Germany, Past and Present

"[Germany should approach the fight against the disease] more like a marathon than a sprint."

"Future measures must be designed and prepared in such a way that, on the one hand, they ensure good health care and, on the other hand, that they can be sustained over the necessary periods of time."

"Planning for this transition must begin immediately in politics, administration, companies and other organizations."

"The attempt to centrally control the resumption of production would ... not work in practice. This resumption must be controlled primarily by the institutions and companies themselves." 

Academic report, Ifo Institute for Economic Research

A man with a mask passes by an empty street during the coronavirus crisis in Berlin, Germany.

The first Western democracy that succeeded admirably in containing the COVID-19 spread is now prepared to begin the laborious process of re-opening its economy. Perhaps it is no coincidence that it is led by a woman. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also by profession a trained scientist and as such is by definition a professional analyst with a degree in quantum chemistry. She is practical, plainspoken, firm and resolute as a leader, and Germans love their leader.

Coincidentally, Taiwan too has a trained scientist in its government in vice-President Chen Chien-jen, an epidemiologist and scientific researcher of some global renown. As an Asian democracy that prides itself on its sovereignty with a physical proximity to China, the source of the zoonotic SARS-CoV-2, Taiwan no doubt, like Germany, profited handsomely in gaining control of the novel coronavirus with the guidance and knowledge of its vice-president.

Having a background in science and economics is a great leg up in evaluating and analyzing complex data, aiding in decision-making beyond the capacity of lawyers and business leaders who typically become national leaders. Had matters moved forward for Germany as they did elsewhere, where the coronavirus established itself in large numbers it would not now be in a position to contemplate relaxing the measures it took early on in view of the emergence of that highly contagious virus.

Michael Kappeler / DPA / Alamy

Science-based policies succeeded in overcoming the deleterious effect of a densely populated country encircled by other nations that experienced high death rates. Germany's death rate of 54 deaths per million is immensely lower than that of other countries located nearby in Europe; Spain as example with 437 deaths per million; Italy with 384 deaths per million, France with 296 deaths per million, and that of the United Kingdom of 237 deaths per million population.

Much can also be attributed to the German temperament and culture of discipline and efficiency. During the worst days of the raging pandemic, Germany's Chancellor addressed the nation calmly and rationally with readily digestible explanations and statistics and a rationale for decisions taken. Most Germans trust and respect their Chancellor, her ethics and her values and her conscientious and conscious sense of humanity.

Her early imposition of stringent social-gathering limits, school closings, business closures, slowing of the economy and lockdowns in response to the early days of the novel coronavirus sweeping through the country along with the state of preparedness of its medical community to deal with the health crisis, the focus on testing and tracing of "every infection chain", all contributed to containing its spread.

It helped that, unlike other European and North American countries struggling to cope with the novel coronavirus in the absence of adequate, reliable personal protection equipment Germany was self-sufficient in medical devices, test kits and the production of equipment, with a surplus of ICU beds. It was able to initiate a robust testing program where now 120,000 tests are completed daily in a population of 83 million.

Leading to Germany's instituting a program of issuing "immunity cards" for people identified as having developed antibodies to the disease, enabling them to return to work, to travel and to socialize with a view to expanding the system to the degree that the country will gradually fully reopen its economy. The disciplined mind-set of the population, obedient to authority, resilient and given to national pride in this instance has been put to good use to benefit all of society.

Those same attributes seventy-five years ago led to a majority of the German population electing a political party calling itself the National Socialist German Workers' Party which most know in its abbreviated form: Nazi Party -- to which it was loyal and trusting. A party and a leader that led it to stretch beyond the bounds of human conscience, tolerance and compassion for those it accepted through a tremendous propaganda machine as sub-human, ripe for extermination.

This time, thankfully, it is a virus that German efficiency and bureaucracy is fixated on exterminating.

"Since the Second World War there has not been a challenge for our country in which action in a spirit of solidarity on our part was so important." -- Angela Merkel

Yad Vashem Security guard stands at the empty Hall of Names in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem on April 19, 2020 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)