17 Feb 2026: Germany: 8 Extra Stories

 1.  My German wife is dedicated to particular brands.  For appliances....she's a Miele-freak.  

Miele products? Well...they are German-made (still today)....tend to last ten-plus years without issue, and generally are 30-percent more than the competition.

Yesterday I noted....2027 is the last year that Miele will make a washer inside of Germany.  All of the washer production....then goes to Poland. Reasoning?  They avoid this discussion, but it's mostly labor costs in Germany.

2. New poll by IPSOS.....AfD nationally at 26-percent. CDU-CSU at 23-percent.

SPD limping along at 15-percent. Greens at 13-percent, and Linke at 12-percent.

Were elections held today....AfD would win but be unable to form  a coalition.  The bad news?  CDU-CSU would have to form with both the Greens and SPD.  Were the FDP to get over the hump with 5-percent....it's possible that five parties required to get a coalition.

3.  Mövenpick-Hotel in Frankfurt...the big operation next to the expo-halls?  Bankrupt.

Was a big deal in the years when they had several big trade shows in Frankfurt....less so since Covid.

Built in 2006....it offered a 4-star situation and was one of the big hotels in the city to stay.  

4.  German Federal Police note more than 980 knife attacks and 2,200 sexual offenses were recorded on railway stations and trains for 2025.

5. Opel came up in the past week.....saying they are 'still' committed to making diesel cars....after throwing around  20 billion Euro at E-car technology.

If you came up to a thousand German diesel car owners and asked where their 'path' lays....I suspect 99-percent will say still with diesel technology.

6. Some note over the natural gas reserves for Germany, for this AM (Tuesday)....23.1-percent remaining.

For southern one-third of Germany....temp's for next 10 days will be mostly around  0 to 5-plus C (daytime temps).

At the current pace....somewhere around 1 March....I might predict a national crisis period (probably as they reach 15-percent remaining).

Footnote....as each LNG ship arrives and 'delivers'.....it's basically adding 1-percent of LNG to the reserves.   So you would need twenty deliveries over a month to really bring the worry-level down. 

7.  WELT had an odd piece....talking over upcoming Ramadan....that young Islamic folks seem to be gearing up to act 'religious-police'....enforcing the 'rules'.

It's hard to say....how many Muslims in Germany are totally obedient about Ramadan rules.  Back in my German language days....I posed the question to a Syrian guy, who observed....most (say over 50-percent) cheated in some fashion...usually having a hidden water bottle.  As he noted....the obedient folks usually got themselves to a serious dehydration point (near passing out).

8. INSA poll....German public is even MORE dissatisfied with Merz, than they were with Scholz.  

It is about a year into the Merz-era, and the 'wind' expected a year ago....the economy would finally settle, and show recovery.  Well....it hasn't done so. But here's the thing....there's literally no one from the Greens or SPD who can project with confidence....a better economic period. And no....same deal with AfD.

There is no replacement scenario to play with.