Germany. That was once… …a land of thinkers, poets, and engineers. This attribution of „hunger for knowledge“ stood for positive stereotypes. Technology, economy, and society in this country were said to be characterized by particularly deliberate and thorough approaches to development. The goals: to implement well-thought-out solutions and bring products of true substance and durability to market. The result: “Schland” = world champion. In exports, occasionally in football, handball and – routinely – in luge… …because people in Germany used their brains, put their hearts into their hands, and had passion in their legs. And today, in 2025? It is almost tragically comical that the URL „wissenshunger-deutschland.de“ – a student Public Health project from the „Bundesvertretung der Medizinstudierenden in Deutschland e.V.“ in Göttingen – leads, as of November 3, 2025, to the result: “Hmmm… this page is unfortunately not reachable.” How did it come to this? June 2013. The great discovery: “The New Frontier, the Internet.” After its recognition by the Chancellor as a matter of the rule of law, German companies were to embark on a journey across blue, red, and sometimes black oceans, satisfy their hunger for knowledge and settle in the new frontier. Today, twelve years later, if one searches in the “Atlas of Digitalization” for digital footprints, settlements, or field crops of German origin, it leads to the entry: “Deutsche Commercial Internet Exchange” (DE-CIX) in Frankfurt am Main. One of the largest internet hubs in the world, founded in 1995. Its bundled data centers are equipped with fiber-optic connections, up to 20 Tbit of data throughput per second, and a subscription model for users. At least, a piece of functioning system infrastructure with a clear business model… …and that at a central railway hub. Departed, right? Any further cartographically widespread internet activities from or within Germany? Barely any. Instead, an event like the once world’s largest computer fair, CeBIT in Hanover, has been history since 2018. In terms of “IT,” people now visit us noticeably less. A development that aligns with the latest analysis by Prof. Dr. Moritz Schularick, President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. In October 2025, he diagnosed the German location with – quote – “an incredible amount of complacency and lethargy.” Among the many structural problems, Schularick lists the social system, over-bureaucratization, the lag in artificial intelligence and other modern technologies. In addition, current investments are not yet about innovative and sustainable implementation but rather about plugging holes. On the one hand, as a result of neglecting infrastructure as a dividend of Germany’s „peace dividend“ of the past 30 years. On the other hand, there is the accelerated retirement of our boomers. Incidentally, all post-war children. In short: The “Methuselah Complex” described by Frank Schirrmacher back in 2004 is now unfolding its full force in this country.
Are the aforementioned “German virtues” – thinking, writing, tinkering – a way out of this complex and multifaceted crisis? Probably not, as long as the trigger point for “thoroughness” continues to be the need for “security.” No risk, no return. Every investor knows that. How much risk one can afford is determined by liquidity. If one takes no risk – because even with insights from data analysis and experience-based evaluation criteria, there is no absolute certainty – then nothing can be gained. Contrary to what many people – including those active in business – believe, even “doing nothing” costs liquid resources. Both mental ones – such as fresh ideas or confidence – and financial ones. The consequences for the balance of performance: state quotas accumulate. Substance declines – due to lack of diversification and innovation. Those who accept this have often internalized their legal responsibility toward ownership, but rarely use it in an economically productive way. What technology, the economy, and society in Germany truly need are values and principles such as curiosity, courage, a conscious risk culture, including resilience and redundancy strategies, and agility. All of that begins in the mind and requires shedding old patterns. Take the Germans and their constant grumbling: So much focus is placed on “discontent as a permanent state” that positive human traits – e.g., courage, openness, respect, focus, and a sense of duty – are increasingly missing in everyday interactions and discourse. So does that mean that the mindset, systems, and working methods of IT development and software testing are now the most creative, cognitive, and coordinated forces Germany has to ignite a new “economic miracle”? With the “Made for Germany” initiative, the German economy is clearly yearning for the catalytic power of a “concerted (relief) effort” in the digital age. If this kind of institutional crowd-funding feels “artificial,” you might blame it on “AI” at first… …and then take a good look in the mirror. Because no AI prevents any individual – or all of us together – from using the “art of intelligence”… …to survive as humans in the new frontier and arrive at a transformed kind of prosperity.
That’s why one would have wished the above-mentioned student initiative “Wissenshunger Deutschland” full success. For its “peer education activities,” such as workshops with school students, a fundraising goal of €200.00 was set on “goodcrowd.org” four years ago. This goal was 68 percent achieved. The campaign has since ended. Nevertheless – or now more than ever – schools can, or perhaps even must, be places and times where the principles and techniques of agility and resilience play a central role and are practiced. In the German spirit of: „Endlich ‚KI ‚n‘ DER‘ a die Macht.“ kind of translated to “Finally ‘k[A]ids to power.” More on that next time, including a breakdown of the buzzword. It’s going to be a “hit.”
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