Tag Archives: Germany

Banking Crisis Hits Germany

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The German Government has approved a 70 billion Euro deal to save Hypo Real Estate bank. The financial crisis has therefore finally reached Europe, and it has done so in full force. I do not know how bad the situation of banks is here in Germany, but I can imagine that the loss of trust in the system is going to cause a great deal of agony in the near future.

I am not really worried, yet. But I do wonder how many hits the financial system can take before it starts to sink. It is important to remember that actual numbers on a balance sheet matter rather little if panic sets in and the dreaded “run on the banks” begins.

I do have the gut feeling that the situation is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Traffic Jam

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On our way back from Schloss Neuschwanstein we got stuck in a pretty bad traffic jam, that delayed us for about 1.5 hours. Donnie and Andreas took some photos of it:

What had happened? Two cars collided with the barrier between the lanes, and it seems a third one crashed into them. We saw the cars when they got towed away, they were completely totaled, and the central barrier had actually been ripped out of the ground. The passengers and drivers were brought to the hospital by emergency ambulance. There’s a German news article about the accident; it seems the injuries were not so bad, but there’s an impressive photo of the damaged car.

Munich

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I’ve arrived in Munich. It’s good to finally be “home”, especially if it’s a new one. My move’s mostly complete, with a few odds and ends left. It went pretty well. I already unpacked most – but by far not all – of my stuff and the only thing I actually seem to have lost – so far – is one cup. Not even a very special one. Life continues.

My first day on the new job went pretty well; I like the new company a lot. Got a shiny new notebook to play work with, too. And did I mention I get to battle spammers on the actual front lines?

I haven’t really seen much of Munich yet. My feet are killing me because of all the walking I did last week, so I am not even sure if I will go out on a discovery tour this weekend or not.

A New Job

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I thought it was time to make it “official”: As many of you already know, I will be moving to Munich before the end of the month, to begin a new job in Munich on April 1st. I’ll leave Frankfurt behind and move further south. Go ahead, make the jokes about a Hamburgian in Bavaria. I’ve heard them all by now!

It also means that my nearly six years working for Lufthansa Systems are ending. My new job will be with Ironport, and I’m looking forward to it very much. I didn’t decide to move to Munich because I dislike Frankfurt (Frankfurt, despite rumors to the contrary, isn’t really all that bad) nor Lufthansa, nor “for the money”, but simply because Ironport offered me an interesting job, and I feel that it’s a cool company full of nice people. (I realize this may sound like a bit of boot licking, but whatever, those are the reasons, and I don’t care what you think.)

I’ll send around an email with my new contact information in early April; but you can always reach me at my known email address, or via jabber, icq, and so on.