Why many things in Germany are getting better than you think

Can you predict the future?

Stupid question.

Of course not.

But.

The chef at our favourite Italian restaurant decides when a pasta is al dente without a clock and constant tasting - he makes a prediction about what is to come. Our cardiologist makes an assumption about the consequences of the medication she prescribes - a prediction about the future. And when a CEO makes an investment decision, he considers what it means for the future development of his company.

Photo: PR

So if it's not possible to predict the future, why do we keep doing it? And if it's not possible, but we keep trying, how has the human species survived the past 300,000 years with such stupid behaviour?

The truth is: we cannot predict the future in every detail, but we are damn good at forming a valid picture of what lies ahead. The American psychologist Martin Seligman even believes that we are so competent in this discipline that the term Homo sapiens - rational man - should be replaced by Homo Prospectus: a species whose most striking characteristic is its constant anticipation of the future.

However, if you want to look at the future outside your own area of expertise, you have to make an effort and it takes time. This is because you need to leave your own filter bubble, systematically gather information, talk to experts from other fields and mould all of this into patterns.

This is exactly what we, the team of authors of the book "20 Trends for 35", have been doing over the past year and a half. What happened to us is scientifically proven: those who think about the future in a structured way recognise room for manoeuvre. And those who recognise room for manoeuvre become more optimistic. And that's why we wrote a subtitle at the very end: "Why many things will be better than you think".

This is even true when it comes to the apparent haven of gloom: Germany.

The country has everything it needs to be back where it wants to be in ten years' time: among the most important economic nations.

The facts about Germany are better than the mood

It's hard to believe, if you look at the current mood in society. Overanxiety lies over us like an old, holey blanket; it doesn't warm us, but rubs our skin raw with its scratchiness, making it impossible to find peace at night. Overanxiety manifests itself in SUV parent taxis, which endanger children to such an extent that the ADAC advises against picking up children from school in this way, or in the booming market for bunker construction.

For too many people in Germany, everything is bad and getting worse, even though the data and facts don't support this - especially not when it comes to the future.

Anyone who doesn't believe that Germany can be innovative should drive to the field on the Lower Rhine where Davegi stands. This shockingly unpoetic name is given to an eight-metre-long traverse built by the Krefeld start-up AI.Land.

Photo: AI Land

Two robotic arms plant vegetables underneath the metal frame, which rotates on its own axis, tend and harvest them and pack them into vegetable crates. Only when such a crate is full do people need to pack it into a delivery van. Davegi doesn't even need a power line; the solar cells mounted on it are sufficient for operation. The agricultural robot should be ready for series production in five years, by which time fresh vegetables could reach customers within half a day, and at a production price of one euro per kilo.

Such innovative ideas are no exception in Germany. 32 young companies in this country are valued at more than one billion euros and have earned the title of "unicorn". Some of them have crept into everyday life with little noise, without making such colourful headlines as Nvidia or Tesla, for example the insurance platform Clark, the football app OneFootball or the personal software Personio.

The good examples from Germany

Start-ups with world-class ideas can be found all over Germany. For example, Black Semiconductor from Aachen with its computer chips made from graphene, or Ultihash from Berlin, which makes data centres more efficient.

Why do we hardly notice these beacons of hope? Perhaps because many of them seem so unsexy, like the flat-roofed building on the outskirts of the Texan capital Austin.

It is choppy here, dusty, aesthetics are not a core competence of Texan industrial estates. The vehicles leaving the fenced-in site seem like something from another world: quietly whirring ID-Buzz, those electric Volkswagen Bullys, painted black with a stylish gold honeycomb application and a sign saying "Self-Driving-Vehicle".

The supposedly underdeveloped VW Group is working on autonomous vehicles on this unadorned site, and they could be on the road sooner than some people expect: by 2027, they should be part of the Moia fleet in Hamburg, the VW shared taxi system. By 2035, the Group wants to roll out 100,000 fully autonomous shuttles and also offer fully autonomous cars.

Photo: dpa

In general: autonomy. Only two models are currently approved in Europe with the highest current self-driving level - the Mercedes EQS and the BMW 7 Series. Is this supposed to be the backward German car industry?

A lot is also happening in production: Audi is surprising AI experts such as the American author Ron Schmelzer with the depth of integration of artificial intelligence at its plant in Neckarsulm. Schmelzer wrote for Forbes in June: "Audi is moving beyond selective applications and pursuing a more comprehensive, full-stack approach to AI in the production environment that can adapt dynamically."

For example, image recognition systems check surface finishes and structural weld seams, AI algorithms predict maintenance times and production changeovers are tested in advance using digital twin concepts.

Another example of the spectacular, built in Germany: high-voltage direct current (HVDC). By 2029, GE Vernova will have realised a globally acclaimed project in which it intends to integrate a new generation of HVDC into the German power grid. It would be an important step towards climate neutrality because HVDC can transport electricity more efficiently and cope better with the fluctuations of renewable energies. This also applies to high-voltage superconductors, which can transport large amounts of electricity without losses. The world's first project with this technology was launched in autumn 2024 - in Munich.

Why the Germans see everything so badly

So much power, so much innovation - and yet so much dystopia. This is due to the German flaw. In this country, growth is to the Italians what pasta is to the Italians and football is to the English - a national fetish that everyone can agree on. In 2025, however, this growth can only be recognised with visual aids, at least if you trust indicators such as industrial production. These, however, capture the past and are of little help in an era of transformation.

The fact that Germans feel more national pride for something as intangible as growth than for bratwurst, Goethe or the nature of the Alps shows another trait: In this country, what has been achieved is only ever a way station and you can tick off the way stations.

Photo: Robert Michael/dpa

Just like the semiconductor cluster around Dresden, christened "Silicon Saxony". It is simply there, a stopover whose breathtaking figures - over 3,500 companies with over 81,000 jobs and growing - are accepted with a shrug. Yet Saxony is not only home to a third of all chips produced in Europe. Silicon Saxony is a biotope that nurtures start-ups such as Spinncloud, which is working on neuromorphic computers that mimic the function of the human brain and could therefore make AI applications run more efficiently.

It is almost self-hatred with which even smart people look at Germany. Everything always seems better elsewhere, simply because it was created abroad. Videos with alleged top innovations from China, such as a fully autonomous e-tractor, are lamented on LinkedIn. Tenor: "The Chinese can do it, we'll never manage it."

However, semi-autonomous agricultural machinery has long been part of everyday life here, and the first fully autonomous tractor has been authorised for testing in Lower Saxony since April. However, this model works with a hybrid engine and that is a good thing. This is because the Chinese model can run for six hours - but during harvest time, machines that can last for twelve to 16 hours are needed.

Another example of German masochism is DeepL. The country has the best translation service in the world, a thoroughbred AI champion from Cologne, which was already in the black when ChatGPT wasn't even publicly accessible - but everyone idolises the big thing from the USA, which won't have a functioning business model for the foreseeable future, perhaps never.

Where robots learn in Germany

Other areas of AI are much more exciting anyway. Because people tend to forget that: Artificial intelligence is a spectrum, an umbrella term for a range of technologies that have been the subject of research for around 80 years. AI can be found in navigation services, video games, LinkedIn feeds and coffee machines that select the right grind based on the colour of the beans. But above all, AI is needed to operate robots.

They need spatial context. A robot has to learn what happens when it moves the green semicircle that we call a "cereal bowl" beyond the white surface that humans call a "table" - it transforms into thousands of small green areas that Homo sapiens have christened "shards".

The ability to categorise and react to such situations is called spatial intelligence, and teaching it to robots falls into the field of physical AI. It is used to create digital images of reality, the digital twins. This works well in the laboratory, but it has to work everywhere and every room has to be measured.

"There is a big secret in the industry," says Yann LeCun, one of the global stars of AI research, at a guest lecture at the University of Singapore in May: "Many people are building humanoid robots, many companies are being founded in this field, but no one knows how to make them smart enough to be useful - the technology doesn't exist ... Companies are betting that AI will make significant progress in the next three to five years, so that when the hardware is ready, AI will be ready."

Who should be ready? Germany.

Photo: Imago, Siemens [M]

Digital twins are a field of activity at Siemens, the Munich start-up Spaitial is building a space-understanding AI model, in Stuttgart Sereact is helping robots to find their way around warehouses and Zeiss is building a robot for optical quality control. Meanwhile, on the mechanical side of the robotics field, doors are opening for automotive suppliers. After all, if anyone can produce precise parts, it's probably them.

And finally, the special fund for defence investment. It will have a significant impact on the German economy over the next ten years. After all, investments in military technology always lead to innovations in the civilian sector: the internet, GPS navigation, Apple's Siri and even the computer mouse - they are all the result of state-subsidised defence research.

"Defence investments must be seen as a strategic lever for technological progress, economic resilience and national prosperity," a group of defence advisors to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, including former Telekom CEO René Obermann and IfW President Moritz Schularick, recently demanded in a strategy paper.

How Rewe benefits from special assets

However, companies that are not part of the traditional military sector also benefit. One example can be seen at work in the Rewe supermarket in Düsseldorf Heerdt. There, two robotic arms in a metal container produce hot dishes such as penne pomodoro with freshly grated parmesan without human intervention. The system is called CA-1 and is the first of its kind in regular operation. It was designed by the Munich-based Circus Group, which is already talking to armies about a robust brother of CA-1 as a field kitchen replacement.

All these examples show how Germany is writhing, turning, transforming itself. Transformation never happens without pain, just ask adolescent teenagers. But in the end, there is a future that looks far better than some people currently believe. And we can all contribute to this. Because the future is not something that rolls towards us uncontrollably. It is the result of our actions today and can therefore be influenced.

This is an extended extract from "20 Trends for 35". The book is available wherever books are sold. You can find more information at www.zwanzigtrends.de.

More: "A wagon-castle mentality is emerging socially" - Why only 23 per cent of Germans are optimistic

First publication: 21 November 2025, 04:00 hrs.