the sites we have to speak as difficult as that may be the case. for decades, germany was regarded as the model country in europe. it's still the largest economy, but the economy has suffered a mass of downturn. how did this happen? and is germany once again, the sick man of the rough as some international news headlines have all ready for playing we'll take a look at the sectors where things are not running so smoothly in germany. how spain is trying to get a handle on illegal irrigation. what a new type of under c station for humans might look like and how drones are helping

to save lives. we are visiting medium sized companies in germany. companies with up to 5000 employees. there are hundreds of thousands of them. the driver of the german economy, but the mood has never been so bad. what are the problems? take your lead, for example, a family business that has been producing ceramics for bathrooms for over 200 years . dorothy has several locations abroad with many thousands of employees, but here in southern germany, the high cost of gas is becoming a problem. so the kiln is the part of ceramic production. we run our products through the q him for around 20 hours and regional peaks of over $1200.00 degrees celsius. and consumption isn't just short term. it's 247 all

year long. so we can assume as much as a small village sales and production in germany have now collapsed for the 1st time. the reason gas prices have risen sharply since the war in ukraine and the prices for the companies mass of electricity consumption have also remained at a very high level for many years. this has made management nervous. let me trouble the associated price increases, reduce demand, and normally, and we're not working at full capacity in our german factories compared to other countries. that's cool, quite as the price of electricity is 6 times higher here than what we pay in canada office, who yeah. the result door of each is building a new state of the art climate neutral factory in canada. they're receiving subsidies for 25 percent of the cost from the canadian government planning, including construction has taken just over a year. so far. the furnace is there to use green electricity. germany was no

longer an option as a factory location for the medium sized company. the dilemma in germany, the c o 2 tax for companies increases if they do not reduce their c o 2 emissions. but there are also hardly any financial incentives compared to canada. green electricity is much more expensive here and green hydrogen isn't even available yet, which makes planning difficult. what's the current status of international electricity cost? easily is the highest price for industrial electricity at $56.00 us cents per kilowatt hour. germany is in the upper range at $0.29. francis electricity is a 3rd lower than germany's and that 15 us cents. industrial electricity in the us is only half as expensive as in germany, a good state subsidies prevent industry from moving abroad or going bankrupt. we asked an economist if you want to present this,

you will need to take public money to make it attractive for these companies to stay and zoning, which means that you will use scars, public money, specs, pay of money to preserve what was yesterday. and my proposition is if we use public money, let's use it to bill will drive 12 tomorrow. and these industries will not be the growth engine of the german, that it was a germany called me going forward. another problem in german industry is the slow, bureaucracy and sluggish planning process for new projects. this is was guns from southern germany. he's an architect in building developer. in china, he was able to complete a huge construction project within 2 years. in germany is also doing a construction project to the southern city of stood car, the car manufacturer, a portia is interested in investing there, but the plans have stalled desperate kids investment. unless the projects that

we're now working on here, for example, is in the german sino eco park and this is an app just real area covering 24 square kilometers. here we're talking about 16 hector's, which is many times larger units i'll head off when we don't do the project at the same time is here in stuttgart. we're almost finished with this show here, this into a little bulk of the automaker portion would like to move into its new office space in germany. so what's the problem endorsed? is this one escaped fee? did i as in thing? as in the, i would put it into germany, there are many different interests that are all justifies and yes, they are all justifies. but if we don't succeed in balancing these interests and bring them together, then we'll all block each other endlessly. and this will be 2 major projects, simply getting stuck in the approval backlog, beginning stoles taking place. and the 3rd example takes us to the center of

germany. and i'm stuck right in the middle of it and it's a good feeling when someone helps you but you don't get that feeling i use of i to bear this family business has been around for over a 100 years. right . where is the managing director? and it's supported by his son, johan, is there 6 electric cast? iron furnaces consume as much electricity as a small town, but their competitors abroad are able to get their energy much less expensively. what's the name is in our problem, is that the german foundry industry in general, and we, it's a clear company specifically already disadvantage in international competition. in turkey, india, brazilian france, electricity prices are much lower. well, this casting will be used to make a coupling for a truck and parts for wind turbines, cranes, and the railroad. however,

domestic buyers are also holding back as the economy is weakening. of the germany had negative growth of minus 0.3 percent in 2023 and is in recession. china was once again the winner with the highest economic growth at 5.2 percent followed by the developing countries and other g 7 countries. of 1. 1 is the charge due to the insecurity we've seen on the market since last summer. our incoming water level is down significantly. i'm done, you know, sunshine they're still working on existing orders, but in 3 months they could even be threatened with part time work. they would like to run their electric ovens on your green electricity or even hydrogen, but they need government support for the conversion and also money to reduce the

price of electricity. time florida, we are into normally a fan of subsidies, but in this case we would like to see some help from the german government to preserve german industry, at least the energy intensive industry. the other countries are financing their industries. energy transformations, with billions in loans and government debt in germany would have a lot of leeway here at 66 percent of its gross domestic product, germany has the lowest national debt of the g. 7 countries followed by china with 83 percent in canada and france. it's almost twice as high as in germany. in the usa, it's even higher. the and easily has the highest national debt. at 144 percent germany was once the

economic engine of the european economy at the moment, it's the brakes. and there's a danger that more and more companies will go bankrupt or move abroad. the folks bargain. bmw, mercedes, and portia b a as a buyer. bosh, and to some who just a few of the german companies that are well known worldwide. and some of them have been leaders in their industry for decking that for many of them. that seems to be a thing of the past. there are simply too many hurdles right now. are truman industries? on the decline? for decades they was the gold standard. german cars machines, paints varnishes medicines, radios and televisions, many products with the labeled medium of germany dominated world markets. and today in germany, a slips into a recession,

and in 2023 was the only country among the largest industrialized agents with negative economic growth. and almost all former flagship industries were affected. there are many reasons for this. the automotive industry driven car brands initially slipped through the transformation to electron mobility and are now lagging behind in battery production and hardly offer any affordable eaves. china is now leading the way in the car, manufacturing the chemical industry asap steel, the chemical company with the highest sales in the world, shut down several plants had its main site in the big soften and cut thousands of jobs. one reason, the high energy costs in germany, which are also causing problems for the automotive industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and it's also suffering from the price of electricity and gas, but also from bureaucracy. nowhere else does the approval of new drugs take as long

as in germany. the only exception was the corona virus fact seen from beyond check . however, many companies are now turning their backs on germany because they can produce more cheaply in asia. mechanical engineering, machines from germany, where once the top export with more than 80 percent sold abroad. however, demand is now collapsed due to the poor global economic situation. high energy prices and a shortage of skilled workers are also waiting on the industry. only the german electronics industry seems to be defining the crash. it's benefiting from digitalization and the continued high demand for computers, cell phones and the like. overall, however, the outlook for the most important german sectors remains rather bleak. there's a lot of catching up to do, particularly in terms of energy prices, digitalization deep bureaucrat ization, and the transformation to a green economy gloomy

weather in many european countries. the nasty winter weather has been going on for weeks. no wonder many people are long need for summer. for sun, warm light, clothing, and strawberries, and in the spring they usually come from spain. southern angelo, c. a exports fruit with 550000000 euros every year. farmers need a lot of water for cultivation. that is leading to dispute. white strawberries are all the rage this year. shooting here was something exclusive for us. the reason was since the berries put a fierce dispute over the water, that's why it wasn't the farmer who met us, but this man, an employee of the irrigation association. more on that later. this is about a packed in november 2023, between the spanish environment minister and the end delusion. prime minister, 1400000000 euros to save the don't yanna national park. europe's largest whitland

to the man from here. again, association thinks the pact is good. like what of the dream? the central government to make a delusion, regional government, other it has brought some hope that the conflict will finally be resolved for another. the conflict of conflict. it's a fight over water farmers who publicly campaign for the protection of the ground water for your threats from colleagues and are afraid for their lives and their land. that's why the farmers and monte always send manuel delgado. the people that will finally managed to get companies in the region to yourself, pumping water out of the ground, langley and then measure exactly how much ground water is being extract in colorado . and that's how they do it. now we're going to try that. i've, we've heard of them and i'll hang on to a few kilometers further on environmental activist, fairly face one test. this takes us to one such in legal, well, it has recently been sealed off. things have been approved because of the authorities are now making efforts to coast wells in it,

but there are still more than one to 1000 a headquarters that are legal in the don't younger catchment area to pick us as high as 4 to 5000 tech. there so that i can know if anybody knew something. so on the one hand, it's a battle between farmers with water rights and those without, between legal and illegal for the environmental list, the patch needs to be very clear what have been able to look into the details of this pact. just see what's possible if it's, if we want to see a significant reduction in water consumption here, and we'll be closing a legal wells. and even the legal wells must be a priority. they got a, a is getting groups like after getting committed to why all this scientific studies confirm it, the don't young a nature park simply doesn't get enough water. this is particularly noticeable in the summer months when lagoons like this one dry up was again that's then that's interesting. don't yana isn't a port state due to the following water table. it was partly because of the persistent drought and it's, but also because of the people's excessive water consumption, cynthia prolong,

got access to most of the new younger, especially the consumer. they are what part 3, the best one us. after use of political wrangling over water and strawberries, an agreement has now been reached. one important component areas are to be re naturalized here. for example. there could be a forest again instead of plastic. farmers would receive $100000.00 euro square hector over 30 years. but there is a catch even though the pact was agreed to in november last year. there's still nothing concrete. one of course i did, i want to say that we need agreement assignment and they're not the yet time because this is an open tact, but that needs agreement from everyone affordable. i thought you'd be able guess the top download. but the farmer's in monday are already thinking ahead. they're wondering what consequences the closure of the fields will have for the labor market. and what kind of they are, they put the whole one? hector creates around 10 direct jobs will be next. so if we assume that areas of 15021600 heck the accept the offer and then we'll just go right to $16000.00 for

the movie. that bit of it. and don't know if it's a new port type at all, but don't you 100 packed, not only provides for decommissioning fields. it's also to improve the supply of water to the region. because not everyone has access to ground water. hundreds of millions of bureaus had been earmarked for this. the water comes from the border area with portugal. those reservoirs are full in winter, but the existing pipes are in sufficient. perfect, i'm looking for us. it's sort of weird that this infrastructure needs to be built down so that the project circle. yeah, yeah, you can prepare the, the declared in part, you need the feel new pipes the time to cover the distance of a good 80 kilometers to the strawberry fields. we would have liked to talk to the strawberry farmers directly affected by this. we would also have like to know whether the numerous abandoned fields were already related to the shortage of water . however,

all of our requests for interviews with farmers in the region who rely on this water were refused. after more than 2 months, the 1400000000 euro packed for don't. yadda has not yet improved anything. neither sustainability of the berries, nor the transparency of the farmers in south western spain. in space, humans can already spend time at the space station eating and sleeping, and conducting research from there. in the depths of the oceans to the low 200 meters. this is so far, only been possible to a very limited extent. the marine technology company deep wants to change that outer stating that they do believe it active during the disastrous ocean gave permission to free the submersible involved imploded under the high water pressure resulting in the tragic death of all 5 people on board. but there's a team with

a better idea. in 2027 deep plants to send a team of 6 at coronado to their sentinel oceanic habitat system at a depth of 200 meters. the idea is not new in the 19 sixty's, french ocean explorer of shock who stoke tilting under water village. the project was a success, but humans have never consistently state deep underwater. for any long periods. 200 meters is the last point where sunlight penetrates the ocean. estimated 90 percent of marine life is found above that depth. if deep site comes to fruition, it will be like the i ss except under water. the project allows the aqua not to stay under water for up to 28 days. normally time is pretty restricted for getting samples frequently under 20 minutes. the high pressure and the low temperatures of the deep sea, together with corrosion, are tough farm equipment. to handle this extreme environment,

deep sentinels will be built with materials used in space rockets. the underwater homes will take care of themselves. they'll use renewable energy, have special reactors to deal with waste and won't rely on this surface for anything. 6 people will be able to live in research in this underwater habitat. the sentinel is about 36 meters long, and 6.2 meters wide. it's fitted with private bedrooms and a kitchen. many challenges need to be overcome, such as structural the ability in a high pressure environment. and there are also questions about the environmental impact and unknown health hazards. the project aims to discover secrets in deep sea research that would enable human kind to better understand climate change and develop new medicines. the subsea environment also has the purpose conditions to prepare for space exploration. the project is from minimal environmental impact and

to leave nothing but bubbles, take nothing but photos, data and memories. those who, as in most industrialized nations, have both doctors and pharmacies close to home can get the medicine for vaccines. they need quickly fund. those who live far away from larger towns often have no access to medicine. in malawi, a drone from germany has been providing really for some time now. a drone advice, food to a german village and direct seen to a malawi and village sounds like a global company almost in any case, it all started with an interesting idea and do my so i haven't good, but you always ask me to build in awesome, great that's the american vertical take off aircraft. and then i said, no,

don't even start. it's too complex. it's got to have a top just on the wing tip. let's build something simpler and then i made a drawing besides, that's what i came up with. and that's how it started to it and how that was back in 2011 ended student digs. you'll know ton hetzel's body built a model that good swivel it's propellers like an osprey. he took it out to a meadow and done stuff and try his luck, over and over again, like back flips. and one of the 1st prototypes even survived. well, as in the beginning, it didn't work at all. every time we went out of the system crashed and every time we ask ourselves why must amount of one that went on for a year and we went down, broke the comforter, went home repaired, it went out again the next day. and then that was this moment, that was the big one. when i loaded the comforter into the car when we were done. and so i'm like, i don't know what to do. the culture didn't break this time. i just didn't cook the

. i'm indians all to angle on want uh was done. so how is if you dollars non public enough to press catastrophic muscles or that does kind of put this lead the foundation for germany's most successful drug company. the aircraft slowly took shape to stand out from the crowd. they did in gold, real go. all schools. another idea from a friend was a fair called big boys, toys, toys, when i googled it, there were a lot of crazy items that were colored gold. but there weren't any golden drones, of course. so i thought maybe they'd like this choice and that's the one that how do you know from this class to collect especially, and probably disputes. like for the, the golden drone costing 1000000 euros did not attract any billionaires from abu dhabi. but business started taking off even without the gold co founder tom prima looked for buyers for the wing comforter and found them. the website is the site. so we certainly built to drone sold it and use the money to hire someone. and if we

vented that 30 times, it had 30 more customers purely so financed in 2019 the wing comforter flew a medical mission in africa for the 1st time for civilian use. one of the founders, clear goals. and the idea was to take the drone technology that you'll know time built, kind of an exit weird when really makes a difference. like delivering medicines, anything back to st on sending blood reserves go for that was the start and the point 4 years later, 150 people are working at wing copped are constantly improving the drone and making it safer. so that one day it will fly completely automatically. the current model flies 100 kilometers per hour and can transport 5 kilos up to 100 kilometers. but for wing copier, it's using medicine is not just the question of attitude of medicine. i'm not only saves lives, it's also very expensive. lab samples of doses of vaccine are very small way,

little can be delivered quickly by drones and, and put her on also well compensated corporate side. this is how we uncomfortable once to earn money in the future, creating entire delivery networks around the globe. move and start vaccine event go by. we will have strong growth in grow globally. we'll train more and more young people locally who and they didn't operate these networks as well. after health care in medicine, we will certainly include food and perhaps even packages and at the end of the entire e commerce sector mit open in. in this program, the company is now launched. a trial delivery service in germany in the sparsely populated, owed involved developing range. you can order from the supermarket and then have the goods delivered, not directly to your front door. so lastly is by cargo bike a lot of effort for a carton of milk to see which of these types the economics are still a challenge and also making it so efficient that it is fully automated. if with all

the permits that remaining in it will take a few more years and probably i'm gonna throw on flights and sparsely populated. malawi had been taking off successfully for years. things are different in germany . permits are needed and it takes time to get them for a drone service provider drobek met slowing things down. it was equipment. i'm in the village because our customers don't want to wait almost a year to fly. i got an order today and want to take care of it now while i want to fly tomorrow, it's more so. so we're also talking about how we can automate the permit process a little too. but i don't on into our stand up on shopping income. progress in the aerospace at home is slow, but we can come through is still committed to finding new energy sources for the drone, like hydrogen. that might still be a long way off. but it obviously sounds good to investors. the wing comforter founders have sofa raised 100000000 euros and capital for their ideas and products

. it looks like things will continue to trend upward. that's it for this episode of me, we took a closer look at germany's economic problems in legal wells and spain, living under water, longer in the future, and to promote medicine delivery. be sure to join us next week by the

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you're watching dw news live from the lien. the way so changed. it's 1st moon landing and half a century. a private company has landed the spacecraft on the lunar surface. flight control is concerned they are receiving a fine signal, but is the lender cold induced use fully functional will find out shortly. also coming up. a deadly fire engulf to residential buildings in eastern spine. 55 is in the car's totaled city of valencia rice to rescue people trapped by the instant our will bring you the light is shortly.