HAMBURG (dpa) – It might not be the picture that the world has of Germany, but a stream of recent data shows Germans spending less time at work, disregarding ecological worries by driving more, drinking less beer and above all, wanting to have more fun.
What is more, the gulf between the rich and poor in what was once egalitarian Germany has been widening, with the nation’s wealth concentrated in a small group of hands, a government report on poverty and wealth in the world’s third biggest economy has shown.
Indeed, instead of the eastern and western parts of the nation growing together as promised, the report showed that a dozen years after the breaching of the Berlin Wall and a massive transfer of public funds, the economic divide between east and west is growing.
While average west German household of assets totalled 245,000 marks (112,000 dollars) in 1998, only 34 per cent of East German households had assets totalling 88,000 marks.
A key reason for the disparity in wealth has been the growth in unemployment, especially in the former communist east, with the recent surge in the numbers owning shares in the nation also helping to accentuate the economic differences in the country.
Concern that many unemployed people were turning down jobs, preferring instead to continue to draw on benefits from Germany’s still generous welfare system, led Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to declare that nobody “had the right to laziness”.
But then the nation’s elite has been worrying for years about troubling signs that Germany’s post World-War-II prosperity had given rise to a new generation more inclined towards fun rather than the pursuit of the nation’s previous legendary work ethic.
A Hamburg researcher, Horst Opaschowski, who takes the nation’s pulse in regular surveys for the BAT Leisure Research Institute, reports that 77 per cent of Germans aged between 14 and 29 believed there was no fun to be had in helping other people.
Fun-oriented entertainment on television such as game shows were eroding the German social fabric, warned the expert who added: “Let’s dump this fun culture, otherwise the quality of life in Germany will deteriorate.”
It may already be too late. Another official survey released this month showed the average working week in the nation dropping to a record low last year, with west Germans spending an average 36.7 hours at the job in 2000 compared to 37.9 hours per week a decade ago.
Ten years ago the average east German working week was 40 hours. Today it is down to 37.9 hours.
At the same time dramatic changes are underway in Germany’s often tightly regulated jobs market, with a more than 40 per cent increase since 1991 in the numbers saying they were working outside traditional work times with more flexible hours.
Despite Germany being at the forefront of moves towards addressing global warming and introducing rigorous recycling rules in Europe, the government survey also indicated that fewer Germans are allowing their environmental beliefs to get in the way of their love of cars.
Those driving their car to work, instead of taking the nation’s extensive public transport system, jumped from 60 per cent in 1996 to 64 per cent only a few years later.
Driving more might be linked to drinking less beer. Germany’s federation of breweries reported recently that Germans were now drinking 10 litres less of beer than five years ago.
The truth is that despite an amazing array of high quality beers, younger Germans in particular have been switching to wine as well as other often lighter and more exotic drinks.
