Germany no longer needs Europe – the dream is over

The “no” votes on the EU constitution in 2005, the subsequent rise of nationalist and centre-right governments across Europe, the grudging bailout of Greece, the fumbled bailout of Ireland and all the sharp divisions exposed by the financial crisis. Does Germany, Europe's biggest power, still have any reasons to remain at the heart of the continent?

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IQ2 Video, written & Audio

The European Union is now dying before our eyes

1 hr 52 min
The UK and Europe are indisputably close

IQ2 Video, written & Audio

The European Union is now dying before our eyes

1 hr 52 min
The UK and Europe are indisputably close

External videos

Daniel Hannan MEP: The Germans have seen through the EU racket

1 min 23 sec
The Euro: Oliver Kamm & Dan Hannan

5 min 49 sec
Should Germany bail out Greece?

1 min 55 sec
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing playing the accordion

1 min 49 sec

Profiles

Timothy Garton Ash
Valery Giscard d’Estaing

Best articles & links on the web

Will Germany be a Divided Nation Again?

Necla Kelek and Karen Horn, Standpoint, Jan/Feb 2011

We missed so many chances. We have already lost at least three generations since 1961, the moment when Germany began to invite Turkish Gastarbeiter [guest workers]. So many of these people have since been unable to find their place in a free, democratic society. But this is what we should have helped them with, instead of pumping millions into social welfare for immigrants. Money doesn't help to broaden culture and develop identity.

We feel the absence of Germany's shoulder at the European wheel

Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, Nov 2010

The truth is that Germany still needs Europe, as Europe needs Germany: not for the old reasons, which had to do with Hitler and the world of 1945, but for new ones, which have much more to do with Hu Jintao and the likely world of 2045.
A European's Warning to America

Dan Hannan, Wall Street Journal, Mar 2011

The U.S. has evolved a series of unique institutions designed to limit the power of the state: recall mechanisms, ballot initiatives, balanced budget rules, open primaries, localism, states' rights, term limits, the direct election of public officials from the sheriff to the school board. The EU places supreme power in the hands of 27 unelected Commissioners invulnerable to public opinion.
At-a-glance guide to Germany

Helen Pidd, Philip Oltermann and Luke Harding, The Guardian, Mar 2011

Most Germans do as they are told, which is why there are no barriers at tube stations, and being caught with no ticket (schwarzfahren) is a big social no-no. They are not prudish or squeamish, and will feel no shame telling you about their durchfall (diarrhoea) or getting their kit off by a lake or even municipal park in summer. They are also dreadful hypochondriacs who place such unshakeable faith in doctors that a quite astonishing 50% of all German GPs fob patients off with placebos, according to a recent study.
Utopia or Auschwitz: Germany’s 1968 Generation and the Holocaust

Hans Kundnani, Lesley Chamberlain, New Statesman, Nov 2009

The Achtundsechsziger were the most intellectual of all the 68ers worldwide. Flower power, feminism and free love were almost incidental to their quest, which was to demonstrate through Brecht and situationism what true democracy might look like (at least, before the bombs took over). Their seriousness was rooted in their attempts to read the Nazi past in such a way as to ensure that it was never repeated. On some level, they were terrified.
Auf Wiedersehen, Euro

Gisela Stuart, Standpoint, Jul/Aug 2010

For a generation of German politicians, "Europe" has been a way of slaying the ghosts of the past. This may be understandable, even honourable, but the results have not always been good for Germany or Europe. Chancellor Helmut Kohl overrode the Bundesbank (and the majority of Germans) in the name of "Europe" when the euro replaced the deutschmark.
Germany can show reborn Arab nations the art of overcoming a difficult past

Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, Mar 2011

Modern German has characteristically long words such as Geschichtsaufarbeitung and Vergangenheitsbewältigung to describe this complex process of dealing with, working through and even (the latter implies) "overcoming" the past. Using skills and methods developed to deal with the Nazi legacy, and honed on the Stasi one, no one has done it better. Just as there are the famous DIN standards – German industrial norms for many manufactured products – so there are DIN standards for past-beating.