Germany’s kindergartens are in crisis, with staff shortages wreaking havoc in the lives of working parents, damaging the nation’s productivity and risking the future prospects of a generation of children.

The lack of trained childcare workers in the EU’s largest economy is causing overcrowding in day-care centres, emergency closures and a shortage of available places — with wide-ranging consequences for families, for businesses and the labour market.

“The situation has never been so alarming,” said Rahel Dreyer, one of Germany’s leading authorities on early years education. “I experience it on a daily basis in my interactions with [childcare] professionals, with parents who are completely at their limit and with children who are exhausted by groups that are too large.”