The year is soon coming to and end, and even it’s not quite time to wrap up yet, I am spending some times in the forests above the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. It is a UNECO World Heritage Site, with idyllic landscapes of rolling vineyards and historic castles. Very picturesque, but also here you can feel economic pressures and cultural decline, like in many other parts of Germany. The areas does not just stand for castles and old Sagas like the Nibelungs, but also was a once celebrated viticultural land. Thomas Mann’s Felix Krull - Bekenntnisse eines Hochstaplers (Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man) is set here in a time the wine industry was the backbone of the region, attracting also travel and tourism from across the globe.
In deed, the Rhine and Nahe valleys have been synonymous with world-class winemaking, also beyond renowned Rieslings. Working in the steep, sun-drenched slopes, meticulously terraced over centuries is hard work. I have done it as a teenager during harvest season myself. But it is not only the wine production itself, but this industry also sculpted a unique cultural landscape. Now when I travel through the vinyards on my Vespa, I can see more and more land unmaintained or abandonned. Since 2025, an alarming two-thirds of independent German wine producers are in financial distress, with nearly one in three facing the risk of closure. The crisis is most acute for bulk wine producers and cooperatives, which form the backbone of the industry, with many forced to sell their wines at prices below the cost of production.
This crisis is not the result of one single factor and been brewing for years. A dramatic 30-40% surge in operational costs since 2019, encompassing everything from labor and energy to packaging and machinery, has squeezed profit margins to unsustainable levels. Compounding these economic woes are significant shifts in consumer behavior. A growing health consciousness, particularly among younger generations, has led to a decline in alcohol consumption. If you wonder where the drinking of alcohol originated? Historically, when water was infested by anything from e-Coli to Cholera, ethanol was a way of purifying water. It was literally safer to drink beer or diluted wine, than water. Sure, there are better ways to keep water safe today than adding a cell and nerve poison. The career of alcohol as a recreational drug, started later. I am personally always confused by the term “recreational drug”, because I doubt the “creation” part of that story. So, in a way, when the government of Rhineland Palatine (a German province), subsidizes the wine industry, it may even prevent a necessary structural change, and putting taxpayers’ money in the wrong place. Some people told me that the provincial government would do it because they “profit” from the alcohol tax. In fact the German alcohol tax is a federal tax. So it’s not like the “Taliban supporting the opium production in Afghanistan to get a share or benefit from trade involvement and raising protection money”, like one (drunk) local tried to convince me.
Another factor, is the increasingly volatile climate, creating whiplash effects in supply: while some years have seen yields slashed by extreme weather events, others have resulted in oversupply, flooding the already saturated bulk wine market and causing prices to plummet and more producers going out of business.
The increasing abandonment of these terraces, which are difficult and costly to cultivate, has a cascading effect on the environment. Without the deep-rooted vines to hold the soil in place, the abandoned slopes are highly susceptible to erosion, leading to the loss of fertile topsoil and increased runoff. This not only degrades the land but also poses a threat to the delicate ecosystems of the Rhine and its tributaries.
Once, with my Vespa, I pass the vineyards, and entering the main towns, also the cultural effect is very prominent, even more pronounced on the left river bank, where the sun does not allow significant wine production. There are still some lovely very small towns which can maintain their character. But once you come into places like Bingen or Bad Kreuznach, they are mere shitholes. Unfortunately, for Germany, this is not the only industry in a crisis, and we look at parallel developments in many producing industries, while the former competitive advantages dwindle. There is also not just one thing you can do, to turn it around. It’s a country in a cluster-fuck!
On a positive note, there are beautiful forests and landscapes above the Rhine valley towards the West, towards Luxembourg and France. It’s the land of “Schinderhannes” (Skinner Hannes), a famous outlaw active around the turn of the 19th during French occupation. He is often remembered in folklore as a kind of “German Robin Hood,” though historically he was primarily a violent robber and extortionist. The area was very poor back then, and the Devonian base rock does not produce large stretches of fertile soil. So, there are amazing forests maintained and landscapes to hike for days. And if you have enough of the green, the area as one big plus: it’s a short drive to Paris.