Contents page 1 — get Ready for the descent page 2 — eyes on the German car industry! Page 3 — “Overheating” is the name of the phenomenon page 4 — “The turning point” On a page

read “I’m sure of it, now it is slowly coming to an end,” said Johann Weber, and keeps his white-and-red tie. White-red, the colours of the Zollner Elektronik AG, Weber is your boss, and this Friday he’s sitting on a fair in Munich and makes you to think about the economy. “Since three, four months, we observe a decline of the orders,” he says. “In some areas already for five months.” In the automotive industry, orders decreased, solar technology, mechanical engineering, rail technology, in measurement technology, data technology, telecommunications, virtually anywhere.

Who wants to feel the German economy-the pulse that can drive the financial centre Frankfurt. There he will find the heart of the German economy, however, more of the brain. The heart beats elsewhere: in Zandt, for example, an hour’s car journey from Regensburg, near the Czech border. Here are the Zollner Elektronik AG, Weber’s company headquarters, your main. Your name know only a few of your products but the majority of Germans regularly use. The Check-in machines of Lufthansa, the ticket machine of the railway and the customer terminals in the Rewe markets are from Zollner. In addition, the company builds electrical devices, the help, the flaps in the Airbus, to manage Airbus A380 or the lighting in the Boeing airplane, and restores the Block full of electronics that controls everything the BMW i3.

Because the company supplies with 11,200 employees and customers from almost all Parts of the industry, Weber has an unusually broad insight into the state of the economy. And this situation is worse, as the Chairman of the Board. He knew what was going On, and for the past 40 years, says Weber. This recovery have unusually stopped for a long time. Now he’ll just go to the end.

This article dates back to the TIME no 48/2018. Here you can read the entire issue.

the big downturn? Until a few days ago, this question has remained in Germany, especially experts. Although economic forecasters corrected after another his forecasts down. In addition, the shares twitched markets, and show a clear trend: downward. Anyone who has plugged a year ago 1000 euros in the Dax, has today 860 Euro. But after eight years of growth, it seemed hardly anyone in Germany to take care of. Finally, the unemployment continues to fall. And who has stocks?

On Wednesday of last week came out that the German economy contracted in the third quarter of this year. Only 0.2 per cent, but amazingly in the face of all of well-being.

Long upswing

duration of recovery phases after 1970

expert Council of © TIME-graph

One who cares, is Mario Draghi. On Friday, as the company’s chief Executive Weber in Munich, reported concerns of its economy, says the ECB President, in Frankfurt, at the European Banking Congress in the Old Opera house. This is something like the annual class of bankers and Central bankers meeting in Germany. Draghi speaks every year, and this Time his subject is growth. He asks whether the decline of Europe is currently experiencing, or remains. And he comes to Germany to speak on the problems of the auto industry. This would leave the German economy in the third quarter shrink. The cost of the entire Euro-area growth.

Information of Zollner electronics in Numbers

employee: 11.200

turnover (2017): EUR 1.4 billion

locations around the world: 19 in nine countries