Bad to Worse; Hard times give birth to dark humor--and much angst.

Byline: Stefan Theil

Usually, Germany's lenten carnival season means nonstop parties and good-natured cheer. This year, however, joking and laughing has turned into derision and scoffs. In the parades that wound their way through the Rhineland last week, papier-mache floats ridiculed Gerhard Schroeder and his ministers. Such is the national mood that genteel Dusseldorfers didn't bat an eye at an 15-foot chancellor with his privates on display. The tabloid Bild was dead serious when it described the whole country as "a ship of fools." For a 13-page report on the state of the union, appearing the day before carnival, newsweekly Der Spiegel's cover proclaimed "Germany: A Joke."

Germans have long been famous for lamenting, whining and hyperbolizing over their plight, real or imagined. Angst and anxiety are indeed national pastimes. But the present bout of despair seems to be going from bad to worse. Only 20 percent of Germans think they'll be better off in five years, according to one recent poll--qualifying them as the most pessimistic citizens in the entire European Union. In the eyes of the country's media, nothing is going right. To the tone-setting Der Spiegel, Germans have turned into "a people of losers, incapable of progress, governed by bunglers." Conservative daily Die Welt last week diagnosed "a German depression." Even serious analysts are joining the choir. Foreseeing "the likely failure of comprehensive economic reform," a somber recent report by normally upbeat Deutsche Bank concludes: "Germany is fading."

There are plenty of good reasons why Germans are getting down on themselves. Consider last week's string of bad news. On Monday, newspapers reported that Germany--once Europe's richest country and the envy of all--had officially fallen below the EU average in per capita GDP. On Tuesday, the closely watched IFO business confidence index turned sharply south after a hopeful nine-month rise, reflecting companies' increased worries about the soaring euro as well as doubts about the government's commitment to reform. On Thursday, the European Education Survey placed the skills of once-smart German students near the bottom of the EU league. To add insult to injury, the EU Commission in Brussels recently told Germans they would have to replace their "Made in Germany" trademark--once, like the already abolished Deutsche mark, a tower of national pride--with

a more nondescript "Made in Europe." Aua, as the Germans say.

Confidence in Schroeder's ability to solve these problems does not run high. His government's modest efforts at reform have bogged down in Parliament; his Social Democrats are in open revolt, to the point that last month he stepped down as party leader. ...