How inflation is changing Germany & Germans

Berlin They didn’t want to give up their vacation altogether. But the usual ten days of Usedom, that was clear to them, are not possible this year. Herbert and Elke Schnabel struggled with themselves for a long time. In the end it was a compromise: seven days in Usedom, a holiday apartment, eating out very little. “We’re afraid of what’s to come,” says Elke Schnabel. “We don’t want to attack our reserves, so we’re limiting ourselves now.”

The Schnabels, both 55, sit in their apartment in Berlin-Lichtenberg and talk on the phone about what inflation means to them. They don’t want to read their real names in the newspaper. He is an electrician and the sole breadwinner. They have always lived frugally, but they are clearly feeling the rise in prices.