In recent years, much has been made of Germany's economic decline. It's certainly true that chronically high unemployment and consistently anemic growth have long plagued the world's third-largest economy. But for all its problems, the country has -- for the most part -- remained an extremely comfortable place to live. The trains run, everybody has access to decent health care and the trash gets picked up. Or at least it did until this week.

In what could herald the beginning of a nasty nationwide public sector strike, garbage men, childcare workers and clinic employees took to the picket lines this week in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg to protest plans to raise the number of hours worked each week. Currently, the state's 220,000 municipal employees work only 38.5 hours, but the government would like to ratchet that up to 40 hours without increased compensation. That has naturally raised the ire of services trade union Verdi, which started the strikes as a warning. Union members in other states have already started voting on whether to expand the scope of the strike.

Naturally, the unions are howling that public sector workers have suffered under communal cost-cutting for years and the increase in working hours is tantamount to a decrease in wages. But how much sympathy can they really expect from most Germans? Those belonging to the 10 percent of the country's workforce currently unemployed would most likely be only too eager to work longer hours to have a job. And those employed in the private sector are sure to look at the cushy 38.5 hour public sector workweek as a totally unrealistic anachronism. The simmering labor dispute could become the first full-blown public sector strike in 14 years in Germany, encouraging in-depth coverage by most of the country's major newspapers on Tuesday. Some are considering the potentially dire consequences for the country's rather fragile economic recovery, while other look at how the striking municipal workers will affect the lives of the public.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung explores the frustration most people are likely to feel as the public sector strike increases the hassles of daily life. "Because garbage men, kindergarten employees and hospital workers don't want to work 18 minutes more a day, Verdi has called a strike. That's what many citizens will think as they stand before closed buildings and growing piles of trash," writes the paper, explaining that although the dispute isn't quite that simple, it's still not justified. "The union has little hope of sympathy, but for that, it has only itself to blame." Although having a job might not be a secure as it was in the past, the paper writes that that is simply the current reality of Germany's labor market. "These days there is no way back -- and most definitely not via a poorly legitimized strike."

The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has even less understanding for the striking public sector workers. "This labor dispute is damaging, without solidarity and counterproductive," criticizes the paper. FAZ also points out the irony of the union trying to torpedo a wage deal for Germany's municipalities while simultaneously attempting to push it through at the state and federal levels. The paper opines the strike is even less justified in the knowledge that municipal workers in economically depressed eastern Germany are already required to work a 40-hour week -- sometimes 42 hours. The western union members are fighting more for their own privileges than for jobs. But in the current economic climate of empty public coffers, they are only hurting themselves in the long-run: "Whoever strikes against longer working hours today is sawing on the branch they're sitting on."

The leftist Die Tageszeitung predictably takes a different take on the labor dispute, which it calls "a strike with sensitivity for citizens." The paper explores how the union is trying to push through its demands without inconveniencing the public too much. "The cold weather has its advantages. The rotting garbage doesn't stink then," the article begins. But in a sidebar interview, even an expert in public administration sympathetic to the strikers admitted to the TAZ that "cutting positions in the public sector is unavoidable."

The business daily Financial Times Deutschland writes that the trade union might get more than it bargained for if the strike becomes a nationwide affair. The FTD readily admits that Verdi's suspicion that behind the policy of increasing working hours and cost cutting is the desire to eliminate jobs is very plausible. But that doesn't change the dire financial situation that most local governments currently face. And the strike could set off a national debate about how best to restructure the bloated service sector. "It will quickly become apparent that public sector personnel budgets need to be consolidated," opines FTD. "And yes, private service firms can often do a better and more efficient job than the state."

-- Marc Young
1:30 p.m. CET

Germany Gets a New Top Muslim

Anger in the Muslim world over the printing of caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers shows no signs of letting up, but some of the public discussion has turned to the potential for a widening "clash of civilizations" between the West and Islam. Never mind that many of the countries with protestors torching Danish embassies have oppressive governments happy to let their riled-up Muslim masses blow off steam by raging against the vile West. And please don't mention that the incensed European publications supposedly defending free speech have upped the ante by backing what amounts to be a poor editorial decision by a provincial Scandinavian newspaper. Nobody seems to be wrong and everybody wants to be right in this appropriately cartoonish affair. It all might not bode well for our collective future, but it sure helps the editorial pages.

There's plenty of opinion out there in the German press on Tuesday as well, but the country's major dailies also devoted considerable space to profiling the new head of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, one of the country's leading Muslim groups. Ayyub Axel Köhler, a 67-year-old German convert to Islam, took over as chairman of the most important group representing Muslims in Germany this week. German commentators are generally hopeful the man who converted in 1963 can serve as bridge between two cultures.

The leftist Die Tageszeitung makes a point of tracing Köhler's biography of being ejected from what is now Poland after World War II, to his youth in communist East Germany -- which was followed by adulthood in West Germany, where he discovered Islam. "In light of the caricature controversy, the small sensation that his election is has gone for most part unnoticed," writes the paper. "But that doesn't change the fact that the decision of the German Muslim Council is an unusual one." The paper naturally asks what Köhler thinks of the Muhammed cartoons too. While he condemns them as "blasphemous," he also calls on the world's Muslims not to let themselves be provoked since violence is "un-Islamic."

Germany's populist daily Bild asks the question "Must We Fear Islam?" with a massive headline under a photo of angry Iranian protestors burning a German flag. The never shy tabloid then asks the converted Köhler: "Why do you prefer Muhammad to Jesus?" After diplomatically trying to explain that he doesn't find one "better" than the other, Köhler says he likes the fact that Islam seems to be more clearly structured than Christianity and doesn't have that confusing holy trinity stuff to deal with. As far as the cartoon row goes, the new head of the German Muslim Council tells the paper that "the commotion is justified because the caricatures insult Islam."

The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung also looks at Köhler's new role in light of the ongoing controversy. "The timing couldn't be more explosive. As a German he is more familiar than (his Saudi Arabian immigrant predessor) Nadeem Elyas. However, the first comments by Köhler demand attention," writes the paper, which then goes on to call into question his claim that "humiliation" by the West is the underlying cause of the latest outbreak of hatred. "This became a cliché long ago. Colonialism is a thing of the past and many Muslim countries never were colonies," the paper opines. The FAZ also comments that many people in Muslim countries do not have the luxury that Köhler had by living in a democratic western nation where it was perfectly okay to change his religion.