill (by court order).

The total bill?  Around 11-billion Euro.  Based on estimates....around 4.5-billion Euro will be handled by the city, and state.  The rest?   6.5-billion Euro....is a Bahn problem.  

If you aren't familiar with Stuttgart-21?  Basically.....in the 1980s....the city (run then by the SPD)....agreed that the rail-system leading into the center of town....was devised wrong (going back over 80 years).  So they spent a decade working on a plan, which grew in size/character.  A ton of extras were added, and instead it taking 3-to-4 years....it's taken around 20 years to complete.

Will the Bahn pay?  No....they will go to the Bundestag and basically say....pay us the money, or we'll have to improve ticket costs by x-amount.  In the end....the tax-payers of the nation of German....will pay for Stuttgart-21.  

6.  Interesting statistic from yesterday....ONLY 10-percent of German population is UNDER age 25.  Migration is now a must-occur situation....for the pension program in 30 years to survive.

7. Berlin-City statistic....twice as many migrants are LEAVING Berlin-City....as arriving.  Meaning?  Some reach a level of realizing Berlin might be a bit too much to handle.

The city has around 6,000 'bunks' in their residence system.

8.  German Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil is visiting Washington this way, and talking trade. Oddly enough.....the EU expressed anger about the SPD politician's comments.

Just in general....several German politicians are hyped up (not happy)about the EU 'deal' with Trump.  The flip side to this?  The EU says openly there had to be a 'deal', or all hell would break loose.

9.  The city of Hanover is appealing to the German federal gov't....that it could take in 20 Palestinian 'kids' (figure 750,000 in the Gaza Strip).

At least four other German cities are looking into similar 'help'.  Same story....20 kids each.  Now, if they could only find 37,500 other cities with similar helpfulness.

10.  For June and July....massive unloading of LNG into Germany.  

11.  Lot of chatter going on for the Deutschlandticket (1 monthly ticket for bus/rail travel).  The federal government and state governments are putting in 1.5-billion Euro for 2025....to keep the ticket at 58 Euro per person.  The association of cities want some long-term deal on the table....to keep it affordable.  Lot of feelings that it'll escalate to 65 Euro  or more for next year.