Germany 2026: Bankrupt, well-behaved, and proud of it

Once upon a time, there was a country. A country that built cars the world bought. That exported machines that no one else could manufacture with such precision. That had a middle class as stable and reliable as the foundation of a Swiss vault. That country was called Germany. And Germany still exists. Only the foundation is gone.

Antje Hermenau, politician, management consultant, co-founder of the Green Party in Saxony, and a woman who clearly decided at some point to tell the truth instead of pursuing a career, gets straight to the point: Germany is bankrupt. Not on the way there. Not in a precarious situation. Bankrupt. Now. And anyone who still doesn't believe it should take a look at the record insolvency figures from 2025 – and then at the outlook for 2026, which, according to an analysis of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by the IT service provider Datev, is even worse. For the first time, a majority of business owners plan to close their businesses upon retirement. Not because they've lost interest. But because it's no longer worth it.

The main culprit is known, yet remains unnamed: energy. According to Bloomberg, Germany's electricity prices are roughly four times those in France. Four times as expensive. For the same amount of electricity. For the same hour of production. An ironworks in the Ore Mountains, which had built up millions in equity over thirty years, was wiped out in seven months by energy costs. A chemical company relocated to Japan. Another to North Carolina. A Thuringian company to Sweden. They're all leaving, says Hermenau, simply and matter-of-factly: They're chasing the energy prices. It's that simple.

It wouldn't even be necessary. That's the best part of this story – the best part in the sense of: the most horrific. Germany could be self-sufficient. Gas from its own reserves – one year's lead time, thirty years of independence. Reactivating nuclear power plants – two years, CO2-free, stable base load. Coal with carbon capture – a domestic resource, clean to use. And Russia? The gas contract is paid for until the end of 2026. The pipeline is already in place. All they'd have to do is knock on the door, offer a brief apology for the harsh tone, and let them fill the tanks. But that's not happening. Instead, small and medium-sized businesses are freezing, paying four times as much as France, and watching as their market share is taken over by competitors from countries that actually receive government support. Italy is lowering its gasoline tax by decree. Germany is considering whether to introduce a toll.

And the government? It's counting record tax revenues and considering how to fleece citizens and businesses even more efficiently. While purchasing power dwindles, inflation eats away at it, and the cost of living explodes, a group of six to seven million people—civil servants, administrators, subsidized institutions—sit on a standard of living that stabilizes at everyone else's expense. A minority that thrives on the fact that taxes are so high, social security contributions so generous, and fees so creative. And anyone who says so is labeled right-wing. Of course.

Brussels is actively participating. The EU bureaucracy overrides national legislation, layers regulation upon regulation, and now employs dedicated compliance officers in medium-sized businesses whose sole purpose is to read regulations. And HERA – the emergency institution with a thirty-billion-euro budget, established outside of parliament and beyond the control of the Court of Auditors – sits somewhere in Brussels and owes no one an explanation. Thirty billion. Unchecked. Purposeless. Unreachable.

Hermenau voices what many think but don't dare to say: the debt is the real problem. Not Iran, not Putin, not Trump, not the Martians who are being blamed in turn. Germany is trying to place government bonds – and can't even sell them all. Confidence in Germany as a business location is dwindling. Interest rates on long-term bonds are rising. This isn't a political signal. This is the judgment of the markets. And markets rarely lie.

The EU? According to Hermenau, it will dissolve itself – as soon as the Italians and Spaniards declare they cannot repay the ECB debts. Then the Germans will be stuck with trillions more. For the umpteenth time. Because Germany always pays. Always. For everyone. And gets nothing to decide.

The picture Hermenau paints is precise and merciless: Germany as a plundered house, feeding its creditors, prioritizing its ideology over its industry, sacrificing its middle class on the altar of green romanticism, and smilingly pretending it's all a temporary state of affairs. It isn't. The middle class has given up. Not loudly. Not dramatically. Quietly, orderly, with the day's results in the black and the silent decision: No successor. No continuation. The end. The foundation is gone. The house is still standing. But not for much longer…

"Germany is bankrupt" - period. PRERADOVIC with Antje Hermenau