In mid-January, Industry 4.0 - or the 4th Industrial Revolution - reached the top of the economic and political agenda at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The publication of a study by the World Economic Forum itself caused a stir right at the start of the forum: according to the paper, exactly 5.1 million jobs are set to fall victim to this revolution in the 15 most important industrialized and emerging countries by the end of 2020 - many of them in Germany!

It is remarkable how the survey of HR managers from the world's 350 largest companies can already make such an accurate forecast. Especially as the supposed players in this revolution are still in the discovery phase.

But good! - When a look into the crystal ball reveals such quantifiable findings, this naturally provokes reactions: "We don't share the gloomy vision at all," says Thilo Brodtmann, Managing Director of the VDMA, just a few days later. "Major waves of automation in recent decades have neither led to the extinction of professions nor reduced employment overall. Rising productivity leads to greater prosperity and thus to an increased demand for labor," adds the VDMA boss, concluding: "The German economy has the third-highest robot density in the world and yet has set a new employment record."

The VDI also has its say - albeit in a more nuanced way: "It is never the technology itself that destroys jobs," says Dagmar Dirzus, Managing Director of the VDI/VDE Society for Measurement and Automation Technology. A self-commissioned study has shown: "The spectre of digitalization as a trigger for massive job losses is not yet apparent." However, the word 'yet' implies an urgent need for action. Dirzus is certain that the "need for human labor will change radically and in a way never experienced before" in the course of the digital transformation. If we fail to adapt to this need, digitalization could very well become a spectre.

There is no question that it is absolutely desirable for us in Germany to get on the Industry 4.0 curve. We should do everything we can to be among the shapers of the new age. However, while weighing up the risks and opportunities for us and the German economy, we should not forget to look beyond our national borders.

So let's put aside the crystal ball and recall Hermann Hesse's insight from The Glass Bead Game, written back in 1943: Josef Knecht, the hero of the story, has to realize that the existence of his beloved province is on shaky ground due to the global political situation, that provincial isolation is not sustainable in the medium term and that the province must open up to worldly life in order to survive! - The many economic refugees who are already seeking their way to us today are a vivid reminder that Hesse's work has lost none of its topicality.