“Other countries see us better than we see ourselves”! Wade through the media these days and you might think Germany is finished. How refreshing and encouraging, then, to read perspectives like that of Martin Blessing — the German federal government’s Investment Commissioner since September 2025.
In Rotary Magazin he gets straight to the point:
The general mood toward Germany is better than we ourselves believe. Other countries see us better than we see ourselves.
Investors from the Middle East, the US, Canada, Australia and Asia, he says, view Germany as a business location far more optimistically than public opinion at home would suggest.
More of this, please. Because too much doom and gloom ends up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Doom and gloom is comfortable, but rarely helpful — it paralyzes exactly where the ability to act is needed. A realistic outside view can sometimes bring more clarity than our own, often overly negative inside view.