Building bridges, renovating railways, investing in climate protection, equipping the Bundeswehr: money alone is not enough. Rapid planning, companies and qualified workers are required.
Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Stuttgart 21 railway station - Germany has plenty of bad examples of major projects that spiraled out of control in terms of costs and construction time. Planning errors, construction defects, cost explosions, legal disputes, years of construction delays - the list is long.
The reasons are varied. Ranging from poorly thought-out planning to lengthy approval procedures and shortages of staff and materials at construction sites. In Stuttgart, there was recently uncertainty and delays because a corporation sold parts of its business that were building the central digital infrastructure.
Money alone doesn't solve problems.
For the Taxpayers' Association (BdSt), this is reason enough to consider the multi-billion euro financial package for defense and infrastructure, drawn up by the CDU/CSU and SPD, as wrong. After the Bundestag, the Bundesrat, the parliament of the 16 states, also gave the green light to the financing package for the Infrastructure and Defense Fund. In addition to practically unlimited defense spending, the Infrastructure Fund also provides for 500 billion euros to be invested over the next twelve years.
There is no shortage of financial resources to solve Germany's investment backlog, criticized BdSt President Reiner Holznagel. "Germany is drowning in bureaucracy and inefficient structures. We need faster approval procedures and clear responsibilities! But a new debt fund will not solve all these problems."
Economist Veronika Grimm also sees it this way. The additional funds from the debt package cannot be spent so quickly. The planning and approval procedures are "an obstacle to the release of funds," Grimm told the Budget Committee in the Bundestag.
The professor at Nuremberg Technical University is urgently calling for "growth-enhancing reforms." The current forecast is that no effects on economic growth are expected from the debt package in 2025. She expects a moderate effect in 2026. "In 2027 it will be clear how well this money is being used."
The construction industry and its major problems
When it comes to politics, Grimm's prediction should set off alarm bells. The billions in debt are primarily intended to help revive Germany's economy as quickly as possible. "We can start immediately. The construction industry has the capacity for new orders and the know-how to implement the necessary infrastructure projects," says Felix Pakleppa, director of the German Construction Association. The industry is currently underutilized, with 40 percent of all construction companies complaining of a lack of orders.
In the construction sector, orders have fallen sharply on several occasions over the past two years. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the subsequent energy crisis and inflation have caused prices to rise sharply. This has slowed down housing construction in particular.
Approval procedures take too long
But the construction industry is determined to reduce bureaucracy. The way things are going now is no longer acceptable. "In highway construction, up to 85 percent of the time can be spent on planning processes - only 15 percent on the construction itself," Pakleppa reports.
There have been calls for reducing bureaucracy for years. Meanwhile, every second company sees the burden of lengthy administrative procedures, obligations and documentation, statistical reporting and data protection regulations as the biggest obstacle to greater economic growth. The ifo Institute in Munich wrote in a study at the end of 2024: "Due to excessive bureaucracy, Germany is losing up to 146 billion euros in economic output per year."
The shortage of skilled workers will increase
Another problem could be the shortage of skilled workers and the workforce that has been evident for years. This issue is no longer in the headlines because Germany has entered its third year of recession. Layoffs and reduced working hours have become the norm. But that could change quickly.
First, the "production gap" will close, says economist Grimm. Then, companies may have far more orders than they can realistically handle with their staff. Then it will be important to increase labor capacity.
Supply and demand determine the price
But where will the additional workers come from? Germany is an aging society and in the coming years a particularly large number of people will retire. There is a shortage of successors. A study by the Bertelsmann Foundation from the end of 2024 says that around 288,000 workers from abroad will be needed each year until 2040. The study has not yet taken into account the needs that may arise from the infrastructure package.
Veronika Grimm warns that the additional funds must "really increase production potential." "Otherwise there will be additional price pressure." If there are more orders than capacity, companies can demand everything that is paid. Especially when something needs to happen very quickly.
Transport infrastructure is top notch
Germany's infrastructure has been neglected for decades. Some 5,000 bridges are so dilapidated that they urgently need to be renovated. Deutsche Bahn is severely overburdened. It has launched the largest renovation project in its history and plans to renovate over 4,000 kilometers of track in 40 phases over the next few years.
To quickly rearm the Bundeswehr, weapons and military equipment must be procured at shorter notice than ever before. Arms companies are already working at their borders because of the war in Ukraine.
Under Donald Trump, the US is no longer a reliable NATO partner. Arms contracts are increasingly being awarded to Europe. This promises golden times for companies like Rheinmetall, but also Airbus. They can practically dictate prices.
Will the money be enough?
With a lot of money comes a lot of desires. Deutsche Bahn has already calculated that it will need 290 billion euros to renew its infrastructure by 2034. An estimate by the Federal Ministry of Transport estimates that 140 billion euros are needed just to maintain the federal highways, Germany's main roads.
With these two amounts alone, the 500 billion euro infrastructure package would be spent almost in full. Accordingly, a recent analysis by the consulting firm Strategy&, a subsidiary of the auditing firm PwC, has calculated that this will not be enough. According to the firm, the federal, state and municipal governments will need 982.1 billion euros by 2035./ DW (A2 Televizion)
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