Head of German State Restricts Hot Water in the Shower Time to Two Minutes Amid Energy Crisis

Germany has found itself among the countries hardest hit by Europe’s largely self-inflicted energy crisis, with industry leaders expressing fears that the industrial powerhouse may be ripe for mass deindustrialization and job loss as companies pick up and leave for places like the United States, where energy is much cheaper.

Saxony-Anhalt Minister President Reiner Haseloff’s personal energy-saving routine includes limiting the use of hot water in the shower to just two minutes, and leaving rooms in his home without any heating.

“At home, warm water is only turned on briefly in the morning for showering. I’m done in a maximum of two minutes, including a lathering break,” the CDU politician boasted in an in interview with local media.

In their East German-built flat in the city of Erfurt, the Haseloffs limit heating to the living room/dining room area, warming the air to a maximum of 20.5 degrees Celsius. Other rooms in the home are left unheated. “My wife bought extra warm slippers and always wears wool sweaters,” Haseloff said, noting that the cold doesn’t seem to have impacted his or his wife’s health, and that neither of them have taken ill with a cold yet this season.

The politician, who has been serving as Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt since 2011, lamented that “unfortunately,” his home remains dependent on gas for its heating needs. The family is now on a waiting list for an air source heat pump, and hopes it will be installed next summer, he said.

Haseloff has joined some other minister presidents of Germany’s 16 federal states in personal economy drives amid the energy crunch pummeling the country.

The central European economic giant has faced spiking energy costs and falling availability after signing onto the European Union’s campaign of anti-Russian sanctions and attempts to set energy ‘price caps’ on Russian oil, which have boomeranged around on Germany’s industry, businesses, and ordinary citizens.

In September, Michael Kretschmer, Minister-President of Saxony, the state bordering on Haseloff’s, warned that Berlin was being bankrupted without Russian gas, and must do everything it can to end the “extreme energy emergency” sparked by the crisis, starting with putting a stop to the Ukrainian conflict.

“We see today that we cannot do without Russian gas. Our sanctions played a role in causing the shortage. We have to try with all our might to bring this conflict to an end in order to restart economic cooperation with Russia. Weapons must be silenced,” Kretschmer, who is also deputy leader of the CDU Party, said.

Germany is currently balancing on the brink of a recession, and has faced growing economic and political pressures stemming from energy and food costs and raging inflation. However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz continues to take a backseat to French President Emmanuel Macron in the brewing transatlantic dispute between Washington and Europe as the West continues its plunge headfirst into a crisis some observers fear could lead to an unprecedented crisis for the Europeans as steelmakers, car manufacturers, chemical giants, pharmaceutical giants and food companies shift operations abroad.

Macron has complained bitterly that the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden in August, which offers ‘green’ subsidies for manufacturers operating in the US, “will split the West” if changes are not made to account for European interests. The French leader has also criticized the US for “double standards” after realizing US energy companies were selling natural gas domestically “for 3-4 times less than we have to pay.”

Veteran German statesman and former SPD and Die Linke party leader Oskar Lafontaine recently called on Berlin to grow a spine, saying the government’s attempts to “sweep” the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines “under the carpet” “pathetic and cowardly,” and warning that Germany will continue to be “drawn into Washington’s conflicts with Moscow and Beijing as American vassals” unless it stood up for its own interests in the emerging multipolar world order.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed repeatedly that Moscow remains prepared to make good on all of its contractual commitments to sell energy to Europe, including Germany, and to sign new contracts if required. Putin warned back in May that Brussels’ efforts to decouple the EU from Russia in the energy sector would be “suicidal,” and result in the bloc losing its competitive edge against major competitors.