Transrapid as a Cautionary Tale, but Not as an Option? Jens Spahn’s Bundestag Speech Reveals the Problem
In a speech in the Bundestag (German parliament) on September 24, 2025, Jens Spahn (CDU, the center-right Christian Democrats) spoke about the major challenges and opportunities of innovation policy in Germany. He called for more ambition, more willingness to take risks, more forward-looking orientation. And he chose an example that made us sit up and take notice immediately:
With that, Spahn sums up the dilemma of German technology policy: we were pioneers, and in the end we slowed ourselves down. The once most advanced high-speed train in the world was shut down because political will and economic foresight were lacking.
But as clearly as Spahn names this failure, what he does not say is just as telling: not a word about the possibility of reviving this technology today. Not a word about the urgent, present need to deploy this technology. Not a word about the petition with over 61,000 signatures demanding exactly that. Not a single CDU/CSU member, despite intensive inquiries, took the time to attend the handover of this petition in 2025.
The impression forces itself on you: to the CDU, the Transrapid apparently serves only as a warning example, not as a real option for the future. Yet now would be exactly the time to correct political mistakes and look ahead with courage.
We demand: anyone who talks about innovation must not stay silent about the Transrapid. Anyone who invokes growth and industrial sovereignty must have the courage to take their own technologies seriously again. Anyone who doesn’t want to lose touch with China must not settle for nostalgic self-criticism but must act.
Jens Spahn is right: Germany needs innovation. But innovation begins where people are willing to overcome old taboos on thinking.
