In Germany maybe invest in future energy industries : windmill parks, solarpanel parks etc. Could also be a good investment I think
Better don´t. The German government has subsidised the whole "regenerative energies"-sector and has therefore created a huge bubble that burst, when China subsidised its own sector even more. "Big" German companies that were supposed to be reliable went bankrupt because of this because (SURPRISE!) production costs in Germany are waaaaay higher than in China...lots of people lost quite a lot of money.
Just because someting is government-endorsed, doesn´t mean it´s a sound investment...
That's a quite interesting point. But then again there was not much use for gold in ancient times (yes you had the posh Pharaoh that wanted to sit on a gold plated throne while wearing a gold plated hat and eating cake from a gold plated plate, but he was what - one guy?).
Wasn´t gold used to mint coins even back in ancient Egypt? Having a "gold-backed" currency was actually common until the introduction of "paper currencies" and the Bretton-Woods-Agreement. But still, the way the demand for gold fluctuates with other economic factors shows how even to this day it might be a good long-term way of saving your money.
Actually, if you invest in unregulated investment funds such as hedge funds, you will never know where you'll money go.
In the 90s and early 200s there has been a big boom with alternative investments in Germany. Suddenly lots of "independent consulting companies", such as AWD, MEG and others appeared and convinced people to give up their life insurance contracts and invest money into leveraged blind-pool investments. They promised totally unrealistic returns (often over 20% or more) and "super safe high-class investments". What they in-fact did, though, was use their clients money to get a large loan and then "invest" into e.g. British life insurances or projects that never were realised. The whole thing was basically a Ponzi-scheme where a constant flow of new investors was needed. Once that didn´t work out anymore, the whole thing just collapsed and many people lost their savings...offically everything was legal, but you can definately question a "consults" motivation if he convinces old people to surrender their money for something like this...