Sirens are wailing across the country this Thursday, alarm messages are popping up on cell phones – it’s a nationwide “warning day”. The Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance is excited to see if everything will work out this time. The last “warning day” two years ago was such a disaster that the authorities took it as a serious warning – and canceled the planned repetition in 2021.
So Germany is now practicing what was great for decades in this country: informing people about states of emergency and disasters. At least that. Hardly anyone expects the authorities to master these crises to some extent.
This event is necessary because in recent years sirens have been removed, warning offices have been closed, trained officials have been trained and regular exercises have been discontinued. That and much more in civil protection had simply been saved. Such as the equipment in the schools, the maintenance of the tracks and trains, investments in the roads, money for hospitals and care, equipment for the Bundeswehr…
The question is probably naive and leads away from civil protection. It also sometimes works catastrophically (pars pro toto: Ahr Valley) because there is a lack of money, but above all because the structures are not right. Civil protection suffers from the “German disease”, i.e. from the large number of participants who are allowed to have a say, plan, make decisions, assess and test. And often in such large numbers that in the end those who really want to help on site and are able to do so are no longer really used.
The “German disease” has now affected almost the entire state and society. The federal, state and local governments are now involved everywhere, the most diverse institutions, facilities, experts and, in the end, always someone who is responsible for something. The result is organized structurelessness with the result that no one is responsible for anything anymore.
Of course, anyone can name the alleged cause of Morbus Germanicus: the federal structure, the pyramid of federal, state and local governments. But federalism isn’t bad, it’s just increasingly badly done in Germany. Since the emergence of Donald Trump, people in this country have been reluctant to follow the example of the USA. But even if the ex-president is not a positive example, the country’s basic political structure is.
There is a clear separation of tasks in many areas, at least clearer than in Germany with its “cooperative federalism”, this “everyone with everyone”, which leads to impenetrable “political interdependence” and ultimately to paralysis. Do you think these are boring technical terms? right, sorry But doctors also use technical terms that are largely incomprehensible. And Germany urgently needs a doctor.
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