German International Business

Germany Plans to try a free public transportation In Cities suffering from air pollution       Germany is currently the EU's largest air polluter and it has been struggling to come with ideas to help solve this problem. Some ideas that Germany came up with was to ban diesel engines from large cities because of the large amount of pollutant they produce in hopes of the use of a more environmentally friendly engine. This proved to be more than difficult because no environmentally friendly engine is readily available for the trucking industry. The solution Germany is currently voting on is to make public transportation free to hopefully remove more vehicles from the road.    

In breaking news this week, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of German energy company Innogy was the victim of an acid attack on the morning of Sunday March 10th near his home. Bernhard Gunther (pictured below) was attacked by two men who poured what is thought to be sulfuric acid on his face.  Gunther was severely injured by the incident and the suspects fled the scene and have yet to be identified. The company Gunther works for, Innogy is an energy and utility company formed by larger energy company RWE. RWE has come under recent scrutiny for its detrimental effects on Hambacher Forest near Cologne where the company is currently operating an open-pit mine. Groups protesting the company have made recent attempts to stop the mining, and some wonder if the acid attack may be related.  This attack would not be first on a high-ranking employee in a controversial German business. In the past, a head of a research institute that recommended decreasing support for welfare ...

The courts of Germany have ruled that cities can ban the use of diesel vehicles to battle the issue of pollution. This raises many red flags for me, not only for the economic health of German cities, but for the chaos that it will cause in traffic, and the negative effect this will have on the value of diesel automobiles.  When I think of Germany, and their effect on the world of transportation, the biggest thing I think of is Volkswagen. The German car company makes cars that are diesel, and not a whole lot of car companies do that. Most are just normal gas cars. So when the courts rule in favor of banning these cars in cities, I can't help but wonder if this will have negative effects on the country itself. The article that coincides with this said that this ruling will impact around 12 m vehicles. That is a huge amount of vehicles that people will not be able to drive, and get to places that they need to be, including work, and to buy things. This to me means that businesses...

The German Connection By: Kevin Hahn   Germany has always had my interest not only because of the industrial powerhouse it is becoming but also because of the opportunities that I will have in German over the coming years. My current job and job after college has me traveling a lot to meet vendors all over the United States and I will eventually work for Parts Europe located in the city of Wasserliesch.   Germany has many thriving corporations currently and one of the largest would be Volkswagen. This corporation total assets are worth around $67 billion dollars. Another corporation and competitor of Volkswagen is BMW. BMW is smaller that Volkswagen with assets worth around $26.8 billion dollars. Continuing with the car theme and my personal favorite tires Continental. Continental is the worlds fourth largest producer and is based in Hanover, Germany. I could not find accurate financial information on Continental tires but can o...

By Connor Botz German Business at a Glance From an American perspective, Germany seems quite small, but it actually has the largest economy in Europe in both strength and size, and is the 4th largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP ($3.42 trillion) ( Investopedia ). Besides domestic business, Germany is also a key global player in industries such as chemicals, machinery, vehicles, and household equipment, which has contributed to it being the third largest exporter in the world. In fact, every second euro contributed to Germany's GDP comes from international business dealings ( Facts About Germany ). FDI While German companies invest heavily in foreign operations, Germany has also become a key destination for foreign direct investment (FDI). These investments are valued at 458 billion euros and provide for over 3 million jobs. Workforce Beyond products and services, Germany has something else to offer the global economy: highly educated and skilled...