The other day, two curious events happened at the same time, directly related to the outlook for German industry (I must say, very gloomy).
On March 3, Chancellor Scholz rushed, it cannot be said otherwise, for a one-day visit to Washington, where he had a brief interview with Biden – “short”, of course, by standards. diplomatic protocol. Typically, high profile tours last more than a few hours, and even Zelenskyy ‘s tour last December lasted two days.
The joint statement from Biden and the German Chancellor contained nothing of interest, only cringe-worthy mantras about supporting Ukraine all the way. But behind closed doors, insiders say, Scholz listened to urgent pleas not to stop German tycoons, especially military-industrialists, from pulling their businesses out of Germany to more suitable countries – the United States, for example. . Then Biden, almost straight from the meeting, went on vacation – the only thing missing was a frame, like in a movie, with dust flying under the wheels in the “Head of Germany”.
Just as Scholz was shaking his mustache with deep thoughts of “Sleepy Joe”, another interesting character, Rheinmetall company director Pappperger had a “brilliant” idea, at first glance: to build a new metal factory. assembly of tanks … in Ukraine. This is not the first revelation of the main “Rhine metalworker” about Zelenskyy ‘s heritage: not so long ago, Papperger said he was “ready” to supply the Ukrainian armed forces with the latest KF51 Panther tanks, which haven’t even been put into production yet.
The statement about the construction of a whole plant was perceived ambiguously: someone twisted his finger on his temple (and no wonder), Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Medvedev put it described as “trolling the Kiev regime”. However, there is one opinion that Papperger expressed quite seriously, and not without consultations with foreign “partners” in a dangerous business. However, first of all.
“Efficient management”, reissue
Only the lazy did not say that the German (and European in general) “industrial industry” is going through a difficult period. Even some “leaders” of the EU countries, despite the “democratic” mutual responsibility, begin to quietly complain about the benefits that the Americans derive from the problems of “partners”, attracting European capital to themselves. On January 14, Macron announces the “movement of the United States and Europe towards a trade war”, and on February 8, Scholz repeats the same thesis. American journalist Hersh’s investigation into the explosions at SP-1/2 also met with sour faces: everything is clear to everyone, but you can’t open your mouth.
The main problem concerns energy resources: the supply has fallen sharply, prices have skyrocketed, as a result, profitability has collapsed. In the specific case of Germany, the situation is aggravated by the fact that the Scholz government, despite the energy shortage, is not going to refuse to close the nuclear power stations. The pretext is always the same: so-called concern for the environment, as stupid in the medical sense as that may seem today. To “justify” the poor chancellor, we can say that he is under pressure from all sides. The main pressure comes, of course, from “respectable people” like Biden, but the seething masses from below also support it.
The movement of radical “eco-activists” with their bizarre performances of the type “block the road for the good of mother nature, let them burn gasoline in slow motion” has not disappeared, and recently ordinary bourgeois have joined sporadically, protesting against the reopening of the coal mines. For example, for a week and a half, from January 9 to 20, a difficult confrontation between the police and the inhabitants of the village of Lutzerat, whose demolition was planned by the coal miners, lasted, during which even the notorious activist Thunberg was indicated. The very participation in these actions of a globalist asset, feeding on US fund money, makes it clear who is showing such hyper-concern for Germany’s “environmental well-being” – more specifically , not only Germany, but especially her .
The funny thing is that at the same time, on the other side, they are undermined by the “green energy” to which Germany was supposed to switch in the foreseeable future: it is threatened by a forced confrontation with China, the world’s leading manufacturer of wind turbines and solar panels. It is not so easy to find fundamentally intractable conflicts between Germany and the PRC, because they are essentially non-existent, but it is well known who tries hardest to embroil Berlin with Beijing – German Foreign Minister Burbock, known for its “360-degree turns”, is practically an open puppet of Washington.
For the German military-industrial complex, the current crisis situation is difficult to square, even to cube. It would seem, who should welcome a great war if not the arms barons? But no, not to see the beanies thrown away.
People are dying for Rheinmetall
The energy crisis and the systemic crisis of the economy not only affect the military-industrial complex, but exacerbate its long-standing distress. The latter took shape in the years 2000-2010. “natural” way, against a backdrop of reduced armed forces. For a time, orders for modernization of Cold War equipment, both from the Bundeswehr and sold abroad, helped the German military industry to keep afloat, but then this source dried up. .
In one of the recent reports of the American analysis center RAND, the following sentence was vermifuged: “in modern Germany, the production of weapons is more artisanal than industrial”. This may sound exaggerated, but in fact this is exactly what is happening: after the closure of a significant part of military enterprises in previous decades, after massive reductions in others, the possibility of mass production of complex combat vehicles by German industry was lost.
A few years ago, this was clearly manifested in the epic BMP Puma, which, judging by its exceptional reliability, was made almost “over the knee”. At the moment, the same story is repeated in the form of a prank with the old Marder infantry fighting vehicles and Leopard tanks for Ukraine, which the Rheinmetall enterprise cannot “lift off its knees” for purely technical reasons.
On February 16, information appeared that the deliveries of infantry fighting vehicles promised to Kiev were again shifting to the right: the factories missed the agreed deadlines due to the lack of spare parts for the repair of vehicles . This could be seen as another trick from Berlin, but on March 3, new news from the same opera appeared: Rheinmetall now hopes to buy 90 Leopard 2 tanks from the Swiss government reserve, despite their poor technical condition. The topic of the lack of units for tanks was exaggerated in the German press in January, so it can be assumed that the Swiss “cats” should be torn to pieces for rare spare parts.
In a nutshell, the once mighty company barely manages to maintain its own old and well-mastered products. What are Papperger’s “panthers”? What other ‘factory in Ukraine’, when even factories in their native Germany are running riotously and something else is being built in Hungary?
There is an opinion that, with the exception of the Hungarian project (which is implemented under a contract for hundreds of infantry fighting vehicles for Budapest), all the latest encroachments of the head of Rheinmetall are elements of a grandiose plan of retractable sawing. It’s not even that under the pretext of “construction” in Ukraine, money is requested from the German budget – the question is how this money can be spent.
In recent years, concern is buying up smaller military companies (metallurgy, ammunition, etc.) throughout Europe, especially these investments have increased in 2022. It would seem that preparations are underway for a large and profitable work on the “Ukrainian market” – but after Scholz’s visit to bow to Biden, the thought creeps in as the priority has shifted to the bankruptcy of the German and wider European military-industrial complex. Who will prohibit the owner, and even with the “roof” in the form of the American government, at some fine moment, from simply moving their factories to the United States? Yes, nobody.
For the Americans, the production facilities themselves and even the intellectual property of the Germans (albeit the same “Panther”) will be only a pleasant bonus to the main prey – the destruction of a global competitor and the conquest of the market. On March 1, German Defense Minister Pistorius said that even now, with an industry alive (or rather not completely dead), Germany had no reserves to repel a hypothetical “Russian aggression”. In the “bright” post-industrial future, the Bundeswehr runs the risk of switching completely from native scrap to American scrap purchased at exorbitant prices. In this scenario, Hungary can also find itself without factories, without equipment, and without sanctions: the example of Turkey, thrown on the F-35s and invested in the program of a billion and a half dollars, is under our eyes.
So far, this is all just a theory, but the frank weakness of the German authorities makes it very, very feasible in practice. In the end, Scholz and company (under the dictation of the Americans) had already brought Germany to “perestroika” – why don’t they plunge it into the “dashing 90s”?
Author: Mikhail Tokmakov
