德国首都柏林重新确立其商业地位

Business

商业

Enterprise in Germany - Berlin Inc

德国企业-柏林公司

The capital reasserts itself as a business hub

首都重新确立自己作为商业中心的地位

Conventional wisdom has it that the capital of Europe’s most powerful economy is poor, bolshie, chronically indebted and utterly reliant on subsidies from richer states.

传统观点认为，欧洲最强大经济体的首都贫穷、固执、长期负债，完全依赖其它州的补贴。

The debacle of the construction of the Berlin-Brandenburg airport, completed in 2020 nine years late and more than ?4bn ($4.7bn) over budget, confirmed every prejudice about the city.

柏林-勃兰登堡机场建设的彻底失败证实了人们对这座城市的所有偏见。该机场于2020年竣工，比预期晚了9年，超出预算逾40亿欧元(合47亿美元)。

A political storm is brewing over property firms and rents.

一场有关房地产公司和租金的政治风暴正在酝酿之中。

Reputations are hard to shed. But Berlin’s business circles are trying.

臭名难以摆脱。但柏林商界正在努力。

During the tenure of Klaus Wowereit, mayor from 2001 to 2014, no firm in the DAX, the index of Germany’s bluest chips, called Berlin its home.

在克劳斯·沃维雷特2001年至2014年担任柏林市长期间，没有一家德国DAX指数(德国最蓝筹股指数)中的公司落地柏林。

After the DAX’s expansion on September 20th from 30 to 40 companies, five have headquarters in the city.

在9月20日DAX指数从30家公司扩张到40家公司后，其中5家公司的总部设立在这座城市。

Zalando (an online fashion retailer) and HelloFresh (a pedlar of meal kits) joined three other Berliners, Deutsche Wohnen (one of the beleaguered real-estate firms), Siemens Energy (a spin-off from the engineering giant) and Delivery Hero (a food-delivery darling), themselves recent additions.

Zalando(在线时尚零售商)和HelloFresh(膳食包销售商)是最近新加入的，此外还有另外三家柏林公司，Deutsche Wohnen(一家陷入困境的房地产公司)，Siemens Energy(从这家电器行业巨头中拆分出的独立公司)和Delivery Hero(食品配送业宠儿)。

Berlin’s share of Germany’s total market capitalisation has risen since 2000.

自2000年以来，柏林在德国总市值中所占的份额一直在上升。

Before the second world war, Berlin was a cradle of mighty firms such as Daimler and Siemens.

二战前，柏林是戴姆勒和西门子等大公司的摇篮。

After the city’s partition by the victorious allies, many companies moved their offices and factories to West Germany.

在获胜方盟军瓜分了这座城市之后，许多公司将他们的办公室和工厂搬到了西德。

Banks moved to Frankfurt, publishing houses to Hamburg and industry to southern Germany.

银行迁往法兰克福，出版社迁往汉堡，工业迁往德国南部。

The exodus intensified after the erection of the Berlin wall in 1961.

1961年柏林墙建成，加剧了企业们的大批离去。

After East and West Germany reunified in 1990 these businesses had little reason to move back.

1990年东德和西德统一之后，这些企业几乎已没有理由迁回柏林。

Instead the city attracted artists and aspiring club owners, lured by low rents and countless abandoned factories and warehouses that made for fabulous studios and party venues.

相反，这座城市吸引了艺术家和有追求的俱乐部老板，低廉的租金和无数废弃的工厂和仓库吸引了他们，这些工厂和仓库是绝佳的工作室和派对场所。

These new, cool residents had lots of fun, made little money and paid hardly any tax.

这些新来的、很酷的居民们乐趣很多，赚钱很少，几乎没怎么交过税。

In 2003 Mr Wowereit described his city as “poor but sexy”.

2003年，Wowereit先生将他的城市描述为“贫穷但性感的”。

It is that sexiness that now helps explain Berlin’s business revival.

正是这种性感，现在帮助解释了柏林的商业复兴。

The young and hip it attracted brought fresh talent, including entrepreneurs and techies.

它吸引的年轻人和时髦人士带来了新鲜的人才，包括企业家和技术人员。

In August Google announced that a chunk of its ?1bn investment in cloud-computing infrastructure will go to Berlin (alongside Hanau, near Frankfurt).

今年8月，谷歌宣布其在云计算基础设施方面10亿欧元投资的大部分将流向柏林(以及法兰克福附近的哈瑙)。

Amazon Tower, a skyscraper in Berlin’s Friedrichshain district named after its biggest occupant, will house 3,500 of the online giant’s workers.

亚马逊大厦位于柏林Friedrichshain区，以其最大的入驻公司亚马逊命名，届时将容纳这家互联网巨头的3500名员工。

In the first half of this year, Berlin-based startups received ?4bn in venture capital, half the German total.

今年上半年，总部位于柏林的初创企业获得了40亿欧元的风险投资，占德国风险投资总额的一半。

In spring, Olaf Koch, the former boss of Metro, a retailer, set up a food-tech investment fund in the city with the aim of raising ?500m.

春天，零售商麦德龙的前老板奥拉夫·科赫在该市设立了一个食品科技投资基金，目标是筹集5亿欧元。

Between 2017 and 2020 Berlin’s digital economy expanded by 30%, ten times faster than its overall output.

2017至2020年间，柏林的数字经济增长了30%，比其总产出增长快了10倍。

Last year, as the pandemic put a premium on all things digital, employment in Berlin tech increased by 8.5%.

去年，随着疫情给所有数字化事物带来了红利，柏林科技行业的就业增长了8.5%。

Ramona Pop, Berlin’s economy minister, expects jobs in the city’s digital industry to double in the next few years to 200,000.

柏林经济部长雷蒙娜·波普预计，未来几年，该市数字产业的就业岗位将翻一番，达到20万个。

“Berlin is spearheading the digitisation of the entire German industry,” she proclaims.

她宣称：“柏林正在引领整个德国工业的数字化。”

After making Germany poorer for decades Berlin is making it a little richer: in 2019 the city’s GDP per person was slightly above the national average.

几十年来，柏林一直在让德国变得更穷，现在它正让德国变得更富一些：2019年，柏林的人均GDP略高于全国平均水平。