Current contributions

State of the German economy in 2025: Five years of crisis, figures, trends and outlook

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State of the German economy in 2025

If you look at the German economy today, it is almost impossible to separate the last five years. It was a chain of events that overlapped, reinforced and in some cases blocked each other. The starting point was 2020 - the year in which the pandemic brought public life, supply chains and entire industries to a standstill in one fell swoop. Many companies had to close, production was interrupted and government aid was provided to prevent the economy from collapsing completely in the short term.

However, what seemed like a temporary exceptional situation at the time developed into something bigger: The consequences of the decisions made at the time still affect the everyday lives of entrepreneurs, the self-employed and employees today. Anyone who thought back then that after a few months everything would be „as it used to be“ can now see that many things have changed permanently.

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TMD and occlusal splints: A personal experience report with a clear overview

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CMD occlusal splints

I have been wearing a Schöttl splint myself for three and a half years - a fixed bite splint in the lower jaw that is regularly reground and is deliberately designed to not only relieve the jaw, but also influence the spine. And that's exactly what it does for me. This splint has helped me to calm my static, relieve tension and develop a completely new body awareness.

During this time, I've realized how little clarity there is out there about the different types of splints. Especially in the online groups, I keep seeing how confusingly this term is used - as if every splint does the same thing. That's why I'd like to bring some order here and explain to you in an understandable way what types of splints there are and why the difference is so important.

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Why Dieter Bohlen speaks when others remain silent: A portrait of diligence and clarity

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There are personalities that you only really understand when you detach yourself from their public image. Dieter Bohlen belongs exactly in this category. Musically, I myself am not a big fan of his shallow, often very simple melodies - and yet, to be fair, it has to be said that what he created was extremely precise, target group-oriented and clearly structured for the 1980s. Bohlen was never the great artist in the romantic sense. But he was an outstanding businessman, a hard worker and someone who understood his craft in a way that few do today.

What makes him interesting for me is not so much his music - but the fact that he remained successful for decades, while whole generations of artists came and went around him. And that today - after many years of silence - he is suddenly taking a clear stand on social issues. This is the reason why it is worth looking at Dieter Bohlen as a person beyond the usual media image: not as a pop titan, not as a TV pundit, but as a craftsman, businessman and mirror of a time that understands itself less and less.

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The EU's 28th regime: The silent restructuring of the European Economic Area?

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28th EU regime

At the moment, half of Europe is talking about the so-called „28th regime“. Many are wondering what this is actually supposed to be. A new state? A secret EU project? Or just another attempt to modernize the single market? In fact, it is a concept that sounds grand, but in essence describes an additional form of company that is supposed to be optional and purely voluntary. The name „28th regime“ comes from the fact that there would be another set of rules in addition to the 27 national legal systems - like an additional tool in an already full toolbox.

The idea behind it did not come about overnight. Start-ups, investors and some SMEs have been complaining for years that the EU consists of 27 very different economic areas. Depending on which country you start up in, you have to follow different rules: different founding formalities, different liability rules, different requirements for employee participation or raising capital. This is an obstacle for international tech companies and often a deterrent for founders. This is precisely where the EU institutions want to start.

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CLOUD Act, data sovereignty and Switzerland: a turning point for European IT strategies?

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What the Swiss cloud resolution means for Europe

Something happened in Switzerland in mid-November that hardly anyone expected in this form: The country's data protection commissioners passed a clear, almost historic resolution. The message behind it is simple - and at the same time highly controversial: public authorities should no longer outsource their most sensitive data to international cloud services such as Microsoft 365 without hesitation. Why is that?

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AI Studio 2025: Which hardware is really worth it - from the Mac Studio to the RTX 3090

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Hardware 2025 for AI studio

Anyone working with AI today is almost automatically pushed into the cloud: OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, any web UIs, tokens, limits, terms and conditions. This seems modern - but is essentially a return to dependency: others determine which models you can use, how often, with which filters and at what cost. I'm deliberately going the other way: I'm currently building my own little AI studio at home. With my own hardware, my own models and my own workflows.

My goal is clear: local text AI, local image AI, learning my own models (LoRA, fine-tuning) and all of this in such a way that I, as a freelancer and later also an SME customer, am not dependent on the daily whims of some cloud provider. You could say it's a return to an old attitude that used to be quite normal: „You do important things yourself“. Only this time, it's not about your own workbench, but about computing power and data sovereignty.

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The Affinity graphics suite becomes free: What professional users need to know now

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Affinity graphics suite free of charge

If, like me, you have been working with layout and typesetting programs for decades, you usually notice such changes more clearly than those who have only recently entered this world. I have seen many things come and go over the years: In the early nineties, I worked on the Atari ST with Calamus SL and later, under Windows, with CorelDraw! Later came QuarkXPress, then iCalamus, Adobe InDesign - and finally, a few years ago, Affinity Publisher. Since then, the Affinity suite has accompanied me through almost all my book projects. Over the years, it has been a reliable tool, pleasantly straightforward, clearly structured and free of the ballast that many large software houses have added to themselves over the years.

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Immortality through technology: how far research and AI have really come

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Digital immortality

Ever since humans have existed, there has been a desire to prolong life - or preferably extend it indefinitely. In the past, it was myths, religions, alchemists or mysterious rituals that gave people hope. Today, it is no longer magicians sitting over ancient parchments, but some of the richest people in the world sitting over state-of-the-art biology and AI technology. At first glance, it sounds like science fiction: is it possible to stop ageing? Can you „preserve“ yourself digitally? Can you transfer your thinking to a machine?

But the topic has long since left the ivory tower. Big tech billionaires are now investing billions in projects that are seriously investigating precisely these questions. Not because they want to become immortal gods - but because they can afford to research the limits of what is possible. This article explains quite simply what is behind this idea, what technical developments already exist today, where the limits lie - and why this topic will become increasingly important over the next 20 years.

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