I get your sentiment and agree that we're horribly over-regulated in a lot of ways but that's a misconception about the Arbeitszeitgesetz.

    1) §3 restricts working time to an average of 8 hours per Werktag (~business day?), i.e. Saturdays are included. This makes the weekly total 48 hours.
    2) It clearly states that it applies to employees only, e.g. §2 Abs. 2.

When you're self-employed, you can obviously do as many hours as you like. This is purely for employee protection.

That being said I'm thinking of moving out of the country for a work opportunity :shrug: Personally I think the problems are mostly cultural (alignment with manufacturing jobs as you said and a big lobby for crusty automotive corporations).