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  • bjbjLULU JUDY WOODRUFF: And to Europe's debt crisis. Negotiations are going down to the

  • wire on yet another bailout for Greece, one that would require German help. From Germany,

  • Margaret Warner reports on some of the people who help make it Europe's richest country.

  • MARGARET WARNER: The Restaurant Dionysos was packed on a recent night, heaping plates of

  • Greek fare flying from kitchen to table. But at this eatery named for the God of wine,

  • the drink of choice is German beer. The Greek-born owner spent years building this showcase of

  • his homeland's cuisine for Frankfurt diners. But now the economic crisis in Greece and

  • demands that Germany act as financial backstop to Europe has him wishing his old home behaved

  • a little bit more like his new one. CHRISTOS KEZETZIDIS, owner, Dionysos (through translator):

  • In Greece, it's a totally different world. I came here to work. In Germany, there's just

  • more order and they do more work. MARGARET WARNER: That work ethic is forged at places

  • like the Herrenknecht factory in Germany's booming Black Forest region. Owner and founder

  • Martin Herrenknecht grew up in a tiny village here, the son of an upholsterer. MARTIN HERRENKNECHT,

  • chairman, Herrenknecht, A.G.: My dream was always to have more people employed than my

  • father. My father had 12 people. MARGARET WARNER: More than 4,000 people work for him,

  • from young apprentices learning to shape metal to master craftsmen constructing the subterranean

  • ground-eaters built here, tunnel-boring machines that can cost tens of millions of dollars.

  • The secret to Germany's success lies in small-to-medium-sized family firms like this one that manufacture

  • some highly specialized and indispensable piece of equipment. The Germans like to say,

  • we make the thing that goes inside the thing that goes inside the thing. In Herrenknecht's

  • case, it's a very big thing. Some weigh thousands of tons. Projects from the Beijing subway

  • to New York's Second Avenue line to a train bed under the Alps all exploit Herrenknecht's

  • indispensable feature cutting head that can readjust to any material on the spot. The

  • founder credits much of his success to the centuries-old mechanical aptitude and ingenuity

  • of the workers of his region. MARTIN HERRENKNECHT: Before, let's say 300 years, we built cuckoo

  • clocks and, today, we build tunnel-boring machine. So we changed from the . . . MARGARET

  • WARNER: From cuckoo clocks to tunnel . . . MARTIN HERRENKNECHT: To tunnel-boring machine. MARGARET

  • WARNER: . . . to tunnel-boring machines. That's quite an evolution. (LAUGHTER) MARGARET WARNER:

  • Most of Herrenknecht's $1.25 billion in sales are worldwide, helping make Germany an export

  • powerhouse. With just a quarter of America's population and a quarter of its GDP, Germany

  • exports more than the United States in total, notes Norbert Walter, the former chief economist

  • of Deutsche Bank. NORBERT WALTER, former chief cconomist, Deutsche Bank: We Germans have

  • 1 percent of the labor force of the world, and we have 10 percent of the exports in the

  • world. That gives you an idea of how successful and how oriented towards international markets

  • we are. MARGARET WARNER: The 10-year-old common European currency also helps. A third of Herrenknecht's

  • sales go to other Eurozone countries, and pricing his machines in euros, rather than

  • what economists say would be a far stronger deutsche mark, makes them more competitive

  • abroad. MARTIN HERRENKNECHT: If we were to have 17 different currencies, can you imagine

  • every morning, I should study what is now, let's say, our relation to the Swiss -- to

  • the French francs, to the peso, to the lira? I couldn't work like this. MARGARET WARNER:

  • We ve come to Germany to find out why it's doing so much better than its European partners.

  • And part of the reason can be found here, in the southwest state of Baden-Wurttemberg.

  • The castle behind me may date from the 1700s, but the economic model they ve developed here

  • is 21st century-plus. Just outside the state capital, Stuttgart, is another one of Baden-Wurttemberg's

  • high performer, Trumpf. Customers from Harley-Davidson to Apple buy its laser-driven metal cutting

  • machines, $2.7 billion worth last year. The family-owned firm devotes 8 percent of revenues

  • to R&D to keep its innovation edge. They invest even more in their 9,000-person work force,

  • more than half here in Germany. Like most German industries, Trumpf hires them young,

  • after the equivalent of 10th grade, for a rigorous three-year training and schooling

  • program and a full-salary job afterward. Most stay far longer. And after college, paid for

  • by the company, some go on to become managers. Apprentice Simon Richter is 19. SIMON RICHTER,

  • Trumpf: I applied for being -- training because, yeah, I like the mechanical work, and not

  • only the theoretical stuff at school. It's so always the same at school, and you don't

  • know what do you need math for in your life later. MARGARET WARNER: So do you think you

  • have a good future ahead of you? SIMON RICHTER: Yes, I have. MARGARET WARNER: Trumpf keeps

  • the apprentice program going even in hard times, as when the 2008 global financial crisis

  • melted down the company's sales. NICOLA LEIBINGER-KAMMULLER, CEO, Trumpf: It just hit us. Really went from

  • one hour to the next, we didn't have any orders. At the same time, all over the world, no order.

  • That was really cruel. MARGARET WARNER: CEO Nicola Leibinger-Kammuller watched as sales

  • plummeted 40 percent in two years, and she had to drastically cut production. For most

  • firms, that would have meant layoffs, but not here. NICOLA LEIBINGER-KAMMULLER: It's

  • just a terrible thought having to lay off people, because we like our employees and

  • we need them. And they are well-trained, and they're loyal. And they have been working

  • for us for decades, some of them, or many of them have. And it's just a terrible thought

  • to have to send them away. MARGARET WARNER: Instead, Trumpf turned to a new German program

  • called Kurzarbeit, or short work, cutting its employees' work hours and pay. The government

  • made up part of the difference. And they got extra training on their off-days. Judith Schonemeyer

  • and Sebastian Frederick say they didn't mind reduced wages. At least they kept up their

  • skills. JUDITH SCHONEMEYER, Trumpf (through translator): We noticed that the financial

  • figures were declining. Right from the beginning, it was clear. For me, it was one or two days

  • a week I didn't work. We accept less money, so that once the situation improves, we won't

  • have to start over again. SEBASTIAN FREDERICK, Trumpf (through translator): It gave us a

  • secure feeling, especially the people with families, that they have job security, that

  • the company stands behind them and that you get to keep your job. So everybody was happy

  • to do without the 5 percent or extra hours. PETER LEIBINGER, vice chairman, Trumpf: The

  • desire for security and safety is the most, so to speak, the strongest driver in German

  • culture. MARGARET WARNER: Nicola's brother, Peter Leibinger, vice chairman of Trumpf,

  • said the short work program, readily accepted by the German workers, positioned industry

  • to restart quickly after the downturn, and it paid off big-time for Trumpf. PETER LEIBINGER:

  • If we hadn't had this opportunity to use Kurzarbeit, we wouldn't have had the upswing that we saw,

  • meaning 50 percent growth within one year for a company that makes a very difficult

  • and complicated product and has to deliver that into the world. This wouldn't have been

  • possible without us having our work force on board. MARGARET WARNER: The Leibingers'

  • financial caution also helped them weather the global credit crisis. Trumpf carries no

  • major debt, they say, and in good times, they bank the extra profits to reinvest later.

  • NICOLA LEIBINGER-KAMMULLER: No yachting, no, no horses, no racing cars and stuff like that.

  • And that's why usually we have enough money to reinvest with our money for research and

  • development and buildings and acquisitions and so on and so forth. MARGARET WARNER: But

  • even Trumpf is feeling a chill wind now from other E.U. countries, who account for half

  • its sales. Since the euro crisis hit big last summer, there s been a slowdown in orders

  • from customers in Italy and Spain and even France. PETER LEIBINGER: They said, we'd like

  • to invest, we could use the extra capacity, but we're just so unsure about the future,

  • we re going to wait for awhile. MARGARET WARNER: Martin Herrenknecht, with his European customer

  • base, is torn over what to do about the crisis. This self-made man is frustrated that Germany

  • is being asked to bail out less prudent and hardworking neighbors. MARTIN HERRENKNECHT:

  • It's nonsense. They should control it in a better way. And it cannot be that we get retirement

  • with 67 and the Greeks with 50. MARGARET WARNER: But then there's economic reality. Do you

  • think that Germany is going to have to help support some of these countries? MARTIN HERRENKNECHT:

  • I would say that's quite clear. MARGARET WARNER: That tension, how to shore up the euro zone

  • on which Germany depends, without endangering its own hard-won prosperity is one the Germans

  • haven't yet resolved. GWEN IFILL: In her next report, Margaret looks at the roiling debate

  • in Germany over whether and when to shore up its indebted neighbors. hS*b hS*b hS*b

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  • place JUDY WOODRUFF: And to Europe's debt crisis Normal Microsoft Office Word JUDY WOODRUFF:

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德國是如何成為歐洲最富有的國家的? (How Germany Became Europe's Richest Country)

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    Jessica Yang 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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