Latest entry
- Mark Mardell
- 19 Nov 08, 05:35 PM
Peterhead, Aberdeenshire
Dawn arrives slowly over the harbour, the luminous blue of the new day mingling with the inky black of night, brightened by a few pink-tinged clouds. There are points of light from a handful of trawlers that have returned from the the North Sea. Just around the corner long refrigeration lorries are beginning to arrive and back up next to the auction house, ready to receive the day's catch, glistening in lines of blue boxes. 
But could today see a new dawn for the Scottish fishing industry, or another gloomy outlook?
Fisheries ministers in Brussels have agreed a 25% cut on "the mortality rate" (the cut will happen next year, based on this year's figures). Although this sounds devastating, it is being sold as "catch less, land more" by both the industry and the UK and Scottish governments.
The main idea is to allow cod to breed again, but the tweak in the wording to "reducing mortality" is aimed at getting rid or the ludicrous practice of fishermen catching fish and then throwing them back dead. The cod, being dead, can't breed but neither can the fishermen make any money out of them.
Some Scottish fishermen are embracing the new ideas with enthusiasm.
On board the Fairline, John Buchan, his son-in-law and his grandson are hard at work putting a brand new net onto their trawler's haulage system. The three generations are investing not only a lot of money - £9,000 - but a lot of hope in this new net. The idea, which you might think a novel one for a net, is to allow some fish to escape.
Whereas most such nets have meshing of eight inches (20.3cm), this has 48 inches, which looks ludicrous, a net fit only to catch large sharks, you might think. But John explains to me it doesn't quite work that way. The huge holes are near the beginning of the long trawling net, shaped like an elongated sock, and the cod dive down to escape. Other fish tend to stay where they are and are herded back into the end of the net, where the mesh is the normal eight inches.
John and his family are pioneers and believe this radical departure will help them stay in business.
In the fish auction room the price of cod and haddock and whiting are shouted loudly and the auctioneers move quickly from one line of blue boxes to the next. They say the price is OK at the moment. The people I speak to are fiercely protective of what's left of their shrunken industry. No one wants to talk on camera, but on a "no names" basis they are scathing.
..... is absolutely right to chide me for reflecting a bureaucratic view, rather than that on the ground. People here say there's plenty of cod in the North Sea and the scientists' reports are way behind what is really happening. Many of them feel passionately about saving what is left of their industry and I get the impression they think the nets and so on are yet another fad from the politicians, but they'll go along with it just in case it helps.
The industry and the politicians are promoting the new ideas under the rubric "catch less, land more". But we won't know if this will be true in practice for another couple of weeks. The landing - and so selling - of cod has to wait for another meeting, another negotiation, which will set the quotas for catching and selling cod. If the British politicians don't get the increase they want it could be a case of "catch less, sell less, earn less".
Recent entries
- Mark Mardell
- 18 Nov 08, 06:40 PM
I hope to be reporting from Scotland on an EU deal that may save both cod, and the Scottish fishing industry. 
No one doubts that the North Sea is running out of fish like cod. No one doubts that a blanket ban on fishing for some of the most popular species will destroy people's way of life, and income. I should have the latest on an overnight deal, on the Today programme. The ministers responsible for fish from the EU's coastal countries are expected to throw out a drastic plan from the commission which includes banning all fishing for cod west of Scotland. No one, including the commission, expects the commission proposal to survive: it's a classic over-bid, to concentrate minds.
What ministers may well opt for is "the Scottish model". This means getting rid of the widely ridiculed practice of throwing dead fish back in the sea merely to avoid breaching rules set up to avoid killing endangered fish - rules on using clever nets that avoid catching endangered fish and rigorously avoiding fishing in what amount to nursery areas for cod and other fish in short supply.
But is this really a Scottish model or more of a Norwegian one? Norway, resolutely and proudly outside the European Union, is widely praised for its fishing policy by, among others, environmental groups like the WWF.
There it is illegal to throw back dead fish: logically if you catch a fish, that is counted towards your quota and there is no avoiding it. Difficult to police, certainly, but at least not patently absurd. Some think Norway can set its own more logical policy because it is outside the EU and does not have to horse-trade with 26 or so other countries. There's no doubt at the moment the EU mechanism is rather bureaucratic. Scientific reports are produced, then the commission reacts, then the ministers decide, by which time the science is well out of date.
The Norwegian and Scottish systems mean fishermen radio in when they find a spawning ground and they and others have to avoid it. Of course this does mean a degree of trust in both the fishermen and the governments.
On the other hand, when I ask one industry insider what he thinks of the desire of some conservatives and others to "repatriate" fisheries policy he replies with two succinct words. I am not allowed to use swear words or asterisks here, but the first word is "utter" and the second spherical.
- Mark Mardell
- 14 Nov 08, 09:28 AM
It's cold and early and Detlef Fendt repeats a morning ritual, heaving himself onto the side of his 28-year-old BMW motorbike and jumping with all his might on the kick-start. 
It takes a few goes, but eventually the bike roars into life. After all, this is the sort of solid reliable machine that makes German goods a household name for quality. It's that good name that means Germany is the world's top exporter. China may take the title soon, but for the moment Germany is still a world-beater.
Detlef is part of that success story. For the last 40 years he's made machine tools for Daimler cars at the Berlin plant. He started work when he was 16 and is now the plant's main union representative for IG Metall. But this year, thanks to the world credit crunch, he'll be getting an unwanted seasonal break from his early morning ritual. The plant is closing down for an extra-long Christmas break, from mid-December to mid-January, because of falling orders. 
He tells me: "At the moment we are in a distribution crisis - the automobile industry is not selling enough cars and lorries.
"For our company it means a production stop for four weeks from mid-December till mid-January. The workers are very sceptical because they are worried about losing their jobs. Short-term workers are already leaving. So the workers ask 'What will happen to us?' There is a huge uncertainty."
Consumer confidence was dented in Germany long before the credit crunch, and despite his union's recent deal it is not returning.
"We didn't get more money in our pockets in the last months. Not only petrol got more expensive - also gas and electricity, running expenses are increasing. We have to look at every penny. We, the ones who build the cars, can't afford to buy them anymore. We are afraid of what will happen."
There's one curious thing. Detlef is clearly politically very committed: in his small kitchen there is a portrait of Lenin on the wall, and in his sitting room a portrait of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl. A CD of the Red Army Choir sits on top of the stereo. Communism is clearly as much of a passion as sailing: he has his own boat, and there are lots of pictures on the walls of him skippering it. He tells me that sailing was a working man's sport before the rich discovered it. But when I try to draw him on the political consequences of the crisis for next year's election he merely says that a Christian Democrat/Liberal coalition would be a bad thing, and a Social Democrat/Left Party one would be better. He seemed a very mild, apolitical revolutionary.
Germany is now in recession and the figures were worse than economists were predicting. Equally bad statistics for the whole of the European Union are expected today. While consumers in America feel cowed, while Asia is jittery, the rest of Europe watches fearfully and the biggest economy in Europe will continue to shrink.
- Mark Mardell
- 13 Nov 08, 10:06 AM
We know that the prime minister of Italy thinks the American President-elect is suntanned and the French president's wife didn't find it funny.
But could there be a European Obama? An interesting article in the New York Times says not. Any nominations? What do you think?
- Mark Mardell
- 12 Nov 08, 02:30 PM
"I eat first with my eyes," a woman tells me in a Brussels supermarket. "I am not going to eat deformed potatoes. I am sorry, I may be wrong but that's the way it is."
She is unusual, or at least unusually frank, for most of the shoppers tell me what you expect to hear these days, that it is flavour and nutrition, not appearance, that are important. 
"
I am talking to them in a supermarket with not a deformed potato in sight. Well, they wouldn't be on sale, for they are banned under a set of European Union rules that have invited more ridicule than just about anything else. They set out the 20mm minimum diameter of the Brussels sprout and the exact permitted curvature of the cucumber.
These are now being scrapped. The rules covering 26 vegetables are going. The Commission agriculture spokesman Michael Mann told me: "We just don't think this should be regulated at European Union level. We are aware we get a lot of stick for this and we agree it shouldn't really be done by us, much better if the trade does it itself. We are living in an area of high food prices it makes no sense whatsoever that perfectly good fruit and vegetables are being thrown away because they don't meet a standard. In future you'll be able to sell any shape of apple you want in a supermarket."
Mind you, some rules remain in place for the 10 biggest sellers, including apples, tomatoes, grapes and lemons. In those cases countries can decide to allow wonky examples of these vegetables to be sold with a special label. So a supermarket may have a basket of wrinkly, less attractive apples for a more attractive price.
But I wonder if they will. These sorts of rules designed to enforce a uniform common market aren't exactly the EU's thing any more, perhaps because all the regulations were introduced ages ago. But whenever I do search for disgruntled manufacturers or exporters unhappy about a planned EU directive standardising their product, I often find that the majority are happy that there are Europe-wide rules, so they don't have to have legal teams and paperwork to meet 27 different national standards.
I've just heard that 16 countries - mainly the big fruit and veg producers - voted against today's rule change. Because of the system of qualified majority voting they didn't get their way, but it does go to prove the point that what Brits are conditioned to think of as the product of "barmy Brussels bureaucrats" is often - perhaps always - the will of the nation states.
- Mark Mardell
- 11 Nov 08, 08:25 PM
Just a very quick add to yesterday's blog. Every year the auditors and the European Commission say the vast majority of problems are not fraud, but they don't want to give examples because they fear it would undermine otherwise successful projects. Thanks to a very helpful source I have got some detail on the sort of mistakes that are made. It's not colourful, or ridiculous, or funny, but I'm pretty sure this is the sort of stuff that is typical.
The Manchester site of the Imperial War Museum got around £8m of European Union money. The whole project cost about £17m. It's a building designed by the famous architect Daniel Libeskind, whose work includes the amazing Jewish Museum in Berlin.
The Imperial War Museum North is his first work in Britain. But the auditors found "significant gaps" in the selection of the contract, including no evidence of the evaluation of the tenders, no evaluation of the interviews conducted with the 11 bidders and no evidence of the discussions with the three architects shortlisted. So the EU will ask for its money back.
Although perhaps not the sexiest of examples, it does seem to me to highlight one of the difficulties. It is not exactly a hard call to give the job to Mr Libeskind: it is somehow on a rather different plane to deciding between the North-West Building Corporation and the Corporation of Builders from the North-West. But the EU has rules that have to be followed to show that no one is cheating or doing anything improper, which must turn something of an artistic conception into a nightmare of paperwork. But without the paperwork how do you show everything is above board? As ever, those who worry the most about improper spending of taxpayers' money are also the loudest in condemning excessive bureaucracy. And does the apparent failure of those in charge of the project imply that the EU itself has failed?
UPDATE: The museum authorities say they are "not aware that there is any issue with the EU".
A statement from a museum spokesperson said that in 2004 auditors acting for the EU had asked various detailed questions "regarding the initial appointment of contractors in 1997".
"Not all of the detail that was requested, such as copies of letters to unsuccessful tenderers, was still available at that period of time after the initial tender process in 1997. However, this does not mean that proper processes were not carried out," the statement said.
The museum insists that "all processes and procedures were carried out correctly".
- Mark Mardell
- 10 Nov 08, 04:08 PM
Whose fault is it that £200m-worth of European Union money (yes, your money) has been misspent in Britain?
It's that time of year again when the auditors go through the EU's books and we have a grand battle of interpretation.
The European Court of Auditors say for the first time in 14 years they have given a clean bill of health for the accounts - even though there are still too many errors.
But it is also a hardy annual red letter day for opponents of the European Union.
UKIP says of the court of auditors report that "the ECA is a European institution and therefore has been politicised in order that it sanitise the devastating truth about the accounts".
The European Commission argues that the mistakes are, on the whole, minor ones, and are largely errors in the paper trail rather than fraud. They are talking about things like bad form-filing, timesheet-keeping and so on. Out of 180 case studies the court found two examples of possible fraud.
The commission argues it is down to the governments of the countries that make up the EU. It is their job to look at how the money is being spent, and make sure it is all happening properly.
One commission source says it's rather like a game of football where the players commit the fouls but the ref gets the blame. But, he adds, the commission's increasingly showing the red or yellow card to offenders.
The commission is trying to claw back £190m that has been misspent in Britain. It is extremely difficult to get examples of what exactly has gone wrong: the commission feels it's unfair to highlight projects which may in themselves have been a success.
But money has, according to the commission, been misspent in South Wales, Greater Manchester, the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, North East England and Northern Ireland. The sort of project range from renovation of docklands to link-up projects between universities.
The pressure group Open Europe does not accept this. "The responsibility for this spectacular failure lies partly at the door of member states, but overwhelmingly with the commission," it says.
"Until Byzantine spending schemes such as the CAP and Structural Funds are fundamentally reformed, or scrapped altogether, fraud will continue."
They've also given some interesting examples of what they say is fraud.
The commission says many of these examples are plucked from newspapers, and are inaccurate.
- Mark Mardell
- 8 Nov 08, 08:12 AM
"You make it sound as if France is trying to take over," chuckled the French President, as the Commission president made a joke about speaking in a minority language, English.
But there seems to be a pattern here. People wonder why on earth the hyper President has called yet another special summit, and then have to agree that something at least has been agreed.
The 27 leaders have signed up to a detailed plan on reform of world financial rules which they will take to Washington (I was wrong - there was a text issued at the end of the meeting).
The EU is calling for:
Rating agencies to submit to registration
No institution or territory to escape regulation
New codes of conduct to avoid excessive risk taking
More responsibility for the IMF.
The 100 days after the summit should be used to come up with some concrete new rules.
President Sarkozy said: "We mustn't seem rigid or aggressive, but Europe, get used to this new idea, is speaking with one voice - that's the way its going to be."
Despite speaking with one voice, President Sarkozy said he understood the annoyance of Spain, the world's 8th largest economy, and the Netherlands, the 16th, being excluded from the meeting of what is meant to be the world's 20 largest economies. As you do with parties, he's having a word with the host, George W.
Lets hope the current US president wasn't listening to Mr Sarkoy's lavish praise for the President elect.
"The American people have made their choice, open, generous America has spoken. We love America when it can live up to the dreams it inspires. What do we expect from President Obama ? To help us create a fairer world. "
- Mark Mardell
- 7 Nov 08, 02:45 PM
Who will the European leaders be dealing with when they travel to Washington ?
Of course, George W will be the man across the table, but they will want to know how much Team Obama is running the show behind the scenes. It may be pretty important for how their ideas go down.
There's going to be some trading places this end too. The French are promising that Spain, the world's eighth largest economy, will be at the top table, perhaps taking one of the French seats: they have two, both as a country and as the EU president.
Don't be surprised if the Czechs are seen wandering around saying "Zut alors!" They too have been promised that they can get a seat at the table as part of the French delegation.
The French are calling for today's summit to propose "concrete responses" to be discussed at the big world summit on 15 November in Washington. They want to make sure that "no financial institution.. escapes regulation" and many of their ideas are aimed at removing the rewards for short termism and too much risk-taking.
They say by the end of the Washington meeting there should be general agreement on these principles, including a new code on risk-taking. And they want these ideas to be turned into hard and fast rules within 100 days of the Washington summit.
- Mark Mardell
- 7 Nov 08, 11:09 AM
The fourth emergency European summit in two months kicks off at lunchtime.
It's been called to coordinate a European Union position ahead of next week's Washington meeting on new financial rules.
Even though the economics commissioner Joaquin Almunia says "there is a single vision" there'll be a fair bit of argument about how much detail they should agree today.
The French have come forward with an 11-point plan, ranging from "draw up codes of conduct to address incentives to excessive risk-taking" to "promote a change of culture in the governance of financial institutions towards sustainable value creation."
The British worry is that too much detail will tie European hands in Washington and that the French plan to introduce protectionism in the guise of tighter regulation. There will be no written agreement at the end of today, so we will rely on the news conferences to find out what has happened.
Unusually even the top civil servants won't be in the room: it will be just the prime ministers and presidents plus the French ambassador to the EU, who will then debrief his 26 colleagues.
When I get to hear more I will let you know.
- Mark Mardell
- 3 Nov 08, 02:40 PM
A new official economic survey for the European Union calls the outlook "bleak" - although it predicts things will get better by this time next year.
The European Commission's autumn forecast suggests the EU is now just going into recession and the economy will "grind to a standstill". Its prediction for 2008 to 2010 predicts unemployment in the EU will rise to 7.8% next year and go up again in 2010.
The economic commissioner Joaquin Almunia says that "the economic horizon has now significantly darkened" but the forecast predicts only a slowdown and not recession in 2009. While it predicts hardly any growth in the first half of next year it suggests things will pick up after that, meaning that the European Union would avoid going into recession.
But Mr Almunia sees, from his point of view, one silver lining : he said that countries like Poland and Denmark had "seen the risks of not being members of the euro" and that he thought there would be "renewed political will" to join.
I am fascinated how this, and the government's apparent intention to become the 16th member of the eurozone, will go down in Denmark.
- Mark Mardell
- 1 Nov 08, 12:06 AM
Go into any high street bookshop in Britain and the European history section will groan under the weight of books about the Nazi era. Most of the time you will look in vain for something on Bismarck or Brandt. (If you are lucky there might be a copy of the excellent Iron Kingdom, by Christopher Clark, about the rise and fall of Prussia.)
Of course the Third Reich and World War II are an exceptionally important part of Germany's past. But generations afterwards many British, whistling the theme from The Dambusters, seem happy to define their relationship to Europe's biggest country solely through this prism. The Fawlty Towers "don't mention the war" episode was so brilliant because it was about a British, not a German, collective psychosis. But that I have written about elsewhere. 
So how should we see modern Germany and how do the Germans see themselves?
One seasoned diplomatic observer suggested to me that Germans defined themselves by pride in their prestigious manufactured goods. Not fashionable clothes or designer furniture, but complex high-end technology, cars and audio equipment. I think he's hit on something particularly with the love affair with big, black fast cars.
It is pride in a Germany that makes the best in the world, things that make life comfortable and cosy.
German efficiency is a cliche of course, but it is also true. You get bumblers and bungling everywhere, but on the whole if Germans say they will do something, it will be done with the minimum of fuss or performance. Meetings run to time, and mistakes are corrected.
But Germany's own relationship with its past is crucial, however I might moan about British bookshops.
In Berlin it's the builders who lay the ghosts by obliterating the past. It was of course once the capital of a region and a country - Prussia, itself wiped off the map, not just by history, but by an Allied occupation law of 1947.
I stand on a bridge in the drizzle looking at four big grey structures, like tower blocks stripped back to the raw concrete - all that remains of the parliament of communist East Germany. Many wanted it to remain as a monument, but even these impressively sombre corner posts will be torn down in a few months.
Where Hitler's bunker once stood there are flats, side street parking and a notice with a fairly detailed map about the complex. There is more of the Wall left, but not a lot of fuss is made about it. But there is also a fascination with the past, a desire to pick at the wounds. 
A film has just come out about the Baader-Meinhof gang, the left-wing terrorists who murdered more than 30 people in the 1970s. It is based on a book by Stefan Aust, who covered the events at the time. The film is controversial and has been condemned by the children of some of the killers' victims, but he says it gets better on every showing. He's seen it seven times.
I asked him what Germany's relationship with its past meant today. "You never get rid of that. Everything that happens in this country we compare to the German past, to the Nazi dictatorship. Germans are much more aware of their past than most other countries in the world. And that is at least one thing that is good, coming out of such a terrible past."
Why is that good? I wonder. "We are very sceptical about things, so we are sceptical when people admire politicians, we're sceptical about mass movements, we are very critical about what the police do, what the judicial system does. I think you have to think about your past to get rid of it."
We talk about the German attitude to war. Before 1999 no member of the German armed forces served abroad. Now they are the third-largest force in Afghanistan, although many allies query their wholehearted commitment.
"When Germany has to play a role in a war it is a terrible thing, and we don't make decisions like that very easily, because of everything that happened. So we were very sceptical about the Iraq war because we knew what it was to lose a war. When you start a war it is very important to win it. Right now it is very hard to see how we win the war in Afghanistan," Aust says.
Entering Berlin's Humboldt University, where Germany's next generation are being educated, the past is present. In the rather grand lobby the first thing you see, in gold letters on a background of brown and white marble, is a quote from Karl Marx, the one about philosophers having to change the world, not just describe it.
Set out in this entrance hall is a temporary exhibition, large black-and-white photographs of the Nazi attacks on Jewish business: the words "Jude! Jude! Jude!" scrawled across shop fronts make me shiver.
Two students, Bastian (24) and Florian (25), who are both studying history and want to be teachers, tell me things are changing. Bastian says: "We are the first generation who thinks rationally about the National Socialism. 
"The first generation in the 1950s denied everything, our parents accepted everything, accepted the guilt and the responsibility, but we are in the middle thinking about the consequences, but we aren't feeling guilty any more. Yeah, we're the first rationals."
Florian adds: "We're the first generation as well who has grown up with a united Germany. I was six years old when the Wall came down and that is history. I was one of the woodpeckers at the wall, there was small me with a hammer - I didn't do much damage of course."
How does that mean they see Germany's place in the world now? "Our military presence in Afghanistan is a joke and will be for a long time, but that will change. I am very torn: I think we should accept responsibility but people are getting killed, sons die, mums cry. It's an ugly business."
"We're still divided," says Florian. "On one side we see
the responsibility Germany has to have in the world but we still are saying 'yes and no'. It's something we can do but shouldn't do."
But what about the broader question, what it means to be German now? Bastian says: "What does it mean to drink beer and love football? I don't know - I drink coke and love basketball. I don't know what it means to be German. I am Berlin, born here, I love this city but I don't know anything about being German."
Florian says: "I think there is no special thing about being German, it's just something written on your ID card." But he says during the 2006 World Cup things did change. "That's the only time we've had something like that. It's only during huge sports events that you see Germany as a nation: united in front of the television or something. You could see people wearing our flag, knotted around their necks, but if you do it and there is nothing like soccer around, Jesus: don't, that's a sin. Patriotism isn't considered a bad thing any more but you'd be considered a weirdo."
Perhaps these students are not the end of the process and it will take another generation or two before the past cease to haunt Germany. But I am beginning to see that a sort of national humility is a key part of the German soul. The past has made Germans reluctant to boast or strut.
When I said something to one businessman about Germany being the most powerful, important nation in Europe, he was reluctant to agree. "It is not for us to say that. You don't stir your own soup." If this is a German saying it's a rather odd one: clearly most people do. But you see what he means.
The same goes for the German language. The French are prickly if their language is not used at the top table or is slighted in any way. And while English is in a very dominant position I have not doubt at all we would be very defensive if it wasn't. But I have been at EU news conferences given by Austrians and Germans and they did not bat an eyelid about speaking in English.
- Mark Mardell
- 31 Oct 08, 11:08 AM
Gigantic dull red frames, in effect monstrous cranes, glide smoothly back and forth along Hamburg's dockside, carrying containers that are destined to travel all over the world.
Weirdly, and rather irritatingly as I am recording a radio piece, this ballet of mechanical behemoths is almost totally silent. The fork-lift trucks in the yard behind make more noise as they lift the individual containers, making a satisfying clanking sound.
Hamburg is Germany's biggest port, and for the last five years Germany has been the world's largest exporter. The majority of Germany's exports go to other parts of the European Union, with France as the major importer. But it is also German precision machine parts that have helped China's factories boom. The United States is also a big market.
With the whole of the globe as the target market, a global financial crisis is going to hurt.
Hans Heinrich Noll of Germany's shipowners' association professes himself an optimist, but he says they will be squeezed from both sides. People have less money to invest and the rest of the world isn't buying as much.
"It's a matter of demand. The financial and economic crisis will result in less demand for German exports: goods like machinery and cars, and high-technology products," he says.
"We have the largest container fleet worldwide, so we are very much dependent on the fate of trade worldwide and in particular the United States, Europe, China.
"We are not yet in the position to estimate what the effect will be on the real economy of the credit crunch, but there are some indications that freight rates are dropping and the demand for charter ships is declining.
"We had a boom for many years and now we have a quick decline in a short period of a few months."
To make it worse, more ships are being built for the German fleet and will be ready in a couple of years' time, perhaps as the downturn reaches a peak.
Mr Noll says politicians have to tell people that everything will be all right, whatever they really think, because this is not an economic crisis but a psychological one, about how people feel.
If he is a strategic optimist Reinhard Hauke seems the genuine article. We're talking in his factory in Schleswig-Holstein, a couple of hours' drive from Hamburg, standing in front of several glowing cherry-red fire engines. 
Ziegler Feuerschutz Rendsburg supplies everything a fire brigade could possibly need, and this part of the company doesn't export but sells to nearby local authorities.
They started in 1891, making fire hoses. Now their biggest operation is fitting all the kit into the chassis of fire engines. Each one is customised. Two men are at work rewiring the dashboard, while another drills into place frames that will hold communications equipment and computers for an incident control vehicle.
Mr Hauke, one of the bosses of the company, says "I think we are going to have a recession for a year and then we will be out of it. Our production is full: our books are full for nine months."
He takes me through a store room, crammed with shelves full of hose pipes, uniforms, caps and boots. In the draw of one metal cabinet there are medals for gallantry, silver bronze and gold.
"I don't worry too much because the situation of our company is ok. The bankers, the regional bankers will give money, give credit." He's talking not about the state banks but banks owned by city councils. "I am sure I know we will get the money we need to invest," he says.
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Then I meet that rarest of beasts these days - a cheerful economist. Some argue that German banks at the regional level have exactly the same problems as those in the US and UK, and are worried about their reluctance to take money from the government. Not Christian Dreger from the German Institute for Economic Research.
"We do not see a credit crunch in the data. All the data tells us there is not a serious credit crunch in Germany. In Germany the financial conditions of private firms are in good shape, and we have evidence that investment activity is more financed by profits than when compared to Anglo-Saxon countries, where credit demand plays a much larger role.
"In the UK and US you find a strong impact of the stock market or house prices on private consumption, but you do not find that for continental Europe, and especially not for Germany," he says, unable to suppress a chuckle.
"Of course we are in a period of economic stagnation at the moment, because of weakening demand from the United States. In contrast, demand from emerging markets like China and India is still quite strong and they have a similar weight to the euro area.
But after all this unexpected optimism I talk to shoppers - and the story is very different.
Even before the latest financial crisis Germany was suffering from consumers pulling their horns in, not spending as much. German businesses were crossing their fingers and hoping confidence would return, but now that looks very unlikely.
In the early evening I stop in a cheap supermarket on the outskirts of a little town in eastern Germany. Astra, and her son Christian, who looks to be in his early twenties, have only a few items in their trolley and are choosing with care.
"We're being hit hard here. It's never been good in this region and we've always had to count the pennies but now it's worse," she says.
"Nowadays I try to go shopping only once or twice a week, so that I don't get carried away buying little things that I don't really need. I make sure I go to the supermarket on the way home so I don't use any more petrol than I need to, and always shop around for special offers. I write a list of what I need: bread, butter, just stuff like that. I used to pop in every evening and get a salad and some fresh fruit. Not any more."
She explains that the family runs a little shop, selling flowers and trinkets.
"I wouldn't normally shop at this time of day but we've had to close our own shop because there are no customers. People have to spend their money on rent, food, maybe fuel for the car, so they don't have anything left over for the little luxuries."
Christian and his wife have two children, the youngest just five weeks old. They help in the shop but Astrid says they are all going to have to talk about whether this can go on. Although the government has brought unemployment down, there are parts of eastern Germany where as many as 30% are out of work.
"Mum's right," Christian says "Fewer and fewer people come to the shop. I have to think about moving to the West or a big city in the East where there's work and a better standard of living. I don't want to, this is my home. But you can't live on love and air. It would be nice if you could, but you can't."
Astrid holds aloft a round advent calendar, a big circle of purple and gold filled with milk chocolates, examining it carefully.
"Look at this, it's very beautiful... very different. Lovely. It's good quality: I bet it tastes good too. But 11 euros 99! I don't even have to think about it! Not this year."
She goes on: "Christmas this year the family will be together, children and grandchildren. We'll all celebrate and have dinner together. It'll be nice. But only the little ones will get presents this year."
The Germany economy is undoubtedly strong and better placed to resist some of the effect of the downturn, but I can't help wondering if a lot more people will be trying to live on love and air by this time next year.
This is based on a piece broadcast on Friday morning on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. One more to come on Saturday, on how Germany sees itself.
UPDATE: Interesting debate on Chancellor Merkel.
I wrote that Germany was the most powerful country in Europe, because it is the biggest economy, the biggest exporter in the world (see article above) and arguably the strongest economy in Europe. There is no doubt in my mind that Germany is the major player within the European Union, although its wishes can be defeated by some alliances. Merkel's skill is perhaps that she doesn't allow that to happen.
Clearly Britain has more impressive armed forces, but I am not sure how much power that gives us in the real world. Since the Falklands our fights have been those endorsed by Nato or the US. We have a seat in the UN Security Council, which Germany doesn't. But I think in general it is easy for the British to underestimate the power of other European countries, because their influence is under-reported. I don't moan about that, it is natural the focus is on our leaders, but the danger is that it makes it look as if they are the only players. It is not just journalists, of course: I was struck while researching this piece that, while I have read two books about the bloke who probably won't be US president, none of the three biographies of Merkel that I know about have been published in English. I am sure the publishers know what they are doing, and there isn't an audience, but who is the more important - powerful, if you like - politician?
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