Research, background pieces and signed opinion. Before every headline it says what you are reading: background or opinion.
32 reports
OPINIONCOMMENTARY
61 per cent trust public service broadcasting, the lowest figure since the Mainz long-term study began. At the same time the state media authorities are to be allowed to screen content automatically, and the ceiling for fines is to triple. Andreas W. Herb on a media order meant to protect debate that risks concentrating power instead.
Andreas W. Herb ·
OPINIONCOMMENTARY
Below 10 per cent alcohol a ready-mixed drink pays duty twice, from 10 per cent only once. Andreas W. Herb does the arithmetic, shows what the federal government itself writes about people switching to mixing their own, and calls for the special duty to be abolished.
Andreas W. Herb ·
OPINIONCOMMENTARY
The EU food authority considers 1,000 times less BPA tolerable than the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. Brussels has opted for the strictest value and banned the BPA can, including for drinks that go for export. Andreas W. Herb asks who is going to explain that.
Andreas W. Herb ·
BACKGROUNDDATA CHECK
From 2018 to 2025 the German economy grew by 2.0 per cent in real terms, the world economy by 22.8 per cent. Industrial production is 15 per cent below the 2018 level – in Austria, in the EU and in Switzerland it is above it. Two charts, calculated from the primary data.
Basis: our own analysis of the databases of the IMF and Eurostat, prompted by the lecture given by Hans-Werner Sinn on 21 October 2026 at the IWP in Lucerne ·
OPINIONCOMMENTARY
989.8 billion euros of taxes in 2025, 76.4 per cent more than in 2008. Even so, the federal government is planning a good 200 billion euros of new borrowing for 2027. Andreas W. Herb asks where the money goes.
Andreas W. Herb ·
OPINIONCOMMENTARY
As at 30 June 2025, 5,475,100 people were working in the public service, 970,000 more than in 2008. Finance minister Klingbeil’s draft budget plans 4,752 further posts at federal level. Andreas W. Herb asks where the savings from digitalisation have gone.
Andreas W. Herb ·
OPINIONVIDEO
State spending is once again reaching a good half of economic output, and 5.475 million people work in the public service – not counting the employees of Deutsche Bahn AG, who do not appear in these statistics. Andreas W. Herb sums up the debate in thirty slides.
Andreas W. Herb ·
OPINIONVIDEO
Not less Europe, but less German extra bureaucracy: in a good six minutes Andreas W. Herb shows five cases in which Germany sets stricter obligations than the EU, and proposes a test for every extra burden.
Andreas W. Herb ·
OPINIONCOMMENTARY
Standard letter 1.15 instead of 0.95 euros, maxi letter up to 1,000 grams 5.00 instead of 2.90 euros: Deutsche Post is raising prices sharply on 1 January 2027. Andreas W. Herb asks what share the state has in this and what the minimum wage, the CO₂ price and the road toll have to do with it.
Andreas W. Herb ·
OPINIONCOMMENTARY
The regulatory control council reports 6.8 billion euros less compliance cost. Of that, 45 million falls to business – while its bureaucracy costs rise by 1.3 billion. Andreas W. Herb on four figures one has to know before arguing about the size of the state.
Andreas W. Herb ·
OPINIONVIDEO
The customs act is meant to relieve honest companies. Using the case of a lorry load of vodka mixers, Andreas W. Herb shows in a good five minutes what is missing from it: 0 euros of alcohol duty, but 57,942 euros of alcopop duty on the same goods.
Andreas W. Herb ·
OPINIONCOMMENTARY
Vodka mixers from Poland for a customer in Spain, 24 hours in a customs warehouse in Paderborn, never saleable in Germany: 57,942 euros of alcopop duty. Using his own company’s case, Andreas W. Herb shows what Klingbeil’s customs act still owes honest companies.
Andreas W. Herb ·
BACKGROUND
The EU packaging regulation has applied since 12 August. The small business wing of the CDU and CSU is calling for it to be suspended. In Brussels there is only a proposal to suspend a single obligation. On 20 October the European Parliament voted to limit it to small businesses. That is not yet settled: negotiations with the Council follow.
Basis: resolution of the federal board of the Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion of 30 September 2026, Regulation (EU) 2025/40, documents from the Commission, the European Parliament, the Council and the federal government, the 2026 annual report of the national regulatory control council, a special report by the European Court of Auditors, the Draghi report. ·
OPINIONANALYSIS
The EU today spends more than two and a half times as much as in 2000, and its administration costs almost 14 billion euros a year. For translation into 24 languages it has been giving the same estimate of around one billion euros for years – and there is no quantified savings requirement.
Andreas W. Herb ·
BACKGROUND
From 2028 the sugar tax and the plastic tax together are expected to bring in around 2.4 billion euros a year. From 2026 to 2027 alone, the federal government’s interest spending rises by 11.6 billion. This comparison is driving the Union’s business wing – and exposes a conflict within the parliamentary group.
Basis: 2027 draft budget and financial plan, analysis by the Federal Court of Audit of 3 September 2026, decisions of the Bundestag and a report in WELT of 15 October 2026 on a meeting of the Parlamentskreis Mittelstand ·
OPINIONOPEN LETTER
The EU packaging regulation has applied since August, right down to the bread roll bag. In an open letter Andreas W. Herb calls on Federal Chancellor Merz to stop the obligations for bakers, butchers, publicans and traders in Brussels, with 20 examples from everyday life.
Andreas W. Herb ·
OPINIONCOMMENTARY
Nine state ministers, twelve of twelve members of the Union’s agriculture working group, the parliamentary group chairman and the CDU/CSU group in the European Parliament are setting themselves against new excise duties and against Brussels reporting obligations. That is right. Nothing is thereby decided.
Andreas W. Herb ·
OPINIONCOMMENTARY
Sugar, alcohol, plastic: three planned excise duties would bring in around 2.9 billion euros a year from 2028 and over 1,000 new posts in the federal administration. If passed on in full, that is around 70 euros per household per year.
Andreas W. Herb ·
OPINIONPOSITION PAPER
Over 14 billion low-value consignments entered the EU duty-free from 2022 to 2025, most of them from China. Temu and Shein alone cost Germany 2.4 billion euros of value added and around 40,000 jobs, according to an IW study. A position paper to the chancellor ahead of the EU summit.
Andreas W. Herb ·
BACKGROUNDDOCUMENTATION
Nine agriculture ministers from the Union write to Chancellor Merz: the sugar tax does not fit the coalition’s line. We document the letter in full and check what in its statements holds up.
Basis: letter from the ministers of 11 October 2026, available to the editorial team ·