Investment: Fear of stocks is unfounded

Many Germans lack the courage to invest in stocks. There is still a belief that the stock market is a complicated matter. But it is easier than many people think.

If you want to make it easy, you could explain the Germans' strange relationship to shares with crude, armchair psychology. There were moments of euphoria, such as at the beginning of the Internet age around the turn of the millennium, when everyone wanted to own shares. This was followed by phases of severe depression that lasted a long time, such as after the bursting of the Internet price bubble and during the financial and euro crisis between 2008 and 2015. In such times, shares were rather frowned upon.