Lost In The Dark

The giant Swiss food company Nestlé jolted Berlin a few months ago by announcing that it is closing its candy factory in the German capital. The company will stop making "Yes" chocolate bars and lay off 450 people — another rainstorm feeding the flood of 250,000 manufacturing jobs that have been lost in Berlin since German reunification in 1990. With the city's unemployment rate at an astounding 18.4%, a dark mood of pessimism and angst has settled over Berlin as it struggles with a weak global economy, huge debts and unaffordable welfare provisions that have left the city bankrupt. Every month...

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