I think your confusing Germany with another country, I've never seen a 100 person line for an apartment there. Mind you Sweden has those (although they are virtual). This is mostly a function of completely missing the boat on population growth and the necessary investments. It's been the same all over the world, lobbyist hamstringing the public systems reducing investments because "government bloat" the systems then fail to work adequately which is being used to lobby against the systems as "not working".