Europe’s second energy crisis does not test the German economy alone; it exposes the fragility of the industrial model on which continental competitiveness was built: cheap imported energy transformed by Germany into high-value-added exports. The solution found in 2022, replacing Russian gas with the global market, turned a regional crisis in the Gulf into a direct levy on European industry, striking chemicals, metallurgy and construction. For Romania, the German slowdown means pressure on automotive and components supply chains, but also a strategic window: predictable energy as an argument for industrial relocation.