But if other European countries seem less kvetchy than Germany, it could be that they have less to complain about. There are experts here who contend that the pessimism actually is a reasonable response to an objectively bad situation.
"The economic situation is really more of a problem than in other countries because so many shocks have come together," said Hans-Werner Sinn, the director of the Institute for Economic Research in Munich.
In other words, Germans are gloomy because there is a general realization that the formulas that have worked so well for this country in the decades since World War II are not working anymore.
"Germans have awakened from their dreams of the eternal welfare state," Sinn said, explaining the gloomy national mood, and giving it an objective basis. "They've been confronted with reality, and that is never nice."
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