Germans are less anxious than you might think

also afraid of winter? Tell us your own personal story!” Thus did , a tabloid, invite readers last month to spook each other over spiralling heating bills. Other outlets warn that the famed , the cluster of strong, medium-sized firms that have long been the backbone of Europe’s biggest economy, will be driven to extinction by . The German press is not alone in dispensing gloom. Economists at Deutsche Bank, the country’s biggest, warn in a recent report not just of a coming recession but of “accelerated deindustrialisation”, as manufacturers flee to places blessed with lower-cost energy.From greying autumn skies to the highest inflation recorded since 1951 and the biggest war in Europe since 1945, there are ample reasons to justify such a dark mood. But the reality is rather more nuanced. Not only does Germany’s economy appear to have been more resilient than might have been expected in the face of a tenfold surge in the price of electricity. A closer inspection of public opinion also suggests that the Germans are not as anxious as doomsayers might have you think.