Germany and the Dominance of its Industry.

Ped Salvador

January 21, 2017

In November 9 of 1989, while riding a Mercedes Benz taxi on my way to the Munich
train station terminal going to Geislingen, West Germany to visit Lea Ronal Chemical
Laboratory and Factory, I suddenly became excited and fascinated upon hearing from the
radio the collapse of the Berlin wall. I said to myself Ah, this is the end of communism
in this part of the world! A few minutes thereon I began to notice a different design of
car vehicle roaming around the city which I believe came from East Germany. According
to the taxi driver, the car vehicle that I had seen was a three cylinder vehicle designed as
people or everybodys car. East Germany, the German Democratic Republic, the richest
supposed to be in Eastern Europe, was producing cars that is similar in model with
Philippine Toyotas old Toyopet in the early 1960s.

Previously, one day before, together with another senior engineer, we were able to visit
Mercedes Benz at Stuttgart and were surprised with their latest design of Power
Technologies, i.e. power windows, power steering, automatic seat adjustment, auto
brake system and auto fuel injection among others. At the Mercedes Benz museum it was
very noticeable the giant poster of Mercedes and Daimlers early machine shop tools.
Today the Mercedes-Benz Museum is the only museum in the world that can document in
a single continuous timeline the 130 years of auto industry history from its very
beginnings to the present day. On nine levels and covering a floor space of 16,500 square
meters, the museum presents 160 vehicles and over 1,500 exhibits. As a place of
innovation, it also demonstrates that history can point the way ahead. West Germany in
terms of economic power was indeed during that time possessed a very superlative level
compared with East Germany. Their secret preferably was due to their passion of
excellence in education. Most of the middle managers up to the CEO level have doctoral
degrees in sciences. This was the immediate notice that we observed while touring the
facilities of Robert Bosch Factory in Reutlingen upon our arrival in West Germany.

Upon arrival at Geislingen, I was fetched by a scientist look, long haired manager of Lea
Ronal Company.. He immediately showed to me the factory facilities and in the afternoon
discussed the latest of their innovations and improvement in their chemical products. His
laboratory was strong in terms of the latest instrumental method of chemical analysis
designed to analyze materials for both qualitative and quantitative chemical analysis. I
was there to resolve our impending issue on Tin Plating Whiskers that is detrimental in
the processing of Integrated Circuits as it will impose electronic short circuit during end
use application on long term basis. The next day after completing all the final
documentation of my plant visit, I was invited to visit their agricultural farms. I was
amazed with the presence of century old castle structures usually situated on top of the
mountains to protect them from attacks of barbaric tribes. I experienced how the farmers
used and utilized modern method of mechanized farming. What was then more
appreciative was that the farmer I got acquainted with owned a Lamborghini car. Truly
and its real, farmers in West Germany were not poor.

Going back to Munich the next day we attended the Munich SEMICON Show. We
presented the services that our company can provide and deliver. Integrated
Microelectronics Inc., an Ayala Company subsidiary was engaged in world class
manufacture and assembly of Integrated Circuits and other Electronic Devices. The
SEMICON Show was gigantic as it consist of 34 one hectare, one story building that
provide products and exhibits of companies all over the world, Western Europe in
particular. Philippines have only one of this kinds situated in Buendia Pasay City.

After a tiring three days of work in the Munich Semicon Show we were invited by our
German host to explore the suburbs of Munich. While on the road we noticed that we are
accelerating to 180 km. per hour and yet one Brasilia car passed us by in the autobahn
highway. In the autobahn, any car has no speed limit and one can drive even up to 300
km. per hour that only Ferrari or BMW maybe can do. We stopped by on a castle around
50 kilometers from Munich and become overwhelmed how the structure was designed
and constructed in the 18th century. Majority of the metals used inside the castle were
gold plated. Even picture frames made of wood were also gold plated. I could not think of
during that time that an insulator like wood can be finished using gold plating.

Our one week stay in West Germany was very short but our experiences were more than
enough to understand the power of industry to make a country fully developed. Today the
country is a leader in the use of Solar Power Technology because they believe not only on
the limitation of fossil fuels but also the hazardous problems in the continuous use of it.
The world is now experiencing havoc on the effect of the so called climate change.

Devastated with war, Germany is one country in the European Union that is fully
knowledgeable in rising from ashes and stand up to be again one of the best capitalist
countries that value their human and limited natural resources in the production of world-
class goods and services for the world.