RALLYING POINT: The threatened closure of a Nokia factory in Bochum in January gave a boost to the left, both within the SPD and outside it
By most reckonings, globalization has been a boon to Germany. The world's No. 1 exporter peddles everything from luxury cars to industrial machinery to an eager world. Its once self-absorbed banks and conglomerates have unlocked new value through aggressive corporate restructuring. Its surging economic recovery has pushed the nation's unemployment below 10% for the first time in four years. But that's not the reckoning of most ordinary Germans; for them, globalization is a dirty word. Ten years ago, Germans were evenly divided on whether globalization presented more opportunities or risks, according to the Allensbach Institute, a polling agency; by 2006, twice...