I don’t know if my friends feel this way. Since the second half of this year, the German Railways, which has always been unreliable, has become even more unreliable.
Some German media reported on December 24, "This country is calling SOS, and Germany is already at its limit. People outside Germany are wondering, is this not Germany anymore?"
At the end of November, Germany The Federal Energy Network Agency issued a report: "German mobile network operators Telekom, Telefonica and Vodafone originally promised to build receiving stations in 500 areas without Internet access by the end of 2022. However, only 95 have been completed so far. 3% of German areas are still in a signal black hole, that is, they cannot receive 4G and have no 5G signal."
The article continues, " The A45 motorway in Lüdenscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia marked its first anniversary of being blocked on December 2. Due to the severe damage to the bridge, cars were unable to pass. However, the bridge has neither been demolished nor has a new construction contract been issued. Over the past 12 months, commuters have been forced to take detours, sometimes causing hours-long traffic jams car. "
The artist wrote a slogan on the blocked bridge in Lüdenscheid: "Let's fix the bridge"
This situation is not just in Lüdenscheid. There are more than 400 bridges across Germany that are in high risk and need to be repaired urgently.
html On December 4th, the ICE in Hamburg -Berlin was overbooked. There were so many people that the train was delayed by 20 to 30 minutes and could not leave. In the end, Deutsche Bahn staff and passengers who had not booked tickets were forced to get off the train. Some people hid in the toilet, while others crowded with their luggage.
Claus Weselski, Chairman of the German Railway Drivers Union (GDL) Weselsky said in this regard: "I and our railway employees are ashamed of our company's service."
On December 12, a local school in Hohenstein-Enstal, Saxony, announced the suspension of religious classes, cancellation of biology classes for eighth grade, and no music and social studies classes for seventh grade - all because of the lack of teachers. Desperate parents wrote letters to the Ministry of Education.
In fact, in Germany, the shortage of teachers in schools across the country is as high as 40,000, and some states are even looking for teachers based on class hours. An education study points out that one in every five German primary school students fails to meet the standards for , German, and mathematics.
html On December 13, a local daycare center in Rheinberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, had to close for two days because a staff member fell ill. One mother said she was devastated because it wasn't the first time her daycare had closed. She rushed to the city hall with her son, planning to hand her son over to the care of the mayor. She angrily told the mayor that another mother had turned down a chemotherapy appointment because she had to stay home to care for her children. According to German media reports, Germany is in urgent need of 100,000 kindergarten teachers.
On the same day, an emergency room nurse was interviewed by German TV station 2: "I have encountered patients waiting in the emergency room for 40 hours. During these 40 hours, no one had time to take care of the patient. When someone finally walked into the room, the patient was already lying there with no signs of life. He did not need to die." The article wrote that emergency rooms across Germany lacked 50,000 nursing staff.
html On December 14, a pediatrician in Berlin asked for help: "I have worked in this clinic for 10 years and have never experienced such a large-scale manpower shortage. People who are still working are gritting their teeth and persisting, but 40% of intensive care beds are unattended. Part of The patient had to be transferred to Rostock, more than 200 kilometers away. On December 17, a child developed fever, sore throat and red and swollen tonsils. The doctor diagnosed the patient as being infected with "A streptococcus ", but after searching all the pharmacies, he couldn't find penicillin. The child's condition continued to worsen, and the mother had to turn to a prescription for the alternative antibiotic . However, even with the alternative prescription, the pharmacy was still out of stock.
It ended up taking seven hours for the mother to buy an unopened box of antibiotics from another mother online. The Federal Drug and Medical Device Administration's drug shortage list has listed more than 330 drugs, and children's antipyretics are out of stock almost across the country. The article
continues to mention the bottleneck of digitalization in Germany. According to a law, Germany should be able to allow online applications for driving licenses by the end of 2022. However, Landsberg, spokesman for the German Association of Cities and Towns, said: "It is not enough to just put forward a vision for digitization. We also need digital systems and trained personnel. We are a country with a complex structure and an extremely bureaucratic structure."
Among 35 countries in Europe, the digital degree of German public institutions ranks only 21st.
html On December 22, the Federal Energy Network Agency warned again that in Germany, if you want to install a heat pump , the average waiting time is 3-9 months. Logistics and technical staff shortages hamper the energy transition. The construction industry is currently short of approximately 17,000 electricians.
In 2022, the punctuality rate of German railways hit a record low. According to the "Rheinische Post" citing the federal government's response to the German Railways problem, "the federal government is not satisfied with the current punctuality rate. Only 50-60% of long-distance trains can reach their destinations on time." But how to solve it is unclear.
The above is the current status of Germany's problems as reviewed by the German media. I hope that "spiritual Germans" will stop saying that we are deliberately digging up the negative aspects of Germany.
