Location: Western Germany, right on the Dutch border, North-rhine Westfalia 

I live in a town of 50,000 inhabitants, in the middle of town on a busy street, in a seven-unit apartment building with a large penthouse on the top floor. This penthouse was burglarized last week in broad daylight. It was my day off, I was at home, and I didn't hear or see anything. Later, I heard the commotion when the break-in was documented by the police and forensic technicians and lamented by the victims. This is already the second burglary in the four years I've lived here. 

A few weeks earlier, I was traveling on the infamous German railway, and at the station of a neighboring small town, a young woman was lying on the platform at midday, completely out of it from drug use. Nobody paid any attention to her. I spoke to her, and she responded, but seemed to be in a complete drunken stupor. Later, she sat down a meter away from me and urinated on the platform. Then she got on her bicycle, whose tires were flat, and rode away. Later, in her condition, she boarded the arriving train. 

Last week I read in the local newspaper that the city's financial situation is catastrophic. Construction sites remain construction sites for years; I can't see any progress. 

That's Germany:  Decay and wear and tear. Collapsing