Jürgen Schrempp's dream of creating "The World Inc." by merging his company Mercedes with Chrysler nine years ago has turned into a nightmare. The Germans feel they're dragging along their loss-making American sister company, which lost fully €1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) last year.

Now Schrempp-successor Dieter Zetsche -- nickname "Dr. Z." -- wants to restructure Chrysler by shutting down two of its factories in Detroit and Delaware and eliminating some 13,000 jobs.

On presenting the company's annual results in Detroit on Wednesday, Zetsche said: "We don't exclude any option in order to find the best solution for both the Chrysler Group and DaimlerChrysler." In downsizing car production by 400,000 vehicles, he wants Chrysler to achieve $4.6 billion in profits by 2009. Some are speculating though that Daimler could sell off the Chrysler Group entirely.

While American labor unions called the proposals "devastating", the stock market reacted with enthusiasm; the stock price rose by 5.1 percent to $67.95.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung considers the drama surrounding DaimlerChrysler "a company history like many others." Schrempp's "big deal seemed more or less plausible as a blue print, but it was never going to be work out in real life. (…) Two-thirds or even three-quarters of fusions end up a failure. Things generally go wrong in the post-merger period when the global strategists have already set their eye on the next toy.

"Those who call themselves the economic elite, those who lead global corporations and get paid millions, should have the backbone to say no. Instead of listening to investment bankers, they should pay attention to their customers. Managers like this still exist in German medium-size businesses -- but they're very rare at the helm of big corporations."

The Financial Times Germany applauds Zetsche for showing responsibility in a crisis and for bidding farewell to that "mad strategy that has created nothing but trouble for Daimler."

"The restructuring of Daimler is in reality an effort to get the American brand ready for sale. If things go well they may find a buyer within the industry, for example the Japanese carmaker Nissan. (…) At the moment Chrysler is technologically dependent on Mercedes, which is right to rule out rescuing the American company through closer cooperation. This is where the majority of DaimlerChrysler's problems came from in the first place: Integrating expensive Mercedes-parts into Chrysler middle-class cars is not intelligent synergy but economical nonsense.

"It's in the best interest of Mercedes to sell off the American sister company. The carmaker from Stuttgart just managed to become profitable again itself but it could slip back into crisis if the management devotes too much attention to Chrysler. The duty of "Dr. Z." is therefore as clear as it is complicated: He has to cut off the diseased part of DaimlerChrysler in order to save the life of the whole corporation."

The conservative Die Welt argues exactly the opposite. According to the paper, Zetsche is right in giving Chrysler another chance. "Chrysler has an even greater right to exist in the company now than it did in 1998. True, the carmarkers from Stuttgart have run into difficulties in restructuring the American company in the past, but they've learned from their mistakes. Company director Zetsche knows that Chrysler and Mercedes have to be self-sufficient brands rather than just bad copies of each other.

"The argument for Chrysler to stay in the company is profit-making. The American car market is undergoing a fundamental change towards cleaner and smaller cars -- an area that the Germans are particularly good at. At the same time the brand Mercedes is ill-equipped to attract many buyers from the rising middle-classes in Asia. But Chrysler could achieve exactly that."