We hear a lot those days in Europe how Germany rested on old school industry during the last two decades, and failed to anticipate the big changes coming. They relied a bit too much on « good old german quality » without trying to rethink itself.
But it could be just jealousy speaking, since germany has been doing so well compared to the rest of us, i don’t know.
Those people don't understand that a lot of "german" manufacturing is happening in low cost countries. The bulk of the manufacturing remaining in Germany is highly automated.
I suspect it's mostly an optics/ignorance issue. If you never set foot into a modern factory, you could legitimately believe that german industry had not changed, simply because it's the same names as decades ago. But once you get the chance to take a peek behind the curtains, you quickly realized how high-tech those "dinosaurs" are.
I’ve heard so many cities claiming to be the capital of europe’s start up scene. I’ll believe it once one of those city manage to build a competitor to any GAFA.
But it could be just jealousy speaking, since germany has been doing so well compared to the rest of us, i don’t know.