The US and British recessions have left their mark on shopping centres and high streets. Germany’s has been visible at factories on short-time working – in the lightly loaded industrial barges on the Rhine and the lines of unsold luxury cars at the motor plants.

First-quarter gross domestic product figures yesterday confirmed what economists had long suspected: Germany, which has relied heavily on exports of industrial goods to power its growth, had taken a much bigger blow from the slump in global demand than other big European economies.