[werg]

This is incorrect. The anthem is not Nazi, it is from a poem by Hoffman von Fallersleben, one of the early German democrats. Far from being illegal, the first two stanzas are simply not sung during official occasions and are not (no longer, up to 1991 they were) part of the national anthem. I'm German too and I find this kind of thin-skinnedness a bit embarassing and is not substantiated by the article. Otherwise the article is kind of boring, though it points out some key areas: middle-class not only in terms of individuals, but also in terms of companies, integrating organized labor, the vocational training system. Of these I find the last most interesting, most overlooked, most anachronistic, and factually I'm not quite sure if it actually works all that well (i.e. I believe other countries could improve a lot on the system).

When talking about Germany as a great economic system one must not forget that Germany is nothing more than the economic center of the EU. As a whole, the EU is in economic trouble, and Germany is a part of that trouble.

Also, current prosperity, like the current boom in technology, is largely due to the fact that there aren't that many other places to invest.