Through Greece’s fiscal crisis, Angela Merkel is now learning another major lesson. Germany, once the big driver of European integration, has reached the end of its post-war pro-European consensus. Its people are tired of paying for the mistakes of others just for the sake of being ‘good Europeans’.
Not long ago there was an easy way to ascertain that the person you talked to was German. If you asked him about his nationality, he would answer ‘I am European’ without hesitation. No matter how strong his accent, the pretence of a European identity helped the Germans leave their catastrophic and embarrassing past behind.
As memories of its Nazi history become more distant, Germany is regaining some sort of normality in its relationship with itself. The soccer World Cup in 2006 was the watershed in this respect. When millions of Germans were flying their country’s flag without any signs of shame or embarrassment, it clearly marked the end of the post-war era.
What other countries at the time did not notice was the fact that Germany’s regained national self-consciousness naturally also changed its outlook. Where once it was enough to put Europe ahead of their own interests to regain respectability within the international community, the Germans of today are no longer seeing a necessity to stress their credentials. Hence the rescue efforts for Greece have been met with outrage by the German public.
