From Merkelmania to Malaise

Abstract

The article places the current malaise afflicting the Federal Republic of Germany in a post-war historical context. It argues that the recent reversal in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s academic and journalistic fortunes—from darling to devil within a few short years—reflects a broader schizophrenia in the intelligentsia’s views on Germany’s economy. Since the early 1950s, opinion has swung, almost violently, from fawning adoration to dark pessimism. We have, in short, been here before, and the present apocalyptic gloom is, as it has always been in the past, likely overdone. The article then reviews the crises Germany is confronting—including housing, decaying infrastructure, migration, and the seemingly unstoppable rise of the far right—and outlines how the contributions to this special issue address these and other challenges.