As a German, I highly doubt that nowadays "protestant/prussian work ethic, and the holiness of work" still play a role. While there might be "prettifying" in th

As a German, I highly doubt that nowadays "protestant/prussian work ethic, and the holiness of work" still play a role. While there might be "prettifying" in the unemployment stats, the churches play very little to no role in that IMO (I'd be interested in references otherwise). I rather think that trade unions, as well as crude structures like the "IHKs" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_German_Chambers_of_Industry_and_Commerce https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_German_Chambers...) play a much bigger role in keeping things as they are, and general risk-avoiding tendencies in higher management levels.