When Germans Happily Cut Their Own Throats – Hamburg VOTES to ‘Deindustrialize’

You all have done a terrific job of keeping me company as I wander, absolutely dumbfounded, through the European landscape, and I’m here to tell you I appreciate it.

Oftentimes, when I’ve been really baffled by some European Union member’s parliamentary sleight of hand, electoral jujitsu, or outright chicanery, one of you all with far more lived experience on the Continent or with their various forms of government will wax poetic in the comments and straighten us all out about the hows and whys of happenings that are so foreign to Americans as to seem underhanded. But business as usual across the pond.

It has been an education and some real fun so far, and I’m here to tell you, I’ve got more coming that’s blowing my mind.

Take today, for instance – and the Germans.

I have probably done at least a dozen columns on the sorry state of the German economy with regard to the impact of their climate cult induced ‘Green transition’ madness. From prematurely closing functioning nuclear plants, switching to unreliable renewables at a frantic pace, mandating a switch over to hideously expensive all-electric household conversions, while destroying reliable and sufficient base generation power sources to run any of it, and adding additional drains on demand, was madness to begin with. But when the Ukraine War broke out, the Nordstream pipeline blew up, and the dunkelflautes became more common and sustained, once affordable electricity rates went through the roof. 

German households are pinched, investment is drying up, and the once vaunted Industrial Giant of Europe is clanging, banging, and groaning under the costly weight of Green mandates into the Sick Man of Europe. Deindustrialization creeps along, as factory floors are silenced. Industries shrink, close, and, if they’re lucky, leave for cheaper, less intrusive pastures.

Or they die.

This is a chart showing the state of industrial production in Germany as of the August numbers.

Es ist ein Katastrophe!
Die Industrieproduktion in Deutschland fiel im August weiter um 4,4%
Eine derartige Deindustrialisierung und Wohlstandsvernichtung hat das Land noch nie gesehen. Die Gründe sind hausgemacht und könnten jederzeit revidiert werden, wenn man den wollen… pic.twitter.com/jw1NEsAw1p

— marc friedrich (@marcfriedrich7) October 9, 2025

It’s a catastrophe! Industrial production in Germany fell further by 4.4% in August A deindustrialization and destruction of prosperity of this magnitude has never been seen in the country before. The reasons are homegrown and could be revised at any time, if one wanted to. When will politics finally wake up?

You’ll see the high point of their national output was actually back in 2018. It’s all been downhill (dramatic COVID break in between, naturally) ever since. They’re now where they were in 2005.

Some progress, huh?

It’s all self-induced. They purposefully shut off functioning, safe nuclear reactors after the Fukushima accident – no tsunamis were anticipated or blamed in Germany. 

They did it because ‘green.’

20 gigawatts turned off.
German deindustrialization in two decades. pic.twitter.com/NGB17mK7gZ

— Daniel Spenrath (@Daniel_Spenrath) January 19, 2025

In April of 2023, they shut down the country’s remaining three nuclear reactors. Eins, zwei, drei – dark.

It’s not only nuclear, either.

Germany detonates its most modern coal-fired power plant after just six years.

The Moorburg plant in Hamburg cost €3 billion and produced 1,654 MW, enough to power the entire city.

They demolished it because Greta said so.

Putin & Xi are laughing.pic.twitter.com/EtcfiYgLBq

— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) March 25, 2025

Until challenged on the Russian gas they were still buying, the Germans were slithering along.

Decoupling from cheap Russian gas has triggered a political & economic CATASTROPHE in Germany.

Germany’s Industrial Production has PLUNGED by 4.3% in August.

SANCTIONS BACKFIRE = GERMAN INDUSTRIAL SUICIDE. pic.twitter.com/pqj4CgAs8m

— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) October 12, 2025

German electrical costs for industry and households have increased by over 245% since 2000. German automakers have just announced 120K job cuts over 6 weeks (equating to 520K in the US if scaled for population), and luxury performance car maker Porsche(!) has been dropped from the German stock exchange’s index [Beege Adds: clarified that].

Porsche kicked out of the German stock market index DAX and being replaced by a digital real estate marketplace is indeed a sad symbol of our decline. https://t.co/S5siEoDrDu

— Swen Roschlau 🦁🗽 (@SwenRoschlau) October 14, 2025

The climate cult mandated Green Transition has moved Germany one step shy of the Dark Ages, and it’s a late and very rude shock for believers who are just now waking up.

Never rely on a ‘futurist’ to plan your energy system. Physics is unforgiving. This would be laughable if not so tragic – to see a great nation decimated by its own green-blinkered leadership. Look at the date. It only took a decade.
The Architect of Germany’s Third Industrial…

— Friends of Science (@FriendsOScience) November 5, 2024

Then there are always those who dance as the house burns down around them, while still holding the lit match.

Such is the case with the city of Hamburg, a major industrial and shipping port on the Elbe River.

It will also be a sterling example of why one should vote in every election. It’s always the one time you don’t vote that your missing vote could spell disaster.

That seems to have been the case here, in this past Sunday’s election. There was lackluster participation at 43%, but with an item on the ballot called the ‘Hamburg Future Decision’ to be decided.

What the ‘Future Decision’ boiled down to was whether Hamburg would take it upon itself as a city to mandate an even sooner transition to a ‘climate-neutral’ state – 2040 – than that which Germany had committed to, which is 2045.

 And wouldn’t you know the darn thing passed?

All the Greenies and cultists in an already uber-Lefty area flooded out to vote to deindustrialize one of the last remaining industrial cities standing in the country.

…According to the Statistics Office North, 303,936 Hamburg residents voted in favor of the “Future Decision,” corresponding to 53.2 percent. 46.8 percent, or 267,495 people, voted against. Voter turnout was 43.6 percent.

It’s gonna be so much fun for residents who didn’t vote, lemme tell you.

…A report commissioned by the city by the Hamburg Institute and the Öko-Institut concluded that Hamburg can become climate-neutral by 2040 – but only with drastic measures . For example, all gas and oil boilers in residential and non-residential buildings would have to be replaced by 2040 – while simultaneously shutting down the entire gas grid. In residential construction, renovations would have to be significantly accelerated, and the installation of heating systems powered by renewable energy, such as heat pumps, would have to be promoted more vigorously now.

…In terms of traffic, a 30 km/h speed limit would have to be introduced throughout the city, and car traffic would have to be significantly reduced. Furthermore, environmental zones would have to be established in the port. For industry, natural gas and fuels such as petroleum coke and refinery gas would have to be completely replaced with hydrogen and e-fuels.

SQUEEE!!!!!

It’s going to be like living in a Dystopian simulation.

One fellow tried desperately to explain the consequences of such an insane yet binding referendum:

Here I explain the emergence and the serious consequences of the Hamburg Climate Decision https://apollo-news.net/klima-entscheid-in-hamburg-das-ist-das-ende-fuer-die-industrie-prof-fritz-vahrenholt-im-interview/No more diesel-powered container ships, no long-term future for aluminum, steel, and copper production, shutdown of the oil refinery, shutdown of the gas networks, ban on gas and oil heating, 350 € more rent per month for average apartments in Hamburg. Why did the First Mayor, Peter Tschentscher, remain silent and not warn the citizens of his city about the devastating effects? How can such a mayor, who lets everything slide, remain in office? One word from him and the unsettled SPD voters would have gone to the polls and the referendum would have been rejected. In this way, the Greens and the Left have enforced the decline of Germany’s largest industrial city.

While my favorite German blogger went into fits.

Hamburg is German’s leading industrial city. Its companies add 20 billion Euros in gross value every year. Much of this economic output is related to Hamburg’s happy location on the Elbe and the fact that the city is home to Europe’s third-largest port. All of this has made Hamburg extremely prosperous, which prosperity has filled it with rafts of clueless virtue-signalling morons who have no idea how anything works, why they find Hamburg attractive in the first place or how their hip urban lifestyles are maintained.

In this photo, published by BILD, you can see some of these unmitigated retards having a happy because they’ve just scored cheap virtue points by voting in their own personal energy apocalypse.

…Turnout was pretty low in Hamburg last Sunday, with less than 44% of eligible voters bothering to cast a ballot, most of them by mail. Thus just 23% of the most deranged Hamburgians could take their city hostage and commit its government to destroying all of its industry and most of its economic activity inside the next decade and a half. The biggest joke is that when Hamburg has finally achieved the sacred Net Zero, it will make absolutely zero net difference to anything. Hamburg is responsible for something like 0.022% of CO2 emissions globally. The city is not even a rounding error.

eugyppius points out a little bit of the #mathz involved, which is never and has never been a strong point when cultists have a plan.

…Consider just some of the consequences: All gas and oil heating systems in every last building in Hamburg will have to be changed out in the coming years. The cost to landlords will be reckoned in the billions. Hamburg’s entire natural gas network, constructed over generations and extending to nearly 8,000 kilometers, will soon have to be decommissioned entirely. The city will probably have to impose on all of its streets a strict speed limit of 30 kph (19 mph) and take drastic steps to reduce traffic. Municipal industries must transition from petroleum coke and gas entirely to hydrogen and e-fuels, although there is hardly a market for either of these alternatives or even the hope of one. If this law is not reversed, Hamburg will become a wasteland. First industry will leave, and then all the people will.

Here are the happy mentally challenged progressives, celebrating after ensuring they and their city’s doom. 

Die wenigsten scheinen zu verstehen, dass Hamburg den billionenteuren bundesdeutschen Wahnsinn „nur“ weitere 5 Jahre vorzieht.

Der Volksentscheid in Hamburg bedeutet keine neuen Gesetze, sondern lediglich, dass die Stadt die bundesweiten Zwangsmaßnahmen aka Klimaziele (laut… pic.twitter.com/IJrkMPWQgc

— Jay Kay (@jaykay82131) October 14, 2025

They look just as you’d expect.

I doubt any of them have ever held a hammer or a shovel.

If they had, it was only to have something to hit a Polizei officer with during a protest.

Auf Wiedersehen, Hamburg.

In a referendum, Hamburg has made a legally binding commitment to becoming climate-neutral by 2040. In an interview with Apollo News, Hamburg energy expert and SPD member Fritz Vahrenholt takes issue with the parties responsible and calls for the resignation of SPD mayor Tschentscher. This is the end of the industry, he warns, also with other German cities in mind.

Let this be a gentle reminder – never sit out an election.

We sure hope you enjoy HotAir’s conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media. Please consider supporting our work so that Ed, David, John, and I can continue to bring you the truth.

We’d love to invite you to join HotAir’s VIP program. Just use the promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!

Thank you so much for being here with us.