ambitions but their business culture has deep provincial roots. They look back as much as forward. "We have existed since 1825 and have been doing the same thing since then," says Dieter Brand, chairman of the Sparkasse, or savings bank, in Bielefeld, the region's biggest town. In some senses the same is true of his corporate customers. Germany may have reformed and
rearticulated its model in recent years. But the underlying skeleton is ancient, and perhaps inimitable.
Two decades ago, the country seemed
distinctly arthritic. The euphoria of unification in 1990 was followed by the sharpest
recession since the second world war.
Some 50o,ooo manufacturing jobs were
lost. Business was menaced by an overvalued n -mark, nimble Asian competitors
and unification's huge costs. The economy had become rigid and uncompetitive,
moaned entrepreneurs. The then-president,
