Broken Republik: The Inside Story of Germany’s Descent into Crisis

by Chris Reiter, Will Wilkes

'A splendid book by authors who long ago detected Germany's fragility – and aimed at readers who take no pleasure in the sight of its precipitous decline' YANIS VAROUFAKIS

The compelling story of Germany's decline – where it all went wrong and how it could bounce back.

For many years, the post-war recovery of Germany was an inspirational story. All of Europe looked on with admiration and envy as the nation rebuilt and set standards for the rest to follow. Companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Siemens and Bayer rose to become global titans, while the country's political leaders earned respect around the world – even their football teams were the best. Such was its success that when the Berlin Wall fell, it appeared to reunify almost seamlessly. Where Germany led, the rest followed.

But, even at its zenith, there were signs of trouble, with a worrying lack of national identity at its heart. So, when events started to turn against Germany, the whole edifice began to crumble. As political and business leaders benefited from the status quo, they couldn't see the problems heading their way. Volkswagen's emissions fraud tainted its industrial reputation; abandoning nuclear power left the country at the mercy of Russia for its energy needs; and a growing divide between rich and poor stoked international tensions that opened the door to the rise of the far-right AfD party.

Journalists Chris Reiter and Will Wilkes have been reporting for years on the problems the country faces. Germany is not alone in this, but it is singularly ill-equipped to deal with them. Broken Republik is an essential read for anyone who wants to understand Germany's slide towards the brink.

Genres: Germany, Nonfiction, Economics, History, Politics

368 pages, Paperback

Published July 7, 2026

Reviews

[Sascha Döring · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and informative ride through the many problem areas of crisis-ridden Germany. Absolutely worth a read in that regard. Unfortunately it's often held back by liberal platitudes and lack of analytic clarity especially when it comes to issues such as rearmament, the history of East Germany or social inequality. Here the book often accepts conventional wisdom instead of digging deeper or contends itself with cataloging injustices instead of embedding them in an analysis of social conflict. The sense of a new and liberal minded national solidarity that the authors seem to suggest as a universal cure for Germany's woes speaks more to their well-meaning middle class sensibilities than to the actual problems of a working class that is currently being besieged by austerity politics, de-industrialization and a broad capital offensive against unions.

[Kassy Chesire · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insightful and compelling look at a nation socially fragmented, technologically stunted, and somewhat lacking an identity. Strained and outdated educational system, ballooning income inequality and minimal socioeconomic mobility set the stage for fear-mongering politicians to point fingers rather than seek proper solutions. Germany has a history of “othering” select groups to place blame for economic woes, and it has found its history hard to reckon with in any meaningful way.

Loved connecting the dots between elements like the stereotypically German obsession with rules, general distrust of others, top-down approach to regulating the German language, and so much more.

[Kash Vazirani · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye opener about Europe’s most out dated biggest economy

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like many people from outside Germany, I always had a "la vie en rose" view of post-war Germany: a "no bullshit, let's go" country that overcame its nationalism, is driven by strong humanistic values, is incredibly efficient in almost everything (football, cars, trains, etc.), and maybe is just a tad bit boring. Of course, from time to time I would see an occasional article or two in western media, adding darker shades to my rosy perception and highlighting certain troubled undercurrents I wasn't aware of, but I wouldn't consider it something extraordinarily important.

Then the 2020s arrived, right-wing populism was on the rise, AfD was surging in the polls, the world order was crumbling, I got to experience the DB "punctuality" myself. The stream of alarming and critical articles blowing the whistle on Germany's troubles was taking a good share of my reading time.

Enter 2026: I stumble upon this book, which provides a comprehensive picture of the deeply troubled state of Germany. A picture I would rather not see, a picture which makes me genuinely unsettled, a picture one needs to see.

Thankfully, the book is not all doom and gloom, and while it goes over multiple accounts of things done wrong by the establishment, it also includes numerous stories of hope and resilience exhibited by ordinary people. On top of that, the authors even include a chapter with their suggestions on what the long-term solutions to the current decline might be. Funnily enough, to me this chapter was the weakest one, because it felt a lot like wishful thinking. Guys, the previous nine chapters made me seriously worried! If you want to really propose a solution, please let me know not only that "back-of-the-envelope calculations show that this idea might actually work", but also whether the decision-makers actually want to change things, are aware of your solution, and are ready to act upon it (and if not, what should we do).

Nevertheless, I still rate it 5/5, since it is a brilliant source for those who feel that something is off, but can't quite put their finger on what it is.

[Jonas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent descriptive analysis of Germany's current crisis, the logical end point of the failure to adapt its post war economic strategy.
It is obvious the authors understand the country and culture. The book is very well researched, even recalling relevant but not widely reported, niche events, such as the open letter of several southern German mayors to Chancellor Scholz on bureaucratic reform. They do a great job of highlighting smaller acts like this. There are great challenges ahead, but there is a real grass roots movement that hasn't given up on the country.
"In der Krise beweist sich der Charakter."

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since October 7th, I feel like I've been living in an alternate reality. Suddenly living in Germany was chaotic and its fragility was exposed. Being pro-Palestine and seeing European citizens being deported illegally made me fear for my own safety. Walking down the street, I was suddenly more aware that I was speaking English and would switch to German (which I speak okay-ish) so I wasn't seen as a "schmutzige Ausländerin".

I saw a country who didn't really learn anything, and allowed their cult of guilt to justify another genocide. I saw complicity and biases of media, government, and people. I saw fascist and violent police take-downs of peaceful protesters. I saw Jewish anti-Zionists arrested for antisemitism. For a country that produced some of the finest philosophers, it sure doesn't have much logic.

The bureaucracy rules are so archaic and made to make it difficult for everyone. I watched friends become homeless due to bad relationship situations and not be able to find a flat despite doing all the "right" things while I was reading online about how easy it is to get a house in Germany because it's such a "social state", which is just quatsch as hell. People trying to actually find jobs because they want to work are called lazy and spoiled because they take Bürgergeld.

And the West Germans revile the still ostracized "Jammerossis" when their entire way of life was destroyed in like, a few days, all to bring in glorious capitalism which left them without jobs, stability, money.

Germany is a broken society but they put a lot of propaganda into their reputation as being logical, civil-minded, socialist, efficient (the biggest lie!).

My only criticism of the book was the end when they were trying to come up with happy solutions to Germany's problems. The only good solution was the housing one -- that one would work. The happy "we should give the Easterners a holiday based on how they rose up as workers!" is just naive at best, I'm sorry to say. Giving the East a holiday while the country goes up in capitalist flames would just be like a slap in the face.

Otherwise, this was really written as a love-letter to what these two authors want German to become. I think they did a great job as immigrants to the country at looking at it from that perspective. At no point did I feel like they wanted Germany to become more English or American, but rather to learn from the mistakes those countries made and not fall into the same hole. So yes, they did have their respective perspectives (hah) but it didn't come from a place of English/American exceptionalism that so often permeates from these kinds of books written by people from very imperialist societies.

It was also super easy to read, with good anecdotes and even humour.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

A strange book. It felt like a collected series of prickly complaints, rather than a cohesive analysis of the opportunities and risks facing one of the world's most influential nations. I would have felt better disposed to it if the promise of an 'inside story' had been buttressed with revelations from leading figures inside Germany, or if the solutions to perceived critical issues weren't so pathetic (an asparagus festival as a possible national holiday? Really?). Overall the authors relied on too many personal assumptions and predilections, while giving an overview of Germany that was jaundiced.

[Niclas · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting perspective of Germany‘s unfortunate decline; in a way, the problems in this book have confirmed the suspicions (lack of solidarity; social atomization) that I have felt whenever I return to the country

[Pale Fire · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Wake-Up Call for Germany — and the Rest of Us

Broken Republik is a sharp, clear-eyed look at Germany’s unraveling — from bloated bureaucracy to economic complacency. Wilkes and Reiter cut through the noise with reporting that’s both deeply researched and urgent. This isn’t just a diagnosis of one country’s malaise; it’s a warning for all modern democracies sleepwalking into stagnation. A must-read if you care about Europe’s future.

[Con · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot wrong with Germany, and nobody's doing anything about it. Kinda depressing...

I felt this way when I lived there. If you speak German and work in Germany but you've come from somewhere else you see things failing while the rest of the world still believes the 'German efficiency' fable. So - it was good to read this account by two good journalists from the UK and US with deep Germany experience. But it was also depressing to see how bad things are!

What did I take away from it?

The 'infantilisation' of Germany as a nation, following decades of coddling by post-war allies, and I guess the false security of operating as the biggest exporter in the Euro-zone.

The "schuld" problem...nobody wants to be to blame. Too much discussion about who's problem it is, who's fault it is.

Wirecard - couldn't possibly be a problem with the German regulator. Germany is always right - other states and legal systems and standards are inferior. If Germany isn’t right, then best to ignore or cover it up. I saw this on the Lockerbie drama last night - the Germans were holding out about releasing details from the luggage at FRA because they knew they'd fucked up!

The related problem of risk...to many laws to protect against every possible risk. Layers of responsibility and the federal structure make a big gap between rule-makers and implementers.

There's a sense that decent behaviour needs to be regulated because individuals can't be trusted, which in turn fuels expectations for the state to intervene rather than encouraging people to find common ground. The more control the political class exerts, the more it's in the firing line. The end result is societal paralysis.

Rechtschutzversicherung - other countries don't have this - we all have arguments with the neighbours, but most of these get sorted out at a personal level without invoking rules and lawyers.

Being unable to proudly embrace a national identity. If the centre is shy to wave the flag then it will be claimed by the far right. And you need some national myth if you want to progress.

The American philosopher Richard Rorty once wrote that a nation cannot reform itself unless it takes pride in itself - unless it has an identity, rejoices in it, reflects upon it and tries to live up to it's Germany needs these kinds of positive ideals to strive to become the nation it wants to be and to worry less about what it is or was.

What are the most obvious planks of German national identity?
- We're not Nazi's anymore
- Wohlstand für alle
- Everything German is better (r
ules, standards, products, way of life)
Foreign policy is also driven by these concerns.
- Don't be Nazis = support for Israel
- Wohlstand für alle = Nordstream, and now sucking up to Trump
- Everything German is better = make the EU just like Germany and then everything will be fine!

There's a big wealth inequality, and the people that run the companies seem more interested in protecting their position as long as possible. Great example of the Porsche heirs pulling huge dividends out of VW instead of saving the business.

Politics doesn't have the ideas or the drive to make any changes. Merz has been a disaster - sucking up to Trump - wasting time on energy policy with this fusion crap and being anti-renewables. Merkel was a disaster - wasted the opportunity for reform to keep her majority.


The deutsche Rechtschreibung is a good example of rule-making over allowing people to sort things out themselves. You can't have language as a natural, messy thing that evolves! And there should be words like "Bösewichtin" and "Schifffahrt"



Structure is a crutch that avoids messy interpersonal disputes

Solutions? Not many...
Build a more positive national identity - move the national day to June 17 for example. Get the government doing stuff so people feel good about it. Make
Fix housing by making it cheaper to buy (no tax) and easier to build (single planning regime). Housing fixes a lot of things - builds wealth, makes it easier for people to move jobs, supports the pension system later. I would also fix the social housing so it's means-tested.
IT - more training in schools. I would also empower the Digital ministry to simplify processes where these are more complicated than in other countries.
Local electricity generation and storage so people get behind renewables again. Build more power lines! Collaborate with France on renewing their nuclear fleet.

[Scrabble · Rating 2 out of 5]

For anyone who is interested in reading about the history of the decisions that led to many of the problems that Germany is facing today, this is a decent book, however the authors unfortunately are journalists, and this leads to the conclusion the books draws to be boring, shallow platitudes.

The book is not shallow when it comes to the historical context. The Russia-Germany relationship is explained fairly, with context given to the impacts of the cold war and being divided in half by nuclear powers on the German political psyche. Some events were brushed over, however it did not feel like things were being ignored to make their point at least.

The author's journalism background also lends some strength. There are sections discussing the culture at major German companies and how their responses to the crises of the 21st century accelerated their decline, and the quotes and insight there is novel and interesting. As well, quotes from insiders to the Schroder and Merkel governments add additional context to some of the history which elevates the book.

However, the book is extremely shallow when it comes to drawing conclusions and recommending a path forward.

I was uncomfortable with how the book characterised the 2010s immigration wave. The author seems to believe that the rise of the far-right and fascist rhetoric in Germany was a natural response to immigration. This is lazy writing, and places the blame on the mere presence of immigrants in a country, rather than either analyzing the history and culture of Germany which breeds this xenophobia, or, the policies and rhetoric of the Merkel government throughout the 2010s.

There is no serious look at the conditions of the working class - The impacts of de-industrialisation in the corporate sector is discussed at length, but the longer history of the destruction of the German working class is handwaived aside as a natural consequence of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, instead of part of a longer trend in Germany.

In short, this book suffers from being written by Bloomberg journalists, and the sort of hollow, navel-gazing liberal rhetoric of that bourgeois publication unfortunately undermines this book.

[Ira · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of this book sounds a bit polemic, and I was afraid it would be shallow - but no. The authors are quite knowledgeable about present-day Germany (and left-leaning, if their ideological stance matters to you). Anyway, especially if you're a foreigner living in Germany and thinking that something is rotten in the state of Denmark, you'll find this book very validating. But if you are a German native it is an even more urgent read.

Here the main current problems of the German state are dissected:
- the absence of a positive uniting agenda and the rise of populism in this vacuum;
- slow adoption of innovations and an aversion to change;
- the rapid growth of economic and social inequality;
- digitalisation issues;
- ineffective federal system;
- failures of educational system;
- self-imposed paperwork hurdles;
- "Das haben wir schon immer so gemacht."

In some aspects, the book is ruthless - the chapter about national character and the us-vs-them mentality hits hard, for example. But it also suggests some very reasonable solutions for the country's crisis (that probably will never be implemented, who am I kidding). The authors are very knowledgeable about German politics and decision-making, and the book was written at the end of 2024, covering basically everything up to the latest election. A very current, poignant, and merciless work.

[Kor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Im on page 85 and I think I am dropping it. I am interested in the topic but the reasoning in the book reads like it wasnt critically proof read by anyone. I am listing a few examples from the last part of the book before I stopped reading, a chapter about gender equality. Mind you I am a women and I care about feminism.
- Promoting DEI hiring practices as a way to achieve gender equality
- criticising the "John doe" of germany for being white
- criticising Angela Merkel for not focusing on gender equality during her reign while she had huge crisies to manage, like the immigration crisis and a collapsing infrastructure
- stating that 50% of all women are working in part time as a bad thing. Why? Its equal? Why would it be ok for men to be the majority instead?

I liked the book initially and it has a lot of good points and fair criticism to share. Germany has problems with bureaucracy, a government system that is designed to be weak for historical reasons and a rise in right wing extremism.
But I cant get along with the sometimes nonsensical reasoning that is being brought forward.

[Chris Aylott · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's never completely clear what the authors' ideal Germany would be, but present-day Germany definitely isn't it. Reiter and Wilkes describe a Germany where the social contract is broken -- housing costs are too high, paperwork slows everything down, and the trains rarely run on time. (I can confirm the last of these.) There's a long list of problems and it's a depressing read.

The biggest problem seems to be that the country does not do change well, which does not hold out much hope for the future. Some of Reiter and Wilkes' suggestions seem like patches (more national holidays?) but there are also some ideas about local cooperatives and other small community changes that might be useful in many societies.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wheras this is an interesting book I had my issues with it. The first couple of chapters only scratched the surface of Germany'a history and left out a lot of details that are vital to where the country is today.

After that it went downhill and make depressing. The house of cards is about to fall. I know I live here and have lived what is going on. Maybe the solutions come at the end of the book. But I started to skim and now I have decided to stop at page 156.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

i liked the whole narrative about modern german identity being based on economic growth and its constitution. I think this is one that rings true in my personal experience.
The analysis for many of the other topics ranges from extremely in depth to very superficial but i guess that is the nature of this kind of book.
Overall a good read and worth it if one is interested on german decline but also general western decline.

[Uche · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the initial two-thirds of this book and found it informative for me as a foreigner living in Germany. German history and reunification were something I wasn't familiar with. However, the final third of this book was a bore filled with wishful thinking and the writer's idealism.

[Anton VDA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boek dat gedetailleerd de problemen van het huidige Duitsland uitlegt, veel parallellen met België…

[Nicholas Beutler · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 / 5 Stars
// Good

[John Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating & beautifully written