ANALYSIS-Europe labour unrest unlikely to hit Germany

By Madeline Chambers

BERLIN, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Europe's biggest economy looks set to be spared the political protests that have hit other states because Germans have learnt to live with stagnation, trust their government and have no tradition of industrial strife.

Protesters from Riga to Athens have taken to the streets while Germany has remained calm even as it faces the prospect of its deepest recession since World War Two.

Unemployment was up in January for the third straight month in its biggest rise in nearly four years and exports are diving.

Yet so far in this election year, Germans have no major grievances with the government over the financial crisis -- only a few thousand rail, airline and public sector workers, have briefly stopped work in recent weeks in individual pay disputes.

"At the moment I do not envisage strikes as I don't know what we should go on strike about," said Bernt Kamin-Seggewies, a senior Verdi services union representative in Hamburg.

The slow rate of economic growth in recent years has dulled the pain of the crisis compared to elsewhere in Europe which has enjoyed stronger and more prolonged growth in the last decade.

Also, German real wages are growing this year for the first time in about half a decade and its labour market has not been opened up as much as in countries like Britain which has seen wildcat strikes over foreign workers.