As serious the Volkswagen affair is, it must not conceal the structural weaknesses of the German economy. Through a well known writer trick, to avoid repetition, the country is systematically qualified as the “first economic power in Europe” in comments but never the “country in Europe with the oldest population”. The size of the German economy is an indisputable statistical fact, but it is not the result of its economic achievements. It is the mechanical consequence of the German unification which 25th birthday we are celebrating this year. And this historical change has not facilitated economic growth since, to ...