Germans are less anxious than you might think

“ARE YOU also afraid of winter? Tell us your own personal story!” Thus did Bild, a tabloid, invite readers last month to spook each other over spiralling heating bills. Other outlets warn that the famed Mittelstand, the cluster of strong, medium-sized firms that have long been the backbone of Europe’s biggest economy, will be driven to extinction by surging energy costs. The German press is not alone in dispensing gloom. Economists at Deutsche Bank, the country’s biggest, warn in a recent report not just of a coming recession but of “accelerated deindustrialisation”, as manufacturers flee to places blessed with lower-cost energy.