Let the Start-Ups Begin

Among the posters of stylish models on the walls of Michaela Pütz's Bonn hairdressing salon hangs her Meisterbrief — the master craftsman's diploma that all German artisans must acquire before they set up their own businesses. The 40-year-old Pütz got hers 12 years ago, by attending six months of all-day classes on business management and crafts law at a cost of more than €12,000. Pütz's 21-year-old apprentice Susan, however, may not need to cram for a master's exam; the qualification, which dates back to the country's medieval guilds and exists nowhere else in Europe except Luxembourg, might be on...