Germans’ Feelings of Inadequancy with Software

choi

Germany’s industry | Does Deutschland do digital?  Europe’s biggest economy is rightly worried that digitisation is a threat to its industrial leadership. Economist, Nov 21, 2015.
http://www.economist.com/news/bu ... reat-its-industrial
(In Germany there is "the fear that digitisation threatens its position as a leading industrial nation”)

Note:
(a)  Trumpf is a "prime example of a firm from Germany’s industrial Mittelstand that has outgrown the label (which literally means 'mid-sized trades')."

Mittelstand does not mean "mid-sized trades."

Mittelstand (noun masculine; [noun neuter] Mittel middle, central + [noun masculine] Stand stand(ing), position)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Mittelstand

(b) "Its [Germany's] bosses are alive to the threat. Axel Springer, a publishing giant"
(i) alive (adj):
(A) "knowing or realizing the existence of : SENSITIVE <alive to the danger>"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alive
(B) "(alive to) aware of and interested in; responsive to <always alive to new ideas>"
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/alive
(ii)
(A) Axel Springer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axel_Springer
(1912-1985)
(B) Axel (name)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axel_(name)

(c) " 'Germans are really good at reducing the Spaltmass, the clearance between the parts of a car’s body,' says Christoph Keese, who was one of the [Axel] Springer executives * * * But the user interfaces for German products are a different matter. They are often so complex, says Mr Keese, that the word that appears most often on their displays is Anwenderfehler ('user error')."

German English dictionary:
* Spaltmass (noun neuter): "(auto) clearance (gap width between adjacent parts)"
http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings ... tmass&iservice=
  ^ Spalt (noun masculine): "crack; split, fissure"
     https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Spalt
  ^ mass (German: Maß): "(noun neuter) extent, degree; (noun feminine) mass"
     http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings ... =mass&iservice=
* Anwender (noun masculine): "user"
http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings ... ender&iservice=
* Fehler (noun masculine): "error, mistake"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Fehler

(d) "Compare Silicon Valley and Germany’s equivalent for industrial firms, the region around Stuttgart, and the cultural differences are clear. Google’s campus in Mountain View offers about 30 different canteens with free food and generous opening hours. * * * At Bosch in Gerlingen, employees all stream into a huge, centralised corporate cafeteria at lunchtime."
(i) Robert Bosch GmbH (maker of household appliances, automotive part; founded by Robert Bosch in 1886; headquartered in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart)  Wikipedia
(ii) pronunciation:

Bosch
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bosch