Photo Gallery Germany's Infrastructure Crisis
Workers repair an autobahn bridge in the German state of Schleswig Holstein. In recent years, German investment in infrastructure has dwindled. In 2008, Germany was ranked third on a list -- prepared annually by the Global Economic Forum in Davos -- of countries with the best infrastructure. But now Germany has slipped to seventh place.
A car drives past a large pothole in Brandenburg. While the government and the economy were investing 25 percent of total economic output in new roads, telephone lines, lecture halls and factories in the early 1990s, the number declined to only 19.7 percent in 2013, according to recent figures from the Federal Statistical Office.
Construction work in the A115 autobahn near Berlin. In the last two decades, federal, state and local governments have neglected to properly maintain such assets, and their investments in maintenance and repairs have steadily declined since the early 1990s.
A child in a daycare in Stuttgart: Germany spends only 5.3 percent of its economic output on daycare centers, schools and universities, compared with the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) average of 6.3 percent.
A daycare quality law that would establish minimum nationwide standard will not materialize in this legislative period -- Family Minister Manuela Schwesig was unable to prevail against the center-right Christian Democratic Union, headed by Angela Merkel, shown here, and the German state governments, which fear high costs.
German Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel has grown increasingly concerned about the infrastructure problem. The government is currently engaged in a debate about how to manage spending reform.
