Tony Menzel, a mechanic, was close to tears when the factory where he works was converted to manufacture armaments instead of railway carriages. ‘We used to make useful things to transport people. Now we make things to kill them.’ For 176 years the factory in Görlitz, a small town near the Polish border in Saxony, made the iconic red, double-decker regional trains that are a symbol of short-distance rail travel throughout Germany. Menzel told us, ‘We were all proud of it.’

For the five years up to the conversion, the factory was under the ownership of French multinational Alstom; today it is operated by the Franco-German group KNDS. Some 300-400 workers – out of the 700 who work at the factory – are now manufacturing parts for Leopard 2 main battle tanks and Puma infantry fighting vehicles, both of which have been supplied to Ukraine. Menzel has worked at the factory for 20 years and his parents also worked there. He was a union representative during the Alstom era. ‘I think the transition was easier for me than for others because, as a rep, I took part in the negotiations and I knew what was coming.’

In 2024 Menzel, a member of the IG Metall union, was summoned to a meeting with the heads of Alstom and KNDS in Frankfurt. ‘It was already a done deal. They told us, “We’re going to close down. But there’s someone here who can offer you a new opportunity.” And for me, from that day on, the matter was settled.’ Only a small proportion of the population protested.

In early 2025 then chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Görlitz accompanied by the KNDS COO in Germany, Florian Hohenwarter. It was a high-profile visit for the town, which has a population of 56,000 and is still marked by the privatisations and mass unemployment of the 1990s. Just off the high street there are shuttered shops covered in graffiti. In the 2025 federal election, which took place shortly after Scholz’s visit, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) won 48.9% of (…)

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(1) IG Metall, ‘Friedensgutachten 2025: Frieden retten – Demokratie stärken’ (2025 peace report: save peace, strengthen democracy), 15 September 2025.

(2) Ulrike Eifler, ‘Arrêtez le délire du surearmement, seule la paix peut sauver nos industries’ (End the arms race madness, only peace can save industry), L’Humanité, Paris, 15 April 2025.

(4) Name changed.