A troubled road lies ahead for German carmakers

SAARLAND IS NO stranger to transition, jokes Thorben Albrecht, policy director for the IG Metall trade union. The second-smallest of the 16 states, for a century Saarland bounced back and forth between Germany and France, establishing itself inside the federal republic only in 1957. Coal deposits and steel made it rich, but also left it exposed to job losses when globalisation came knocking in the 1970s. A booming car-parts industry provided a cushion, but Saarland now faces a third shift, as industrial transformation and climate policy come after its two big sources of jobs: cars and what remains of steel.