Germany’s industrial base, just emerging from the pandemic and unprecedented supply-chain challenges, is taking another beating with Russia’s war on Ukraine hitting its powerhouse car, chemical and precision-machinery manufacturers. As the conflict pushes energy costs to new heights and a wave of inflation builds, scores of companies including BMW AG , BASF SE and ThyssenKrupp AG have warned their earnings will slip while others declined even to offer a prediction. Economists have slashed growth forecasts. “If the war drags on, it would seriously threaten a world order that has brought freedom and prosperity to many parts of the world over the past decades,” Herbert Diess, Volkswagen AG ’s chief executive officer, said this month at the company’s annual earnings press conference. “Europe would suffer the most in such a scenario.” In Berlin, the government has acknowledged […]