Germany – Page 5 – understand-culture

Planning Doesn’t Have to Be the Enemy of Agile

Planning was one of the cornerstones of management, but it’s now fallen out of fashion. It seems rigid, bureaucratic, and ill-suited to a volatile, unpredictable world. However, organizations still need some form of planning.

And so, universally valuable, but desperately unfashionable, planning waits like a spinster in a Jane Austen novel for someone to recognize her worth. The answer is agile planning, a process that can coordinate and align with today’s agile-based teams. Agile planning also helps to resolve the tension between traditional planning’s focus on hard numbers, and the need for “soft data,” or human judgment.

Troubled by supply chain woes, German firms diversify and relocate

November 2021. Reuters. More than half of German companies doing business abroad are suffering severe problems in their supply chains or logistics, pushing them to diversify suppliers, shorten delivery routes and even relocate their own production, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The German economy has boomed on the back of globalisation over the past decade. But pandemic-related disruptions in the worldwide network of supply chains that used to turbo-charge its growth engine are now proving a critical weakness.

Can tourism in Germany adapt to climate change?

September 2021. Deutsche Welle. Before devastating floods swept across western Germany in mid-July, killing 184 people, Germany’s Ahr valley was a popular destination for wine lovers and hikers.

But now, there is little left for tourists to explore: Vineyards have been destroyed, trails and roads have been washed away. It will take years for tourism in the region to recover. The flooding could be a wakeup call for other touristic regions in Germany to adapt to climate change — or suffer the consequences.

Eltz Castle

Luxury, romance and a fairytale atmosphere — that’s how we imagine life at the medieval Eltz Castle. But what is it really like to live there? Spoiler: there are 80 rooms, all of which require a little maintenance.

DW’s Hannah Hummel asks owner Jakob Graf zu Eltz about life at the castle back then and now. The castle resident has even set up his home office there. Would that be something for you, too?

Burg Eltz – Castle Eltz

Burg Eltz is a hilltop castle from the 12th century and one of the most famous of its kind in Germany. It is located in the Elz valley, a left tributary of the Moselle, in the district of Wierschem in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Owned by the noble Eltz family for more than 800 years, the building has been largely preserved. Like Bürresheim Castle and Lissingen Castle, it is one of the fortifications in the Eifel that were never conquered by force. The castle is open to the public and a popular destination.

Medieval Erfurt

Time travel to the Middle Ages: Explore Erfurt’s Old Town with DW reporter Lukas Stege! Next to the famous cathedral, he takes a stroll around the historic Krämerbrücke.

The Merchant’s Bridge is the longest inhabited bridge in the world. Then, Lukas takes on a special culinary quest: trying to get hold of a vegetarian Thuringian bratwurst in Erfurt. Find out whether he is successful in the video!

Amazon thinks long-term

As an American Jeff Bezos is untypical in his long-term and customer-centric approach to business. The success of Amazon speaks for itself.

Romantic Rhine

Castles, palaces, vineyards, and a romantic river valley: experience a train journey along the Rhine with DW’s Hannah Hummel. It is considered the most beautiful train route in Germany! Let’s start in Cologne!

Germany’s Roman architecture

Although most of Germania was never conquered by the Romans, some of its western parts were incorporated into the Empire. Here the Romans brought all the hallmarks of their civilization, and left behind many impressive structures like bridges, baths, palaces and monuments. In this video we look at seven of these that are still standing in Germany.

Long-term planning

The Technical University of Dortmund in Germany:

What will the city look like in the future? How do we deal with climate change? What will tomorrow’s transportation look like? How do we use the limited space we have? Spatial planning is an interdisciplinary engineering and social science field that deals with spatial developments in living, working and environmental conditions.

The different spatial levels range from the living environment and residential quarter to the urban district, the city as a whole, the region, the state and federal levels, and even the European and international levels. On all spatial levels, different technical orientations, such as urban development, housing, traffic, landscape, are considered in their interdependent relationships and effects.