As German industry declines, the Ruhr gives hope

Germany isG7 wilting. Last year its economy shrank by 0.3%, the worst result in the group of rich countries. Deutsche Bank, the country’s biggest, reckons industrial output has sunk by 9% since 2018 and will fall another 2.5% this year. The talk in boardrooms is of creeping de-industrialisation as high domestic costs—especially for energy—push firms to relocate.For a vision of the future look to Germany’s former industrial heartland, the Ruhrgebiet, or more simply the Ruhr. Once home to Europe’s biggest coal mine, its biggest steel mill and munitions plants that supplied two world wars, the English-county-sized region has been hollowed out. Two-thirds of its workers toiled in industry in the 1960s. Under one in five now do, as in the rest of Germany. On maps that show where factories cluster in Europe, the region pales against booming locales such as western Romania and southern Poland.