Almost 140 years ago, Germany invented the car.

In the subsequent century it was central to two world wars.

Its manufacturing was the envy of much of the world, and in the latter half of the last century, it was central

to European integration. Now, just two months before a general election, Germany finds itself

in a much more precarious position, however. The European project is fragile, its innovation

has stalled, China's coming for its lunch, and Germany's dependence on

Russian energy has obviously become a complete catastrophe. So what will happen this once deeply

consequential world power? And what does its story tell us about the future of Europe and

the upending of the global status quo in the 21st century.

This week's guest has a thorough understanding of all of that, and I hope can offer some

insight to those questions. He's written extensively on European and German matters for over 25

years, and his new book, Kaput, tells us a lot about why Germany is in the state that it's in.

He's not particularly optimistic.

Avulfka Muncha, welcome to Downstree.

Aaron, thank you for the invitation.

We are talking to you today about your fabulous new book, Caput.

The End of the German Miracle. Pretty self-explanatory. It's

about the German economy. What's gone wrong with it in recent years? You yourself are German,

but you live in the UK. That's right. And you write for the Financial Times and elsewhere?

I was a column of the Financial Times for many, many years, but I'm not,

you know, that ended in 2020 and I'm a columnist for the new statesman. I wrote for, I wrote for,

I think 17 years, the column. Wow. So, so yeah, that would have been, but that was, that

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