Industry
Since raising crops was not easy, raising sheep was popular. This yielded the development of a strong textile industry. In the 1950s, Reutlingen was the German town with the highest number of millionaires, until the decline of the German textile industry hit them as well. Still, many high quality textile companies can be found, such as Hugo Boss, Trigema, Reusch, Groz-Beckert and others (the town of Metzingen is widely known as a "luxury outlet town", with people from all over Europe coming to buy expensive clothes cheaper).
From this, machine building and advanced engineering developed. With the invention of cars and the founding of Daimler-Benz nearby, the car industry and later also electronics and computer industries developed. The "Neckar-Alb" region is the third largest industrial zone in Germany, and the most stable. The best known company is still Daimler-Benz, today known simply as Daimler AG, followed by Robert Bosch.
The region has one of the highest patents-to-population ratios in the world. Many products fall into the high-tech category. The small and medium enterprise sector (100-5,000 employees) predominates. Perhaps as a result, the unemployment rate is low. In general, products are expensive but compete through high quality. Several districts are recognised as especially attractive to business, e.g. Reutlingen as the town in Germany where it is simplest to open a new business. Educational resources are at a high level. The schools and universities of the region all enjoy top rankings within Germany. The Swabian Jura and the neighbouring region have developed from one of the poorest regions of Germany to one of its richest within the past 150 years.
Read more about this topic: Swabian Jura
Famous quotes containing the word industry:
“Whatever I may be, I want to be elsewhere than on paper. My art and my industry have been employed in making myself good for something; my studies, in teaching me to do, not to write. I have put all my efforts into forming my life. That is my trade and my work.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“No delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make up for lack of mother-wit, either in science or in practical life.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“Bankers, nepotists, contracts and talkies: on four fingers one may count the leeches which have sucked a young and vigorous industry into paresis.”
—Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)