Industry Site Visits in Hamburg
Into Week 3 we go and on to Berlin! Our class just boarded our ICE Train to Berlin although delayed, we are making our way and leaving Hamburg. When we were making our way to Hamburg, I could tell that Northern Germany would be a different experience than our time in the Southern Region, especially because we are spending time in two of the largest cities in Germany during the second half of our trip. Hamburg looks very industrial with tons of brick buildings mixed with modern glass architecture. I loved learning about the historic port city because of my interests in industry and international trade. While in Hamburg, we did a walking tour and visited Nordex and Airbus which were the two highlights of my time here. I think the most shocking thing that we learned about Hamburg however was when we were standing in the Rathaus city square and our tour guide, Alex, told us that this was where the nazis had book burnings. We got a lot of WWII historic knowledge from our tour guide relative to the past two cities and it was very jarring to be standing where nazis once stood and committed their war crimes. It was the first time I felt conflicted about being a tourist in Germany because the imagery was so vivid in my head. While our trip is focused on sustainable development, we can’t ignore the fact that Germany’s development is shaped by the nazi era. I am fascinated to see what our experience will be like in Berlin. I feel like I am learning so much about that period of history than I ever would at home in the US — sometimes you have to physically be somewhere to gain a better grasp of information.
My first highlight of Hamburg was our trip to the Nordex training site. There, we received a tour from Jane and a lecture from (a different) Alex. Jane allowed us into the training site where we were able to climb into the head of a wind turbine and see parts of wind turbines up close including the head, blades, and lifts that are inside the towers. Alex gave us a lecture and led a discussion about the sustainability and business practices of Nordex. It was so cool to learn about how wind turbines work as well as the industry perspective regarding Nordex competing in the market and how wind energy is perceived/how the market works. I was able to think about our Nordex site visit (and Airbus as well) through the lens of industrial organization and international trade which was cool to apply other economic concepts to our sustainable development class. I feel like our class is really demonstrative of how interdisciplinary Econ is and how you need to understand economic concepts to make decisions in the business world while also understanding all levels of politics. For example, we learned that Nordex does not receive many government subsidies and Jane told us that the car industry in Germany is much more likely to receive that government support. I thought that the German government would want to support domestic R&D as it pertains to the energy transition to a cleaner environment and economy. It will be interesting to get the other perspective at the Bundestag.
We had the opportunity to visit the Airbus factory where they manufacture large parts for planes. This was such an eye opening and unique experience to tour the campus in Stade — I couldn’t believe we had such access to where they produce these parts. Again, my educational focus in industrial organization and international trade boosted my curiousity for being at this site and it was fun to talk to my classmates who were also in the same classes about our previous course content and how it applies to our site visit. Airbus was promoting their use of a carbon plastic that is very thin and lightweight to make their parts. I was very interested in their business model and market structure given the duopoly with Boeing. Similar to Nordex, I got a feel for how important it is to understand economics and politics as it pertains to industry and how it impacts a business structure. For instance, our tour guide Ronald talked about how spare parts have to be at a hangar in 24 hours so Airbus has to make sure they have plants strategically scattered across the world — since Airbus and Boeing are mainly known for their quality of service.
As our time in Germany is slowly coming to a close, I am trying to enjoy what is left of our time in the country. I’ve loved being exposed to a variety of excursions such as our industry site visits that have not only expanded my economic and political knowledge, but my general worldview.
