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Fiercely discounting

Dirk Rossmann’s trade secret is quality brands cheap – By Hannes Koch

Dirk Rossmann runs a successful and expanding drugstore chain with 2,300 stores in Germany and abroad. But he says he has little influence on the working conditions of the people who make his products.

Dirk Rossmann loves books. For years, he has probably spent more time reading than he has keeping up to date with his company’s fortunes. He is currently reading four different titles simultaneously, one of them a biography of German poet Theodor Fontane. “Achieving composure is the beginning of being effective,” he said.

Rossmann says he has never written an email. His employees deal with modern forms of communication and present them to him in paper form. There is no computer on his desk. He doesn’t wear a watch. For the interview, Rossman – sporting an oval pair of glasses and a grayish-white three-day beard – sits in a corner of his office on a sofa with large, comfortable pillows. Rossmann, 63, wears a white shirt and no tie; from time to time he asks his press spokesman what time it is.

Things are looking up (for now)

Germany reports encouraging figures but what if… – By Uwe Jean Heuser

The economy is growing and even consumer spending has turned a corner. Yet the underlying dangers remain. Banks are uncontrolled and unstable, and foreign markets anything but robust.

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Don’t play with our food

Speculators unfairly push up prices on commodities markets – By Heike Holdinghausen

A World Bank study has concluded that speculation was largely responsible for the food price explosion in 2008. The drama on the markets and streets obscured the structural imbalance that keeps a billion people in the world hungry.

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Caught between rich and poor

The middle class in Germany is in decline – By Ulrike Herrmann

The number of full-time workers paying into the social security system in Germany has been dropping for years. In 2008, it accounted for only 22.4 million of the 40.3 million-strong labor force.

Thomas Greiner, a geologist with a doctorate, has never had a long-term job. He is now 45 years old, and still living from project to project. A two-year post at a research institute in Berlin has just come to an end. Now he is hoping to get a job substituting for a junior professor on sick leave for the next three months.

Greiner has been forced to accept the ups and downs of his employment situation. “At least I can usually get up in the morning when I want to,” he said. He is not the only German who has had to come to terms with an uncertain working life. The number of full-time workers contributing to the social security system is experiencing a steady decline.

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