In the darkest days of the 2009 recession, Germany’s industrial output was collapsing at an annual rate of more than 20%, a Bloomberg View reported. An unfathomable implosion but one that thankfully ended almost as quickly as it started. Some 10 years on, a crisis is brewing once again in the country’s industrial heartlands. The pain could prove more enduring this time. So far the problems aren’t nearly as acute as in 2009; industrial production fell by a comparatively modest 4.2% in July.

Germany’s Condor, which is owned by British travel operator Thomas Cook, said on Thursday that a Frankfurt court had begun investor protection proceedings that should allow the airline to be restructured, Reuters reported. Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel firm, collapsed this week, sparking a scramble for survival among many of its subsidiaries. Germany said on Tuesday it would guarantee a 380 million euro ($419 million) bridging loan for Condor to enable it to continue flying and save jobs.

Tensions between the European Central Bank and Germany have again exploded into public view after the resignation of Sabine Lautenschläger, who represented the eurozone’s biggest economy on the central bank’s executive board, the Financial Times reported. Ms Lautenschläger — who is leaving weeks after publicly opposing further easing of super-loose monetary policy by the ECB — is the latest of a string of German representatives to quit the central bank after failing to stop the flow of cheap money.

Deutsche Bank AG is reviving a business it shut down in 2014, even as it pushes on with a company-wide strategic overhaul that’s seen it shed staff and sell off assets, Bloomberg News reported. The German lender has resumed trading credit-default swaps -- derivatives used by traders to insure debt against the risk of default -- for investment-grade European companies, according to a spokeswoman. The bank also plans to extend the activity to cover high yield as well as banks and insurers, she said.

Thomas Cook’s German tour business filed for insolvency on Wednesday in a move aimed at separating its brands and operations from its failed parent, and said it was in talks with potential new investors, Reuters reported. The German government said it was considering an application for a bridging loan from Thomas Cook Germany, a day after it said it would guarantee a 380 million euro ($418 million) bridging loan for the British group’s German airline, Condor.

The head of Germany’s business lobby has called on the government to give up its balanced budget rule and take on new debt, joining a growing chorus of economists and politicians demanding a rethink of Berlin’s mantra of no new borrowing, the Financial Times reported. Dieter Kempf, head of the BDI, told the Financial Times it was time to put the rule “on the back burner”, especially in light of the country’s crying need for big investments in education and digital infrastructure.

In a related story, Reuters reported that Germany will guarantee a 380 million euro ($418.6 million) bridging loan for Condor, the German airline owned by insolvent British travel operator Thomas Cook, to enable it to continue flying and save jobs, the economy minister said on Tuesday. The airline, which is profitable, had said on Monday it would carry on its operations and that it would ask the German government for a bridging loan despite its parent company’s collapse. It is a separate legal entity from Thomas Cook.

Commerzbank said on Friday it wanted to shed thousands of staff and close a fifth of its branches in a strategy overhaul, after the German lender’s attempt to merge with Deutsche Bank failed, Reuters reported. The bank, partly owned by the German government after a bailout and struggling to generate profits, also aims to sell a stake in its Polish subsidiary mBank and absorb its Comdirect online brokerage unit.

For the umpteenth time, Deutsche Bank AG is ensnared in an alleged regulatory blunder. Except this time, the stakes are greater than its own integrity: Confidence in its regulator, the European Central Bank, is on the line too, a Bloomberg View reported. The ECB is considering whether to probe Germany’s biggest bank for trading in its riskiest debt without the regulator’s approval, according to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. In an effort to maintain liquidity in the bonds, the firm’s securities unit continued to make a market in the notes well after they were sold to investors.

A deal to buy insolvent German wind-power manufacturer Senvion’s service business would help Siemens Gamesa catch up to rival Vestas in this increasingly important part of the market, a Wood Mackenzie analyst says, Greentech Media reported. Senvion this week confirmed it's in exclusive talks with Siemens Gamesa to sell parts of its service business and other “selected onshore assets." Senvion entered voluntary insolvency proceedings in April as the global wind turbine industry continues to consolidate around a few major players outside of China, notably Vestas, Siemens Gamesa and GE.