How rich are the Germans? The answers to these and other questions can be found in the study “Households and their finances” published at the end of April, commissioned by the German Bundesbank. In particular, it states that between 2017 and 2021 the level of well-being of the Germans increased.
Record level of savings
On average, the savings of one household are estimated at 316,500 euros. Record high! This is 83,600 euros more than four years ago and 121,300 euros more than in 2011. One of the main reasons is the desire of the Germans to save money during coronavirus pandemic and limited opportunities to spend their savings.
The figures given are the national average. It should be noted that all segments of the population are taken into account, including a relatively small group of German millionaires. In Germany, the top ten percent of households account for 56 percent of total wealth. Also in the results of the study it is noted that in Germany property inequality has slightly decreased. However, it is not yet clear how sustainable such a trend.
New report to be released in 2024
To be in the top ten richest households, in 2021 it was necessary to have a net worth of at least 725,900 euros. The richest group of people in Germany then owned more than half of the total net assets of the country. As a rule, they were invested in real estate, company shares and securities.
For comparison, households with a capital of less than 106,600 euros were about three percent. More poor households, according to the study, had more cash and bank deposits. All groups are characterized by an increase in the acquisition of shares and shares in funds. The German Bundesbank conducted such a representative survey for the fourth time. 4119 households took part in it.
The authors of the study did not just study their financial capabilities. The respondents provided information about all their property: real estate, cars, valuable collections and jewelry, their savings and current accounts, available cash. And also about stocks, savings housing contracts and insurances, about private pension savings. Information about ownership and stakes in companies, existing mortgages, debts, consumer loans and tuition fees was also taken into account. Only information on pensions paid by the state was not included. Thus, this study is the most comprehensive to date. The next one is scheduled for 2024. It should be borne in mind that although the results of the study have only just been published, the survey itself was conducted between April 2021 and January 2022. Therefore, the consequences caused by the war of Russia against Ukraine, such as rising inflation and prices for energy and food products, rising interest rates on loans, falling property prices, and so on, are difficult to assess at the moment.
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German Economy 2022: New Industrial Projects
Chips, electric cars, trains, drugs, green hydrogen. Gallery DW – about what plants are being built and what German and foreign industrial investors are going to produce in Germany.
For Germany, this is still the largest industrial project of the 21st century. Some 70 European cities competed for the €17bn investment. In March 2022, the American microelectronics giant Intel decided to send them to Magdeburg in the East German state of Saxony-Anhalt. In the spring of 2023, the construction of a complex of two chip factories will begin here. Until 2027, it will provide jobs for 7,000 builders.
The largest industrial project of recent years has been the construction of a gigafactory of the American corporation Tesla in a record two years for the FRG. Its head, Elon Musk, launched production in March 2022 in the presence of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The design capacity of the car plant in Grünheide near Berlin in the East German federal state of Brandenburg is 500,000 electric vehicles per year.
So far, Volkswagen has presented only the silhouette of the future Trinity electric car. In 2026, it should become the new flagship model of the German automaker. For the production of a limousine, it was decided to specifically build a new enterprise worth 2 billion euros, equipped with digital technologies and climate neutral. In the spring of 2023, it will begin to be built near the main VW plant in Wolfsburg in Lower Saxony.
Batteries are a key element of electric vehicles, which Mercedes-Benz is also rapidly moving to. The German concern wants to have its own technologies for their production. Therefore, in May 2022, the construction of the eCampus research and development center was launched on the territory of the head plant in Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg. The first experimental series will be in 2023.
The Siemens plant in Krefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of rail vehicles. Here, for example, “Peregrine Falcons” and “Swallows” were produced earlier for Russia. In May 2022, the assembly shop solemnly left the first pre-production hydrogen train Mireo Plus H. It will replace trains with climate-damaging diesel locomotives on non-electrified routes.
The Deutsche Bahn railway company is now replacing the first two generations of high-speed trains in Germany with ICE 4 manufactured by Siemens. Their maintenance will be carried out by a wagon repair plant, construction of which began in Cottbus in Brandenburg in May 2022. The first workshop (pictured) will be commissioned in 2024, the second in 2026. The industrially underdeveloped region will receive 1,200 jobs.
There is a tradition in Germany to celebrate Richtfest – a celebration of the construction of a building under the roof, which is decorated with a wreath. In May 2022, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz came to such a ceremony at the head plant of the chemical-pharmaceutical concern Bayer in Leverkusen in North Rhine-Westphalia. A “smart factory” is being completed here, where the formulation of drugs will be improved using artificial intelligence.
To reduce dependence on Russia, Germany urgently needs terminals for receiving liquefied gas. In May 2022, the energy company Uniper began building a berth for a temporary floating LNG terminal and a pipeline to a nearby storage facility at the port of Wilhelmshaven in Lower Saxony. The work is being carried out taking into account the fact that in the future there will be a stationary plant for importing green hydrogen.
The latest hydrogen project of the energy company RWE is the construction until mid-2023 in Lingen in Lower Saxony next to the gas power plant of a pilot plant for producing green hydrogen using wind energy by water electrolysis. Purpose: to test two technologies for the use of H2 – injection into the gas distribution network or its admixture with fuel for thermal power plants.
The world’s largest online retailer Amazon already has 18 logistics centers in Germany. In the autumn of 2022, another one will be added to them: its construction in Kaiserslautern in Rhineland-Palatinate is coming to an end. Over 1,000 jobs will be created here. In total, in Germany, where the boom in online commerce continues, about 28,000 people work for an American corporation on indefinite employment contracts.
