Derek Scally finds economic malaise is now forcing Germans to seek work abroad as gastarbeiter.
The poster on the wall of a bleak Berlin job centre says it all: "Job opportunities in Ireland."
But the optimistic message is cold comfort for the people slumped on chairs, clutching tickets and waiting for their number to be called.
Nobody's number is coming up in Germany these days.
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder hopes to revive the sagging economy by reforming the groaning welfare state but faces opposition at every turn.
For the powerful unions, his proposed cuts go too far; an attempt to dismantle the welfare state by stealth.
Employers say the reforms don't go far enough; a classic attempt to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic.
All the while the numbers continue to rise and fall, and always in the wrong direction.
Economic growth above 1 per cent is a distant memory, while 4.5 million people, 11 per cent of the workforce, are without work.
In some eastern states, the number out of work is double, while here in Berlin every fifth person is jobless.
The newspapers are full of gloom, a record number of businesses are going under and bars and restaurants are often empty. In short, the atmosphere is lethal.
Small wonder, then, that a growing number of Germans are interested in working abroad.
Some 30 years after the Turkish gastarbeiter (guest-workers) were invited to West Germany, the tide is turning. Last year Stern magazine ran stories of some of Germany's new economic emigrants in an article titled: "We are the new Gastarbeiter."
Official figures show that 110,000 people left Germany last year, though the real figure is likely to be much higher as many people retain a German residence to qualify for a pension and social welfare.
The number of applications for jobs abroad jumped by 24 per cent in 2001, according to the federal employment agency, the Arbeitsamt. It placed over 3,300 Germans in jobs abroad last year, an annual rise of 9 per cent. Again, the real figure is undoubtedly higher when those who find work without Arbeitsamt help are included.
German workers are in demand all over Europe. In Scandinavia, doctors and nurses are snapped up, in the Netherlands it's builders and carpenters. But it is Ireland, alongside France and Austria, that is screaming the loudest for German workers, particularly in the sales and services sector (see graphic).
Anecdotal evidence supports the trend. The Irish Embassy in Berlin is now receiving at least 10 enquiries a week about working in Ireland. One employment agency in Berlin which recruits staff for companies in Ireland has seen applications rise although it has stopped advertising in newspaper recruitment pages. Ireland's boom may be a thing of the past, but it appears it's nothing compared to Germany's bust.
Ms Sabine Seidler, a spokeswoman for Germany's Arbeitsamt, is anxious to accentuate the positive in the rising number of Germans looking for work abroad.
"People are starting to understand the jobs market not just as the domestic market in Germany but Europe-wide. It's one big jobs market, and that is leading to growing movement. It's a positive trend, and people are realising that," she says.
"There is no trend of people fleeing Germany for economic reasons; you can't measure that from the statistics."
Novelist Sabine Dillner (55) moved to Sligo in 1998 with her youngest daughter and husband for economic reasons.
"My husband was unemployed for practically two years and because he was already over 50 it was difficult. In Ireland, he found a job without a problem. No one asked him his age here."
But life in Ireland has meant many sacrifices, she says, from a considerably lower standard of living to "incomparably" higher living costs.
"After five years we have gotten used to things here, but with hindsight we wouldn't make the same move again," she said.
Mr Lothar Muschketat (44) moved three generations of his family to Ireland nearly four years ago, and has never regretted the decision.
A trained biologist, he sold his consulting business in Bad Rappenau near Heidelberg, southern Germany, and bought a farm near Ballymote, Co Sligo.
He says the move, spurred by the search for something different and not economic necessity, has given him a new perspective on Germany's current economic problems.
The problems, he believes, came to a head with the struggle to absorb East Germany and all its associated baggage: massive debts, a crumbling infrastructure and outmoded industry.
He says considering the size of the endeavour, Germany has coped incredibly well with the unification, but the baggage weighs the country down to this day. "When you're standing at the top of the mountain, as West Germany was, every step forward leads downhill. It has to be that way," says Mr Muschketat.
Germany is struggling to find its feet in the new global economy, and the Deutschmark, once the symbol of a hard currency and a strong economy, made a humbled exit 18 months ago.
The once proud Reich eagle which adorned the Deutschmark has been poorly for years, so it's fitting then that Mr Muschketat is now owner of 30 eagles and falcons in Sligo, where he plans to open a new sanctuary for birds of prey later this month. As an entrepreneur who now works 14 hours days, he has a different view of German employees.
"Workers in Germany sleep on a bed of roses, and that will have to change, sadly for the worse," he says.
The government has proposed changes which will make it easier for small firms to hire and fire employees without the current expensive redundancy payoffs which employers say makes them unwilling to take people on.
Even Mr Muschketat, who describes himself as "neither a conservative nor a Social Democrat", sees the employee protection laws "a hammock of privilege we can no longer afford".
Many Germans abroad share the view of Germany's President, Mr Johannes Rau, that Germany's largest problem isn't rising unemployment or the economic slowdown, but of Germans feeling sorry for themselves.
"Sometimes, I have the feeling that the Germans moan too much," chided Mr Rau in an interview before Christmas.
Ms Dillner agrees, saying that Germany still has an incredibly high standard of living and its problems would be seen as "ridiculous" by Irish people.
The national mood in Germany these days was captured in a recent cartoon showing two men sitting at a bar. "My glass is half empty," moans one German, with tears in his eyes. The other wails: "You're right!"
Series concluded